One of the joys of leading church is that I get to work with a bunch of talented people who are a younger than me. I probably enjoy working with younger or new leaders more than anything else that I get to do. Across the board, I am watching as these early twenty somethings and even younger lead in the most incredible ways.

Whether it is our 21 year old service pastor, a 20 year old worship leader, the 23 year old speaker, the 17 year old who led part of the ministry time or the vast numbers of young people leading across the week in a variety of ways, I sometimes can’t quite believe what they can do at their age.

It makes me so excited for the future of the church.

I don’t think there is a leader out there who doesn’t take joy from watching moments like this. So, I guess the question is why don’t we see it more? Why don’t we invest in this more? Why aren’t we focused more often in who is coming?

Here a couple of quick reasons why I think we often don’t;

It takes time – each of us who are leading today are a product of many conversations over a long period of time. We have picked up bits of wisdom from leaders who were prepared to take the time to listen to our questions, smile at our over eagerness, clear up our mess and input their experience into us. Anytime we are raising up new leaders, the same process is required. This is a challenge because…….

We’re too busy – sometimes we have to much on to think about developing someone else so we don’t bother. It usually isn’t a conscious choice but it usually results in no new leaders growing.

We think we have something still left to offer – the older I get the more I realise that I don’t feel older. I still feel like I’m learning and I’m excited to do more. In my worst moments I can think “I’m not ready to step aside yet!!” But I’ve come to realise that we don’t pass the baton on as much as we simply hold it with other people. I have also decided that I would rather be someone who allows new leaders to have a leg up while I’m able to rather than them prizing the leadership positions from my cold dead hands in 50 years!!!!

They might be better than me – yep, they might be, or at least they might end up being better, but isn’t that the point?

They’ll make mistakes – yep they will, but so do we….

I could add a tonne more reasons not to but the reasons to lean in far out weigh the reasons not to. Who is coming? If we can’t answer that question then we need to create a culture where we can!