The New Ministry Leaders

This past Monday was our first leadership team meeting of the summer. We have a lot of great plans for the summer, but this week we just sat together at a Starbucks and talked about the many things that are going on in our lives as well as some of what we’ll be doing at camp next week as well as during our leadership meetings later this summer.

One of the topics we talked about was what spiritual leadership is going to look like in the future. When I was a kid, if you wanted to make an impact for the Kingdom of God, it was expected that you would be a missionary or a pastor. You would go to Seminary and study, look for a “full time ministry position,” and boom, you’d be a spiritual leader.

While those are still viable options, it’s pretty obvious that not all people who feel God calling them to impact the world can or should follow that path. In fact, some schools like Liberty University are cutting divinity school faculty due to lack of enrollment. I think every student ought to consider and be open to “full time Christian ministry,” but the Church should face the reality that not every committed student is going to be a pastor or missionary.

That’s where the new ministry leaders come in. I often dream about this.

What if Ninja used his influence for the Kingdom of God? He’s a streamer on Twitch who, as of May 2019, averaged 40,000 viewers per week.

What if Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) openly talked about Jesus? (To be clear, I’m not saying he is not a Christian. I do not know him or his religious beliefs).

What I’m saying is that the next generation of ministry leaders just might be the kind of people who live out their faith and use their cultural influence to share the gospel in ways that are not what we have traditionally thought of as “ministry.”

There are many examples of people who are doing that, both on a large and small scale.

If we look to sports, we find people like Tim Tebow, Tony Dungy, Dikembe Mutombo, and Steph Curry.

The Dude Perfect guys who have over 42 million subscribers on YouTube, state that they do what they do to “glorify Jesus Christ in all that we do.”

I also personally know lawyers, doctors, school teachers, coffee shop owners, and others who are using their gifts and talents for the Kingdom of God. They are the new ministry leaders.

I don’t know what the future holds for the student leaders in our ministry, but my prayer is that, no matter what career path they choose, they will use it to influence the culture and those around them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.