A few weeks ago we had the annual National Youth Workers' Summit in Mexico City. It was a great time as more than 400 youth leaders from all over the country came to be inspired and trained to do better ministry to youth and adolescents in this country.
I taught a workshop and a super course. My workshop was titled, “10 Traps of Youth Ministry and How to Avoid Them,” and my Super Course was called, “The Heart of the Youth Leader.” A friend of mine asked if I had notes on the Heart of the Youth Leader in English. I don't, but below I summarize the main points of my talk.
Basically, I did a study of King David's heart based on what we see in the book of Psalms. After analyzing the verses in which he describes his heart, I categorized them into 7 qualities of the heart of the leader. Here they are:
The Heart of the Youth Leader
- Contains and Obeys the Word of God.
- Trusting and Firm.
- Pure and Clean.
- Broken.
- Full of Worship.
- Humble.
- Wise.
Each of these qualities have many verses that go with them. I have included a few. I will probably develop this idea even further one day, but I think it is important that youth leaders understand how important it is to guard their hearts.
My prayer is that this material will have impacted the lives of those who heard it to the point that they will think about the state of their heart before they think about how they are ministering to young people in their church.
