A Plan for Youth Leadership Development in the Lutheran Church

This paper reviews a Youth Leadership Model which promotes teen involvement in the Lutheran Church. In the past, Easter Lutheran Church experienced low teen participation, due to a faulty understanding of what teens\u27 roles in the church should be. The presumption was that teens should earn leadership rather than learn it. Teens were put into positions of helpers or \u27gophers, thus the church was not providing opportunities for faith development or relationship building. In 1996, I personally created the Youth Leadership Development Model which is based on a theory of mentorship. The team promotes teens serving as leaders in the church, which in turn promotes faith development, community building and selfawareness. General and church related materials provide measurement of the Youth Leadership Development Model. The Masters of Arts in Leadership Program at Augsburg College includes theories of Flobert Greenleaf, Margaret Wheatley and Peter Senge which support the Model in many ways. Church related materials, including the Search Institute, also provide measurement of the Youth Leadership Development Model. In the applying these theories, I contend the Model to be of great value to the Lutheran Church today