Preparing Your Leaders: Throw 'Em In The Deep End!

I probably didn't learn how to swim like a lot of people did.

I didn't have any little blow up rings to put around my arms. I didn't have a lifeguard to teach me or a swim coach to teach me the correct way to swim.

What DID I have?

At the MOST, all I had was my Dad holding me up in his arms for a few minutes and telling me how to dog paddle!


The first time I ever swam was when I was 9 years old.

I was standing out on this floating boat dock on a lake. I had already gotten in the water in the shallow end. I even got brave and went a little into the deep end while holding onto the dock the whole time.

At this point, I was standing on the dock and my Dad was trying to convince me to jump out into the deep end where my two 16 year old cousins were.

He told me that they wouldn't let me sink and that he'd be right there if I needed him.

I didn't believe him.
I didn't want to jump in.

So, my Dad decided to give me some incentive...

He said, "If you don't jump in, then I'm going to throw you in!"

In case I didn't believe him, he started to get out of the water and prove to me he was serious. That's all it took. I jumped in!

And I began swimming for the very FIRST TIME!

You've got to realize something important here:

Until I jumped in everything I knew about swimming was all just theory. Once I jumped in it became reality.

WRITE THIS DOWN SOMEWHERE...

*Truth doesn't have any effect in our lives until we take action. Truth doesn't become a reality in our lives until we act on it. Only action or application will bring results.

If you want your leaders to really know how to do something, you need to let them DO it! :)

Remember, in my last post that I told how Jesus had the disciples doing stuff from the very beginning? That needs to be our technique!


Think about it this way...

Imagine a man who decides to be farmer. He buys the best piece of land he can afford. He buys all the tractors and machines that he needs to plant and harvest. He reads everything he can on effective farming techniques. He goes to some seminars on farming. He even talks to other farmers about how to plant and harvest a good crop.

But there's one thing he doesn't do: he never plants any seed.

So, when spring comes he has NOTHING to show for all that he knows!

We'd think a farmer like that who expected a crop from what he KNEW instead of what he DID would be a little wacky. :)

But that's what we do a lot of the time!

We hear a truth.
We study it.
We even accept that it's a good idea.

But, we LEAVE OUT the missing ingredient... we never act on it. We never apply it!

Don't let your leaders do this. Make sure they do/live it.

If you want to have a lasting student ministry you need to have leaders who know how to lead whether you're there... or one day when you're not!