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youth ministry, youth worker

Becoming a Mighty Man/Woman of God

By Doug Franklin January 21, 2013

When someone dies who has spent their whole life serving God we like to give them the title of Mighty Man/Woman of God. This is a pretty cool title. It says a lot about a person. It’s given for the combination of powerful service activities and for time sacrificed. To get this title, you can’t just do one or two good things for a few weeks. You need to spend a life time in service, sacrificing and helping people with less. The most interesting thing about these individuals is they seem to come out of nowhere. They are rare for sure and very humble. So unusual and misunderstood that we don’t know how to develop more of them. I have never heard a youth worker say, “I am developing a group of mighty men/women of God” or “When I finish with this group, God wiling, they are going to do some mighty things for Jesus.”

What if we saw our roles as developers and trainers of a generation of mighty men/women of God? I think about how God trained young David in the wilderness to be mighty or how Daniel pushed for vegetables instead of lush dining for his training regimen. The challenges and sacrifices these men went through developed them into leaders who were mighty. But honesty, can we train our young student leaders in the same ways? I don’t see parents going for”Wrestle a Bear Night” or “Cage Fights with Lions” as a cool new Wednesday night activity. I do however know we can be a lot more challenging. Challenging students is hard. I know I have been doing it for 20 plus years and now I can train the LeaderTreks staff to do it. They tell me all the time how hard it is to ask a students to make an application and stick with it or how hard it is hold students to behavior standards.

This past weekend one of my staff (Dan) was running a leadership training event at a major Christian college. He had 60 students doing a team building initiative requiring them to go under an electric wire. The students could not touch the wire or the ground under the wire or they would have to start over. One group had no problem making it through while 3 groups could not make it. The one successful group was touching the floor and the wire over and over again. After a big celebration of their win Dan asked them, “Congrats on winning! So, when did you decide to not have integrity?” It was a hard question, and not sure many students wanted to face the facts. Dan didn’t make many friends that night but I believe he made some leaders.

If we really want to see more mighty men/women of God I think we need to be more challenging. I am ready to give up students liking me and push forward on challenging students to serve God.

About the Author

Doug Franklin

Doug Franklin is the president of LeaderTreks, an innovative leadership development organization focusing on students and youth workers. Doug and his wife, Angie, live in West Chicago, Illinois. They don’t have any kids, but they have 2 dogs that think they are children. Diesel and Penelope are Weimaraners  who never leave their side. Doug grew up in…  Read More