Misplaced Safety

By Doug Franklin July 26, 2010

I work with a lot of adults on mission trips and the one thing I notice is how many of them want to rescue students. This rescuing is always in the name of “safety.” Its been a long time since an adult has said to me, “hey lets challenge these kids so they can learn what they really can do.” Most adults are afraid of pushing students and students are the ones who lose out. I think students like LeaderTreks trips so much because they don’t normally get challenged. When they do face a challenge, they love how it helps them become who they were meant to be. I think most adults want to rescue students from hard things because they are selfish. Adults always feel better about themselves when students do well. When students fail, adults feel like they have failed and it makes them uncomfortable. When adults rescue students they create unequipped followers in the kingdom of God. These unequipped followers will soon be leading the church. We have a choice to make; will we keep students safe and in the process make ourselves feel good, or will we challenge and help them learn the hard, tough lessons that will prepare them for leadership?