Youth leader, if you've been in this long enough, you probably feel like a veteran.
Maybe you're 38 or 39. Maybe you're a decade or two into ministry, and that alone is no small feat.
You've logged enough hours to read a room, anticipate problems, and know what usually works. You've survived trends. You've learned what works, what doesn't, and what used to work.
But here's the question I keep coming back to:
What is stirring in your students right now that you need to pay attention to?
And maybe even more unsettling:
When do you leave your "I know what I'm doing" card at the door and make space for something completely new and completely unplanned?
When Experience Stops Impressing and Starts Listening
For me, something shifted around age 30. That's about the time I quit trying to impress everyone and started really doing ministry. (Yes, I realize that Jesus began His ministry around age 30 too. I'm not making any claims, just noticing the timing.)
During that season, I was incredibly blessed with mentors, youth ministry heroes and trendsetters I had admired from afar. Suddenly, I was in the room with them, face to face, learning not just from stages, but from conversations.
At national and regional "network" meetings, it seemed like everyone was a big deal and no one was a big deal. It wasn't about comparing group size, budgets, or the awesome rooms we had. It was about building each other up, sharing strategies and ideas, and blessing other leaders.
I became a sponge. I learned a lot from their speaking, but just as much off the clock, listening to them process ministry with other leaders, hearing their "sage" advice in casual moments, watching how they thought and prayed. What stood out most wasn't their confidence, it was their dependence on God.
That lesson came into sharp focus at one of our regional NNYM meetings in Arlington, Texas.
A Question That Changed Everything
At that meeting, one of my heroes, Dave Busby, challenged us with a simple but piercing question:
"When was the last time you believed something so big for your ministry that it would completely fail unless God came through?"
Silence followed.
In our area group, we sat almost speechless. Slowly, something began to stir. We started to imagine something so big, so far beyond our ability to manage or manufacture, that it would require God to show up.
And it's important to say this clearly: this didn't happen in isolation. At the time, we had a healthy youth ministry network. Leaders across southwest Fort Worth loved each other. We knew each other. We trusted each other. We spent time together outside of meetings. There was no competition, just collaboration, prayer, and shared mission.
That relational foundation mattered more than we realized.
Letting Students Lead and Letting Go
Out of that moment, we decided to try something risky.
We would gather youth ministries from across southwest Fort Worth once every two months, rotating host sites, different gyms, schools, or large spaces. It would be an outreach collaborative, planned by students, for students.
We'd provide a special guest or speaker, but students would plan everything else. Each church sent a few leadership students to be part of the planning team.
When we brought them together for the first time, we had a collective realization:
Only God can make this happen.
Their ideas felt off the wall to us. They didn't seem as serious as we thought they should be. Their plans lacked the polish, timelines, and contingency plans we were used to. Everything in us wanted to step in and "fix it."
But instead, we chose to release control.
We let them plan.
We prayed.
And we trusted.
When God Shows Up and Keeps Showing Up
Our first gathering of middle and high school students was held in a local elementary school cafeteria.
About 125 students showed up from eight churches. Not massive. Not flashy. By most ministry metrics, it felt modest.
We ran their game. Their welcome. There was a guy with a guitar. A special speaker who also did illusions.
That night, 25 students made first-time commitments to Christ, one out of every five in the room. We were stunned.
But what surprised us even more was what happened next. Every time we met after that, we saw 15 to 28 students come to Christ. We filled out response cards. We celebrated what God was doing. And here's the part that still moves me: there was no competition.
It didn't matter which church "got" the responses. It didn't matter whose students they were. We weren't protecting silos, we were participating in a community of faith.
Some churches experienced their first student decisions in a long time, and we celebrated just as hard for them. Credit didn't matter. Stories did. Changed lives did.
Students began to look forward to these gatherings. They talked about them at school. They invited friends. They didn't just attend, they became a ministry team. And honestly, they executed the strategy better than we ever could have planned ourselves.
That's when we knew this wasn't just an event.
A God-Born Movement
That night and the many nights that followed, the strategy we eventually called "Off Campus" was born.
For several years, it not only blessed our southwest Fort Worth area, but also influenced youth ministry beyond our region. Most students and leaders today have probably never heard of "Off Campus" (it ran from about 1983 to 1988), but it played a crucial role in forming the network of students and leaders that would later inspire See You at the Pole.
But it all started with prayer, trust, and a willingness to believe for something bigger than all of us.
It was undeniably a God thing.
Recognizing God's Movement in Real Time
When God moves among students, it rarely looks like a perfectly executed program. It often looks disruptive, messy, uncomfortable.
Pay attention when:
- Students initiate spiritual moments without prompting
- Prayer stops being a transition and becomes the point
- Their hunger feels bigger than your plan
- Momentum builds that you didn't create and can't control
Those moments don't call for tighter leadership. They call for holy restraint. Sometimes the most faithful thing a leader can do is step back and make space.
The Legacy You'll Look Back On
Thirty-five years from now, you won't remember every series title or game you ran. But you'll remember the moments when you loosened your grip and watched God step in.
You'll look back and say, God was in that. Not because it was impressive, but because it was impossible without Him.
So ask yourself again:
What is happening right now that you'll one day point to as a marker of God's movement, if you're willing to make room for it?
Sometimes the most seasoned leaders don't lead by doing more. They lead by trusting deeper.
10 Takeaways for Youth Leaders
- Step back and listen. God may be stirring students in ways you don't expect.
- Invest in mentors. Learn from leaders both on and off the stage.
- Build healthy networks. Collaboration multiplies impact; avoid silos.
- Release control to students. Let them lead, even when it feels messy.
- Celebrate lives, not credit. Fruit matters more than recognition.
- Expect God in the unexpected. Messy plans can produce divine results.
- Engage students as owners. Student investment fuels momentum.
- Dream beyond your limits. Pray for ideas only God can accomplish.
- Trust God, not formulas. Leadership isn't about perfection, it's about obedience.
- Lead by trusting deeper. Sometimes the most powerful leadership is letting go.