Growing Young: Keychain Leadership

“The Importance of Being Fifteen” (Jeremiah 1:4-10)

Sunday, May 12, 2019

            You’re 15, or were 15 at one time, or will be in the future.  Through memory, anticipation, or current lived experience, everyone has a sense of being 15.  You have your learners permit, or hope to get it soon.  You can drive, but only with mom or dad sitting beside you, so is it really that great?  Dad can’t stop himself. 

Slow down.  You’re too close the car in front of you.  Ohh, you’re taking this turn too sharply.  You’re going to run up on the curb.

I know Dad!  OK Dad.  No I am not, Dad.  That last “dad” gets stretched out.  D-A-A-D.  Fifteen. 

Your parents don’t like or understand your music.  You’re probably starting to have crushes, teenaged romances.  Of course the only thing worse than your parents asking about that is your pastor mentioning it Sunday morning.  Fifteen.

You want to be taken seriously, like a grown up.  But sometimes you want to play with your old toys. By the time today is over you will have amazed your parents with your grown up speech, and you will have held tightly to that beloved, needed childhood.  And if your grandparents visit, you’ll have to help them use their smart phones. 

You who remember being 15, whether it was 5 years ago or 60 years ago, hear this: God wants you to help the children, teenagers, and young adults in our church grow as followers of Jesus.  Your will develop as his disciple as you figure your role in helping the young people in our church develop as his disciples. 

You who are young, who will someday be 15, hear this: God wants you to play.  God wants you to enjoy your childhood.  God wants you laugh and be curious and be filled with wonder.  Even at your young age, you can begin knowing God through faith in Jesus.  Don’t rush it; 15 will come to you soon enough.  Today, look for God in your life, love your parents, learn, grow, and play.

And you who are 15; play is for you too, as it is for all of us.  Never stop playing.  But, along with play, think about the wide, vast, wonderful world God has made.  Think about your place in it.  By the time David turned 15, he had already defeated Goliath.  One or two of Jesus’ twelve disciples were not much older than fifteen.  You middle and high schoolers are called by God to be disciples of Jesus and live a life in relationship with God, a life in which God is glorified and enjoyed.  Enjoy God. 

With several other Cooperative Baptist Churches across North Carolina, our church has entered the “Growing Young” process for ministry and church life.  It’s more of philosophy than a program.  Here at HillSong it will be adjusted to awaken the potential for great ministry that beats deeps within the hearts of all of us.  Our church is small, but in the hearts of the people in this room beats the potential for great works done in Jesus’ name.  We love God and God’s spirit empowers us.  We are committed to this church family.  One of the ways we worship the Lord, exist as a family, and proclaim Jesus to our community is the “Growing Young” approach to church. 

This means we will be asking all adults in the church to play a role in the discipleship of young people.  We believe the work of developing the discipleship of young people will spark all of us to grow in Christ.  Promoting teens and young 20-somethings will benefit everyone.  Emphasizing the faith of Millennials and Generation Z will make our church ready to welcome visitors into all areas of church life. 

Our desire is to follow Jesus and as we do to love all those who come into our path.  We have first-time guests just about every week.  If we welcome them with genuine warmth and youthful energy, many who come through May, June, July, and August, will come back.  And our church with grow.

People born between 1928 and 1945 are called “Builders.”  Those born between 1946 and 1964 make up the Baby boom after World War II.  These are the “boomers.”   My generation, “Gen X” are people born roughly between 1965 and 1980.  Millennials, or “Generation Y,” were born between 1981 and 1999: these are the young adults.  They don’t really remember the Cold War or Russia as a Communist threat or the Apartheid in South Africa, or the wall coming down in Berlin.

“Generation Z” was born between 1997 and 2010.  They don’t remember the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  That’s history for them.  They don’t remember a world without cellphones or Facebook or Uber or Netflix.  They don’t remember going to a Blockbuster video store and renting a movie.  The thing to keep in mind is – all of us, every generation – feel the call to help people become disciples of Jesus. 

God is the God of every generation.  God will continue saving this world through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and God will continue that saving work the same way God always has: working through his church. 

God’s church must always have young people at the heart of what we do and who we are.  In Jeremiah chapter 1 the prophet writes, “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (v.4-5).  Jeremiah wanted no part of this.  “Lord God, truly I do not know how to speak for I am only a boy” (v.6). 

God was in no mood for Jeremiah’s hesitancy.  “Do not say ‘I am only a boy,’” God replied to Jeremiah.  “You shall go to all whom I send you and you shall speak whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them for I am with you” (v.7-8).  I don’t think our teenagers have the call God sent to Jeremiah.  He was a unique prophet at a specific time in Israel’s history.  But I do think God has a work for the teenagers and young people here in HillSong’s family that is every bit as important.  God tells us, do not say they are only kids.  God has called our teenagers and young adults to lead the way in ministry and God has called our entire church to empower our members to answer His calling. 

God wants Chapel Hill and Carrboro and the surrounding communities to know that we are lost in sin, but have salvation in Jesus.  The word of the good news gets out to people who aren’t in church and don’t know the Lord when we share it.  We invite people to church.  We tell people about our own faith.  And our children, teenagers, and young adults will be some of our more powerful witnesses. 

God told Jeremiah, “I knew you, I consecrated you, I appointed you, I am with you, I have put my words in your mouth (v.5, 8, 9).  God knows each one of us.  Young people, God has words for you and God’s Spirit gives you the courage and composure to speak those words.  We, your church family, are here for you, and we all grow as you embrace God’s call on your lives. As a church we have to develop the faith of our young people and we have to listen to our young people. 

The “Growing Young” philosophy is organized around 6 core commitments, the first of which is Keychain leadership.  Too often, churches ask people to be involved in ministry, but don’t share responsibility. A community of key-less leaders is formed.  In setting the church’s direction, they have no voice.

Key-hoarders are the powerbrokers: maybe the pastor, maybe the elders, maybe the church secretary, or maybe a group of people who have been around a long time and donate most of the money.  These leaders hoard leadership and don’t listen to young people and don’t share decision-making. 

There are leaders who loan out keys, but with a tight leash.  In my 20’s, I served as a youth pastor with key-loaning leader.  He let me plan youth programs, but I always had to check in with him and my plans could be changed or canceled without much warning if the lead pastor and deacons deemed it necessary.  It felt good when he trusted me, but my confidence was shaken when he overrode my ideas.

At HillSong, we want to practice keychain leadership.  In keychain leadership, we train younger people to be ministry leaders and then walk with them and encourage them as they learn while doing.  Keychain leaders don’t necessarily have to be young, but they do need to be confident enough to let young people take the wheel on a project and support them whether they succeed or fail.  Keychain leaders do not need to make extra efforts to be relevant, but they need to be genuine.

You have already seen examples of how we share keys in ministry.  Angel, our youth pastor, has the youth group handling the Sunday morning greeting twice a month.  Most statistics show that more people will decide whether or not they are going to return to a church a second time based upon how they are greeted than based upon the music or the sermon.  When we entrust our youth with the responsibility of being front-door greeters, we are entrusting them with our church’s future. 

Another example of sharing the keys?  I am not the head of our “Growing Young team.”  Our team is me, Diane Asbill, Angel Lee, Nooshin Ghazi, and Chris Hollingsworth.  That’s one baby boomer and one Gen-Xer; Angel, Nooshin, and Chris are millennials, and Nooshin, one of the Millennials, is our team leader.   We have had millennials as elders and deacons. 

We don’t want to be like the leaders in Jerusalem who were out-of-touch with God and thus ignored Jeremiah when he was a young prophet.  They fell under God’s judgment.  We know God has something to say in Chapel Hill, and God’s going to say it through churches.  In our church, God speaks through all our members, including our young people.  We want to give them the space to speak and we want to give them our attention because we want to see where God is working and join in that work. 

Pray for Diane, Angel, Nooshin, and Chris.  Go to them, and share your willingness to be part of our church’s growth.  Maybe you’ll work with young people directly.  Maybe your roll will be indirect.  Maybe you’re not yet sure, so pray about it.  Pray about how you can help us be a church that helps people grow as disciples of Jesus.  Pray for our community and especially for young people.  We’ve got middle schools, high schools, and the most prominent university in our state all within a mile or two of our church property.  God’s mission is before us: go and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We see clearly the importance of being 15.  It’s the future of the church; it’s the work of God in the present; it’s our calling to walk in faith today. 

AMEN