Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI)

BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL (BHAG): Take a deep dive into the BHAG here! A Big Hairy Audacious Goal should make your stomach drop for its pure audacity and simultaneously make your heart race in joy at the challenge. Our BHAG in the NOW District for raising youth as servant-leaders is this: Every Youth. Every Ministry. Gospel Responsibility. “Every Youth” is as open as each leader or ministry desires. This means, depending on your own local context, that children certainly can be included! “Every Ministry” means not only every congregation but also every early childhood center, every school, every outdoors ministry, and so forth. “Gospel” or “Good News” indicates that all behavior as followers of Jesus can be motivated and infused with His Good News. 

3 METRICS: Take a deep dive into the 3 Metrics here! A central focus of the YLI includes three key practices for cultivating servant-leaders:
Know the Person
Name the Gift
Find the Next Yes! 

GET FOCUSED! Take a deep dive into the Key Behavioral Themes here! 

GET RESOURCED!

• The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) Report Survey Findings. This is the document that shapes all of our practices.
• The Know Name Journal: A Field Guide for Creating a Yes! Culture. This bullet journal/planner resource helps leaders record their connections with youth while tracking progress toward the goal of “every youth, every ministry, Gospel responsibility.” 
• Podcast interview with Tim Ahlman from the Unite Leadership Collective. NOW DCEs Jonathan Kopecky and Jackie Druckhammer, who are on the YLI Leadership Team, unveiled the key findings from the report and why they are so important. Click here or watch the video below!
• YLI Guidelines and Best Practices Info Sheet
• YLI Printable Info Sheet/Flyer
• “Hear and Share the Next Yes!” online check-in, held on the second Thursday of each month. These Zoom gatherings offer a chance to hear inspiring stories from leaders who are raising up the next generation.

GET SUPPORT! REGIONAL YLI NETWORK LEADERS:

Team Lead: Jonathan Kopecky

Team Admin: Jackie Druckhammer

1. Matthew Murphy, Alaska

2. Mady Pinn, Puget Sound

3. Lindsey Ohling, Inland Empire/North Idaho

4. Jacob Pralle, South Idaho

5. Dust Kunkel, Interim Oregon

GO ON A DEEP DIVE! A note on servant-leadership from NOW District President Mike Von Behren: Jesus highlighted for his disciples the kind of leadership legacy he left among them: “Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:26-27). Servant-leadership theory finds a strong following in corporate endeavor and leadership research, yet we as disciples of Jesus ought to have a keener interest than most in learning more about this lifestyle of leadership. The following bullets offer a selection of the principal attributes of servant-leaders (click here for a printable PDF):

• Servant-First Attitude – Having a desire to serve first, but stepping up to lead when it is the service requested/needed by the community.
• Attentive Listening – Listening first as the primary response to any problem.
• Fourfold Awareness – Seeking awareness upward (spiritually), inward (personally), outward (situationally), and onward (visionary)
• Personal Growth – Realizing the solution to any problem begins with a change in the leader himself or herself.
• Modeled Forgiveness – Exemplifying forgiveness, both by asking for forgiveness and in offering forgiveness.
• Humble Mindset – Leading with humility, seeking to give credit rather than take credit.
• Releasing Authority – Equipping, empowering, and following others as they learn to lead.
• Community Building – Realizing anything worth doing is done together for the benefit of the team and of the community, not of the leader.
• Relational Influence – Affecting change through influence in relationships of trust, not through position or power.
• Stewardship Heart – Treating people and resources as gifts to steward, not as items owned or used.
• Generative Foresight – Recognizing emerging patterns on the horizon while there is still opportunity to respond in new and helpful ways.

As you engage the YLI behaviors of knowing the individuals, naming their gifts, and finding the next yes for each of them, be aware they are likely looking at and learning to lead by watching you. Which of the attributes above are they able to perceive in you?

STORIES AND METRICS ACROSS THE NOW DISTRICT: More on this soon.

THE HISTORY OF THE YOUTH LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE
NOW LI and the YLI: The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) Report is a resource designed to cultivate and raise up new servant-leaders in the NOW District and across the LCMS. It brings real data gathered and interpreted through a trustworthy process. The overall conclusion of the YLI Survey Report is that effective leadership development for youth hinges on the presence and engagement of caring adults who consistently show up and affirm their capabilities. 

The NOW District has engaged in a years-long research project into how adults help youth become servant-leaders. In September 2021, district staff introduced the NOW Leadership Initiative Toolkit for those looking for next steps in leader identification. The next step of this initiative came in 2023, when the YLI Team focused more specifically on how we raise up youth as servant-leaders, and developed a survey to identify critical adult behaviors that support youth leadership development. The survey collected 64 in-depth responses and utilized a qualitative approach to interpret the data, leading to a trustworthy interpretation of the findings and the identification of “Key Behavior Themes.”

The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) Report Survey Findings, published in October 2024, demonstrate the value of observing and applying specific behaviors to encourage leadership among youth. The overall conclusion of the YLI Survey Report is that effective leadership development for youth hinges on the presence and engagement of caring adults who consistently show up, support, and say “Yes!” often