Involving youth in leadership in the youth group and in the church is a lot easier in a small church than it is in a big church. Teenagers who invest as leaders in the church are likely to be the leaders in their churches as adults. How do you get your teenagers involved? Rick Chromey has a good chapter on that issue in his book, Youth Ministry in Small Churches.

Chromey suggests this process for getting kids involved in the leadership of your church:

1. Identify the needed gifts. Think about leadership positions in the church: running sound, distributing bulletins, serving on the hospitality team. Then identify what gifts, skills, and/or characteristics a person needs to have to do that job.
2. Recruit young people. Ask individual kids who you believe possess the right skills to take on specific jobs. Chromey suggests that you describe the job to the youth and then give them time to evaluate it. If he or she says no, accept their answer, but find out why. Ask if he or she would be interested in other jobs.
3. Plan together. Talk about what needs to be done and how to best tackle it.
4. Train the young person. Chromey says that adequate training will continue until the youth is competent at his or her job.
5. Support and consult. Be available to the young person should he or she need help with the job.
6. Evaluate. Help the youth to determine what is going well and what needs improvement.

Involving youth in leadership may be more work than doing the job yourself, but it is worth the effort. Students will learn more while they are leading. And they will have more invested in your church.