Drew Boswell

a place for us to share ideas, talk about life, and learn together.

Why Spiritual Leaders Are Essential

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law” (NIV). The general meaning of this verse is that without someone explaining God’s Word, holding it with great regard, and directing the people to look to it for answers, then the people will perish. They perish because they turn away from God and His law and begin to do what they feel is right in their own eyes.   The Hebrew verb yipaara` means ‘are dissipated;’ also ‘revolt,’ ‘become unbridled,’ and so perish. This unbridled, and consequently ruinous state, is opposed in the parallel clause, “happy;” as “the law” stands in contrast to “no vision.”[1] The following principle can be drawn from this passage of Scripture: If a ministry within the church does not have a leader, then the ministry will plateau and decline. Weekly objectives will not be met, and the overall quality will diminish. As people involved in the ministry begin to do things as they think best due to a lack of direction; there will be disunity, confusion, and decline.

Therefore, before a strategy can be developed for any ministry, there must be someone to champion the ministry within the church. This leader must cast a vision of a desirable future and see that the Sunday-to-Sunday objectives are accomplished, along with hundreds of others items that need to be addressed on a weekly basis. Clark says:

Effective leadership is essential for progress. Someone must be responsible for planning, organizing, directing, and making decisions. Some groups operate in a leaderless structure with group members sharing responsibility equally. However, unless individuals are skillfully trained and experienced, they need leaders to motivate them towards goals to be accomplished.  The leader acts as a guide to show the way and to coordinate activities.[2]

A lack of this characteristic of seeking to improve by casting vision and goal setting is analogous to the carpenter who uses a piece of wood as a way to measure another piece of wood to cut. When the carpenter has cut the wood, he then casts the original measured wood aside and substitutes it with the new cut piece of wood. This process continues for some time, until he realizes that when he measures the pieces each is a different size. If he had used one piece as a standard, instead of using each new piece with a slightly different cut size, he would have been able to accomplish his task. But the carpenter has to go back and start over. In ministry if everyone is ministering the way they feel is best, or referencing the analogy above, “a different size,” then nothing really fits together; but if they are all the same size, it is much easier to build the ministry and Christ’s kingdom.[3] A leader needs to make sure that standards are kept and bars are raised in order to improve the ministry. Otherwise people tend to do what they think is best; there is a lack of uniformity and purpose; and decline becomes inevitable.

For the purposes of our discussion, Blackaby’s definition of leadership will be used.  This definition of leadership is, “spiritual leadership is moving people on to God’s agenda.”[4] He explains that spiritual leadership has not occurred if a person has not left their personal desires and plans and if they have not been influenced to move towards God’s plan. A leader in any ministry seeks God’s plan for the ministry and then leads the rest toward this God-ordained purpose and plan. In Luke 9:33 Jesus brought Peter with Him to a mountain in which God chose to transfigure Jesus so that He had a glorious appearance. Peter, not understanding what was going on, says, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” (He did not know what he was saying) (NIV). In any ministry people will want to do things that are counterproductive to God’s agenda, and do things that just do not make sense. It is the leader’s role to have clear instructions from the Lord and to explain these instructions to others. Otherwise, everyone is trying to build shelters and miss their mandate to transform the lives of others. A leader keeps his team on task and does not allow them to become involved in activities that distract them from their task of directing others towards God.

[1] John Joseph Owens, Analytical Key to the Old Testament, vol. 3, Ezra-Song of Solomon (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 602.

[2] Robert Clark, Joanne Brubaker, and Roy Zuck, Childhood Education in the Church (Chicago: Moody, 1986) 228.

[3] Eph 2:20–22

[4] Blackaby and Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 21.

"One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind"


My role in this life doesn’t seem to be one of landing on the moon, inventing the newest technology, or winning a major battle. Instead, it seems that my destiny lies in my influencing those young men who will. And that’s ok.

Tonight the Wolf den of Pack 277 had an awesome time. We are working on our “science” belt loop so we discussed the “scientific method.” All the boys were able to walk through the process, and we experimented with balsa wood air planes (the kind that you wind a rubber band on the bottom). It is so much fun to see their smiles as they discover simple scientific concepts as though they were the first people ever to think of such things. They are so full of energy and anticipation about life — it was fun just to be there with them. Each boy adds so much to our evenings. I am so proud of each and every one of them.

Isaiah 7:10-16; 9:1-21 “A Sign From God”

Travel to any major city and you will find binoculars attached to major buildings overlooking the skyline. For a fee you can see the beauty of the landscape and take in the breathtaking scenery.  But you just about always have to adjust the focus in order to see anything clearly. The book of Isaiah shows us how to turn our lives so that it comes into focus with God’s plan.  He paid the price so that we can see it, but we have control over how in focus it is.   Join us as we discover the wonder of this prophetic book and how you can get your life back into focus.

A New Strategy For Students


A strategy is a plan of action with an end in mind (Reggie Joiner. Think Orange (Colorado Springs, Colorado; David C. Cook, 2009) 113). So if you set out toward a particular objective, you anticipate an end result. In youth ministry for many years the long term end in mind were youth who graduated from High School and entered independence with a solid Christian belief and a lifestyle that reflected those Christian beliefs. But over the past 10 years through various studies and analysis, we have discovered that this desired end result is not taking place.

Typically, churches would hire a staff person who would tirelessly strive to impact young people for Christ only to discover later that most of their effort and work did not achieve the desired end. (George Barna and others have given percentages as high as 70% of young people graduating student ministries leave the church and their Christian beliefs with it.)

I have had a facebook account for some time now. More times than not, I am grieved to see so many young people who I have worked with over the years proudly displaying pictures of activities that clearly go against Christian principles and obvious biblical mandates for behavior.

So what do we do about this? For Daybreak Community Church we are going to change the strategy. Instead of allowing parents to drop off their children to the care of a “hired professional” we are going to attempt to equip the parents for ministering to the youth. We will enter into a relationship where we partner with them, but never allowing them to give the church the responsibility of discipleship. We will keep pushing it back to them, where biblically it belongs (see Deuteronomy 6). The church is not to be the primary place of biblical instruction, it is the home.

This is a new way of thinking and even how we structure student ministry has to change – no more “drop and roll” but parents are encouraged to be apart of all the activities that we do as a ministry. The church’s goal is not just to partner with, and equip, but also to provide resources and ideas for this journey. In the life of a young person they may have several churches that they are apart of, but their parents will always be their parents.

We have three main events for students at Daybreak:
1) Family Group – this is where we have the entire family sit down and discuss various topics (crisis, beliefs, death, etc.) and the family goes through planned activities to get them talking about these specific topics.

2) Small Group – (i.e. Sunday School) this is where the students gather and decide for
themselves what they believe regarding the theme for the month, and they are able talk with their peers about the topic. Parents go to the worship service during this time.

3) Large Group – we invite other churches to join us for a time of worship, a
message (sermon), games, and snacks. The students are able to interact with other Christian young people and discuss the theme for the month. Parents are encouraged to stay and we have activities planned for them as well.

The Urgency of Christian Education and Children

If the church and home have the mandate from God to pass on scriptural concepts from generation to generation, which age group or generation should receive the most emphasis? Churches who feel that evangelism is important have to choose and target who they will reach through their evangelistic efforts, allocate budgetary funds, and have appropriate training. Considering these things, a church therefore, will develop a strategy. This strategy can be as informal as following up with guests, putting an ad in the paper, or as formal as hiring a consultant to develop a multi-point plan to reach their community for Christ. Whatever this strategy may be, it more than likely will be aimed at a specific group of people. Barna has shown that children are more likely than any other group to receive the gospel. When defining his research in his book Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, George Barna said,

Why focus on this particular slice of the youth market? Because if you want to shape a person’s life—whether you are most concerned about his or her moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, or economic—development it is during these crucial eight years that lifelong habits, values, beliefs and attitudes are formed.[1]

The eight years that he references are five to twelve years of age. Barna’s conclusion through his study of statistics shows that individuals are most influenced by the culture, various environmental settings, and the home during this early eight year span of life. Barna goes on to say, “Given the trends indicating that your spiritual condition by the age of 13 is a strong indicator of your spiritual profile as an adult, it seems clear that a deep and robust spiritual life demands intentional and strategic spiritual maturing during the early childhood and adolescent years.”[2] After the age of thirteen the malleability of a child’s heart greatly begins to wean, and influence becomes much more difficult. By the age of nine children have their “spiritual moorings” well in place and are making moral decisions based on this set of beliefs that are established in their lives.[3]

It is imperative then that the church do all that it can to influence children who are the most easily influenced with the book that has influenced more people than any other, the Bible. Doug Fields tells a story of when he was reunited with a former youth ministry student. After giving some background Fields says, “He had graduated not only from our youth ministry, but he also had graduated from his faith. None of our leaders would have ever guessed that Jake would wander from his faith; he had been a consistent participant for four years.”[4] What should the strategy of the local church be to avoid missing generation after generation of children who pass through this most influential span of time? I’ll follow up with the answer to this question in the next article.

[1] George Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2003), 18.

[2] Ibid., 41.

[3] Ibid., 47.

[4] Doug Fields, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 156.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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