Leadership through different eyes....
On the October long weekend i coordinated my church group for SAYCO which is the South Australian Youth Camp Out. I'll be honest it was a lot of work and quite stressful, but it is something that was so rewarding, successful, encouraging and challenging.
Saturday i found really hard as a leader, everything seemed so obvious to me and achievable but when it was actually happening everything seemed so difficult. I struggled with my own leadership skills, i wasnt confiedent that i would actually be listened too. Youth kids didnt listen to me, youth leaders were frustrated and telling me they hated me coz i was making them put tents up. i didnt make it to the first session till half way through which wasnt the best option since i was leading a small group and only had a junior as my other leader. Dinner on saturday night was stressful, the BBQ didnt work until much later so we were so behind in sorting dinner, this meant we were late getting places. that was the second session i had missed most of. Saturday night during nite life i spent some more time with a few awesome female leaders around the place which i had met earlier in the day. What a blessing these women were in my life. Chatting about Faith, Life, Ministry, and just a bunch of other stuff. it was soo good that people really understood and were in the same place as me.
Sunday was a better day, i felt supported by the senior pastor who had arrived and the leadership team were behind me in leadership. Nothing really went wrong :)
I learnt a lot about leadership on sunday through discussion, reflection and prayer.
I learnt about perspective in situations and reflected on my day the day before looking at it from someone elses eyes. In my eyes i had a plan for the tents in my head i was going to arrive see where our site was and then work out where to put th tents, in the other peoples eyes, i hadnt thought about it and didnt know what i was doing. When i learnt to step into someone elses shoes and look at things from their perspective, actions and words from the day before made sence.
the Uniting CHurch of South Australia is blessed with so many cool people working in churches and in their SYNOD. there was this youth pastor who was from the church camping next to us and we are friends. we have hung out before and chatted about things and it was really encouraging to see him come over to our group on the saturrday and just assist with getting us sorted. On the sunday we wer chatting and i was thanking him for the help and we got chatting about my possible study plans for the future and where i wanted to go in life. He asked a really logical but kinda confronting question of me... it was something along the lines of. "Do you think you are a good leader?"
i struggled to work out how to answer this... I mean i didnt wannna be like im amazing coz im not and at the same time i didnt want to be like im a terrible leader. My response probably didnt make any sence but i babbled on about how i feel like i havent related to my youth all weekend and how stuff has gone wrong or i wasnt clear with things. I then told him about what i had learnt about perspective and seeing things through others ideas.
He suggested that maybe i was a little hard on my self and that infact i was a better leader then i gave myself credit.
Overall SAYCO wasa camp which i found challenging and rewarding and yet found myself leaving thinking, i want to organise something like this again.
I think a few of my highlights of SAYCO was
1. Hanging with the awesome women of faith and chatting about ministry, faith, life etc
2. Being given the opportunity to lead and really grow into that position through prayer, challenges, support, conversations and mistakes
3. Watching one of the youth boys which i had led in kids church start at the beginning of the weekend not wanting to go to the worship session, not standing up and not enjoying it. To standing up and then progressively getting more involved and in the last session being down the front jumping and loving the worship. Seeing God work in his life was so encouraging and such a reminder to keep trying with those youth that dont want to get involved.
Saturday i found really hard as a leader, everything seemed so obvious to me and achievable but when it was actually happening everything seemed so difficult. I struggled with my own leadership skills, i wasnt confiedent that i would actually be listened too. Youth kids didnt listen to me, youth leaders were frustrated and telling me they hated me coz i was making them put tents up. i didnt make it to the first session till half way through which wasnt the best option since i was leading a small group and only had a junior as my other leader. Dinner on saturday night was stressful, the BBQ didnt work until much later so we were so behind in sorting dinner, this meant we were late getting places. that was the second session i had missed most of. Saturday night during nite life i spent some more time with a few awesome female leaders around the place which i had met earlier in the day. What a blessing these women were in my life. Chatting about Faith, Life, Ministry, and just a bunch of other stuff. it was soo good that people really understood and were in the same place as me.
Sunday was a better day, i felt supported by the senior pastor who had arrived and the leadership team were behind me in leadership. Nothing really went wrong :)
I learnt a lot about leadership on sunday through discussion, reflection and prayer.
I learnt about perspective in situations and reflected on my day the day before looking at it from someone elses eyes. In my eyes i had a plan for the tents in my head i was going to arrive see where our site was and then work out where to put th tents, in the other peoples eyes, i hadnt thought about it and didnt know what i was doing. When i learnt to step into someone elses shoes and look at things from their perspective, actions and words from the day before made sence.
the Uniting CHurch of South Australia is blessed with so many cool people working in churches and in their SYNOD. there was this youth pastor who was from the church camping next to us and we are friends. we have hung out before and chatted about things and it was really encouraging to see him come over to our group on the saturrday and just assist with getting us sorted. On the sunday we wer chatting and i was thanking him for the help and we got chatting about my possible study plans for the future and where i wanted to go in life. He asked a really logical but kinda confronting question of me... it was something along the lines of. "Do you think you are a good leader?"
i struggled to work out how to answer this... I mean i didnt wannna be like im amazing coz im not and at the same time i didnt want to be like im a terrible leader. My response probably didnt make any sence but i babbled on about how i feel like i havent related to my youth all weekend and how stuff has gone wrong or i wasnt clear with things. I then told him about what i had learnt about perspective and seeing things through others ideas.
He suggested that maybe i was a little hard on my self and that infact i was a better leader then i gave myself credit.
Overall SAYCO wasa camp which i found challenging and rewarding and yet found myself leaving thinking, i want to organise something like this again.
I think a few of my highlights of SAYCO was
1. Hanging with the awesome women of faith and chatting about ministry, faith, life etc
2. Being given the opportunity to lead and really grow into that position through prayer, challenges, support, conversations and mistakes
3. Watching one of the youth boys which i had led in kids church start at the beginning of the weekend not wanting to go to the worship session, not standing up and not enjoying it. To standing up and then progressively getting more involved and in the last session being down the front jumping and loving the worship. Seeing God work in his life was so encouraging and such a reminder to keep trying with those youth that dont want to get involved.
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