Passing the Leadership Torch

 Every year our church goes to Savannah Georgia on a mission trip to work with inner city children Over the past two years I have helped my pastor teach a class of middle school age children. . One of the biggest challenges we face is how to teach these children to become leaders and instead of followers. Year after year I watch our pastor treat these children with respect that no one else gives them. In The Art of Leadership Willie Davis talks about what made Lombardi a great leader. Some of these qualities are the qualities that my pastor shows these children.

The first thing my pastor and members of our church do is show the children that we care. We show them that we care my learning their names and listening when they talk. The second thing my pastor does is to work hard to gain their trust. These children do not trust people easily so gaining their trust may take all week. Once these children realize that we care and they can trust us they confide in us with their problems. They think that we have all the answers to their problems and ask us how they can help us. Believing in the kids is an important factor that affects the entire week. If we believe in them they learn that they can relax and just worry about having fun. Keeping the bar high is also important with these children; most of these children do not set the standards high if you set the bar high when you expect things from them they come to realize they can have high standards for themselves. Meeting people and keeping in contact with them helps maintain a relationship with them.

This picture found online portrays some of the qualities are that we are teaching the children that are important leadership qualities. 

After six years of working with these children and trying to teach them how to be leaders, these children have become leaders themselves.  These children who once were only followers have become Transformational Leadership. They think of others before themselves and now they think of how they younger children watch and mimic them. Living in poverty these children grow up thinking they will always be living in poverty but once these children have learned they can be leaders they are questioning how they can grow up and move out of poverty.

Teaching children to become leaders is helpful for their life because they can set goals and dreams. They also can teach others to become leaders and will not just follow a crowd.