Young people grab towels
King Solomon famously wrote:
Train a child in the way he should go, And he will not easily depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
But when it comes to leadership development, it seems that we leave it to chance… perhaps buying into the philosophy that leaders are born rather than made. There are some notable exceptions, but it is generally hard to find programmes that intentionally invest in young people as emerging leaders. At best, there are some programmes that offer activities that contribute to leadership growth in young people who are taking on a leadership position (e.g. school prefects). However, we only normally begin offering leadership training and development to young adults when they start exhibiting leadership skills and actively take on leadership responsibility. This seems a bit crazy. Imagine only starting to train a medical doctor once they have the scalpal in their hand!
Grab a Towel proposes that servant leaders are made not born. In fact, given that Christ-centred servant leadership runs contrary to so much of the leadership demonstrated in the 21st century, we may even argue that servant leaders need to be reborn or reprogrammed to change habits and attitudes that are imbibed from our culture. Therefore, it is surely necessary to start working with children and young people and help them adopt an approach to leadership that is formed from studying the ultimate servant leader, Jesus Christ. And, importantly, teaching them to apply those principles to their everyday lives.
That’s exactly what has been taking place in Nyanga, Cape Town. Mkhululi Letstatsi has been investing in young people for a number of years. His passion is to see them become transformational leaders in one of Cape Town’s most notorious communities. During lockdown, Mkhululi began going through the Grab a Towel material with his group of young people, and the initial results have been quite remarkable. But, rather than me writing further on this… you can read the comments from some of the participants below.
What I love about this feedback from the participants is that they are not just sharing new head-knowledge, but are practically applying the hallmarks of servant leadership by helping other people in their community. This is how servant leadership becomes transformational at the grass-roots level.
Also during the lockdown, another group of young adults started studying Grab a Towel via WhatsApp… in fact, the whole Grab a Towel servant leadership course can be facilitated via WhatsApp. I love this creative way of breaking down barriers in order to see the material made accessible to as many people as possible. Please contact me if you want more information on how you could train up young people to become servant leaders. Over the coming months, we want to develop more material that is geared towards training young people and raising up a generation of transformational servant leaders.
