What role does change play in your leadership? It seems like a simple question, but the more you think about it, the more complex it becomes. Are you leading to create change? Are you leading because something changed? Does changing the leader fundamentally change a process? What if change is not the reason, or the outcome? What if change is simply the context – the reality in which all leadership happens? Change is not something we have to be fearful of, but instead, it is part of leadership’s environment, and we plan for it right along with timelines, budgets, and what to put in the volunteer’s gift bags.
On April 6, the Youth Leadership Symposium (YLS) will welcome Rev. Terri Hord Owens as the featured speaker for the second session of our 2025 Cohort gathering. The session will focus on Adaptive Leadership, exploring how the constant reality of change impacts the way we lead. It will attend to the fact that every individual is constantly in a state of change as we grow and acknowledge that our leadership style and gifts evolve along with us. Guest speakers from across the life of the Church will give voice to the importance and the challenges of leading amid change, and the powerful ways God is at work during these times of transformation.
Participants will engage with speakers on the topics of Leading in Chaos; Generational Faith and Healing; Gifts of a New Generation; and Historical Language Around Fast and Slow Change Movements. Each of these topics will include powerful guest speakers, follow-up discussion, and small group reflection time. Hopefully it will all prepare students to face change that will inevitably take place as they serve in their local churches.
Jori Gibbens-Egolf, a 2023 YLS Participant, shared about facing unexpected struggles in her plans to help clear the overgrown grounds of her local church saying, “We rented goats, and once we got the goats on site, I thought the hard work was done. But overnight, someone cut the wire and let them out. I had to collect them and apologize to our neighbors for the things they had eaten. None of that was in my plan!”
As with everything we do in YLS the final question is, “How does this impact your local church and the project you are planning?” We want everything to have a personal expression, and a practical application. YLS hopes to prepare a new generation of leaders that are ready for anything, and who can lead the church in ways we have yet to imagine.