How Do You Lead Students to Step into Their Calling?

That’s not a small thing. We are in the kingdom business. Every pastor and ministry leader has been given the same commission: go and make disciples of all nations. It doesn’t mean all people that are over 18. It doesn’t mean everyone who seems ready. It means all.

The temptation in most churches is to see youth ministry as a holding pattern. Keep the students engaged until they’re old enough to really “contribute”. Let the youth pastor handle them. Circle back when they’re adults.

But that thinking doesn’t just underestimate your students. It passes over some of the most influential people in your church and community.

Three out of four students already believe they are called to make an impact on some level. They are on Instagram, TikTok, and in their school hallways every single day, using whatever platform they have to try to change things. They are not waiting for permission. They are not waiting until they’re older.

The question is whether your church will pour fuel on that fire or let the world put it out. Here are three questions that can help you get students more involved.

One of the fastest ways to develop a leader is to give them real responsibility; a serving opportunity where their contribution matters and the ministry is better because they showed up.

Does your church have volunteer opportunities that students can actually step into? Not just attending youth group, but genuinely serving, running tech, greeting families, helping in kids ministry, setting up for services, leading small groups for younger students?

When a student serves in your church, they stop seeing the church as a place they go and start seeing it as something they’re building. That ownership is one of the most powerful discipleship tools available to you, and it costs nothing.

The Switch Student Leaders resource on Open Network is a free tool specifically designed to help you identify, develop, and deploy student leaders in your church. It gives you a practical framework for taking a student from the seats to serving.

If your church can run an internship program, it is one of the most powerful investments you can make in the next generation of church leaders. An intern isn’t just doing tasks; they’re being developed. They’re watching how ministry works from the inside. They’re being poured into by leaders who want them to step into their God-given calling.

The student you invest in through an internship today could be the next campus pastor, youth director, or church planter in your city. That investment does not just change their life. It changes the lives of everyone they will ever lead.

You do not need a large staff or a complex program to get started. A part-time internship with clear expectations, a mentor, and consistent feedback can be impactful. And we have a free resource to help you build it.

The Internship Development Workbook on Open Network walks you through how to structure a part-time internship experience that develops leaders!

The generation we are seeing today is one of the most passionate generations about justice and impact. However, without someone walking alongside them, pointing them to Scripture, and helping them root that passion in the truth of who Jesus is, the world will do everything it can to redirect it.

Discipleship is the difference between a student who burns bright for a season and a student who becomes a fully devoted follower of Christ for life. And it is not complicated. It is consistent. It is intentional. It is one leader who decides that a student is worth their time.

How are you discipling the students in your church? Not just giving them a curriculum but actually walking with them, knowing their name, asking about their week, and pointing them to Jesus in the ordinary moments of life.

That kind of discipleship doesn’t show through the stage announcements. It shows through relationships. Every pastor and ministry leader in your church has the ability to be that person for at least one student.

The students in your church are not the leaders of tomorrow. They are the leaders of today. They are already leading, already influencing, already shaping the people around them. The only question is whether your church is going to be the community that shapes them first.

Pour into your students, give them a place to serve, invest in their development, walk alongside them, and watch what God does in their lives.

Let’s reach people together.

Find free youth ministry resources at open.life.church →