I'm curious to know: What has student leadership looked like since the pandemic started? Are your youth too tired and Zoomed out to really lead anything? Or has someone found a way to keep your youth engaged even amidst the exhaustion?
Interestingly, our student leaders are happy to attend planning meetings, but they are less committed to attending regular meetings. We are moving to utilize breakout rooms more frequently, with the hopes that more intimate conversation may help.
I'm wondering if they like the feeling of "ownership" as participants in the planning meetings but somehow feel they lose that "leadership" role in a weekly meeting?
We have found that while students are still willing to lead--to serve as worship leaders, volunteers for younger kids' programming, planning for their own group--they have much narrower bandwidth for planning and organizing. The more user-friendly and turnkey I can help make it the smoother it has gone. Hopefully as we begin to move out of this season they can take back more ownership but in the meantime I am eager to meet them where they are in terms of their energy and creatively levels.