The Middle 70%
Kara Powell | May 26, 2010
Recently Ive been thinking about how much of a leaders energy goes into 30% of the people in their community. For a youth worker, that means youre investing lots of energy into the 15% of your kids who are doing super great and the 15% of your kids who are really struggling.
But what about that middle 70%? Whos investing in them? They arent as high maintenance or shiny as the other 30% but theyre probably the majority of your kids.
Maybe its time to look down the list of your kids and ask questions about each kid:
- How is this kid doing in their journey with God?
- How could our ministry help this kid move a bit forward?
- What adult(s) are investing in this kid?
Lets not ignore the vast middle
Dr. Kara Powell is the Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI), a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary, and Fuller's Chief of Leadership Formation. Named by Christianity Today as one of “50 Women You Should Know,” Kara serves as a Youth and Family Strategist for Orange, and also speaks regularly at parenting and leadership conferences. Kara is the author or coauthor of a number of books, including Growing Young, Growing With, The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family, Sticky Faith Curriculum, Can I Ask That?, Deep Justice Journeys, Deep Justice in a Broken World, Deep Ministry in a Shallow World, and the Good Sex Youth Ministry Curriculum. Kara lives with her husband Dave and their three children, Nathan, Krista, and Jessica, in Southern California.
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