Discipling a New Generation of Young Leaders
Fanni Leets Santoso, SS, serves as the student activities coordinator for ACSI Indonesia. She enjoys working with teenagers and has great hopes that they will make a positive impact on the future of Christianity. Miss Leets is pursuing her master’s degree in teaching English for foreign learners.
Today’s young generation will be tomorrow’s leaders. Schools play an important role in developing students to be leaders. However, in research during the 1990s, Dr. 
John Storey found that “over 90 percent of Christian schools were not intentional in developing student leaders. That is not to say that leaders were not being developed.… However, the vast majority of Christian schools were letting this happen by default” (Storey 2005–2006, 10).
In Indonesia, we face challenges of corruption, moral degradation, and environmental destruction among other significant problems. In the 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, for instance, Transparency International ranked Indonesia 126th out of 180 countries, showing an index score of 2.6 out of 10. These challenges, which are likely to become more complex in the years to come, raise our awareness at ACSI Indonesia that we urgently need Christian leaders to stand out in the middle of the largest Muslim population in the world. Christian schools must take those challenges as opportunities to transform the country of Indonesia through the transformation of their students, who may be future leaders. Christian schools need to equip their students with various leadership skills.
One of the inevitably required skills is knowledge of the English language. In Indonesia, English is taught as a foreign language. Students, in big cities especially, learn English starting in kindergarten or elementary school. However, because the surroundings are not likely to support the use of English, even Indonesian high school students have difficulty expressing themselves in English. ACSI Indonesia wants to create an environment in which people are supported and encouraged to use English.
ACSI Indonesia saw these needs and decided to assist Indonesian Christian schools in developing student leaders through a program that addresses leadership skills and English mastery for high schools students. Christian students need to become leaders who possess the courage to hold on to biblical principles and values in the midst of the complexity of their communities. They must also own the skills to communicate and participate in the global network. ACSI Indonesia wants this next generation to be able to come up with solutions for current and future problems, instead of being a part of the problems.
In July 2008, ACSI Indonesia teamed up with Dr. Timothy Heaton and his students from Cedarville University, Ohio, and held the Student English Leadership Conference (SELC) in two of the biggest cities in Indonesia: Surabaya and Jakarta. SELC is a four-day and three-night leadership training program for Christian high school students. It is conducted in English, and the participants students and their mentors—are expected to communicate in English. This conference is designed to be a place where participants can practice leadership skills and English. The following instructors led the 2008 conference: Ishak S. Wonohadidjojo, EdD, of ACSI Indonesia, and Steve Palmer, Craig Nichelson, Kelsey Griswold, Ashley Solomon, and Timothy L. Heaton, PhD, from Cedarville University in Ohio.
Since the Student English Leadership Conference was the first student activities program held by ACSI Indonesia, Christian schools and churches responded with both enthusiasm and skepticism. People were skeptical because it was the first ACSI student program in Indonesia, and they did not yet see the need to develop the leadership skills of students. On the other hand, others were enthusiastic because they had long awaited this kind of program. Christian schools and churches regularly hold conferences for young people. However, those conferences are generic, meaning that they are for all teenagers. There was a need for an Indonesian conference that addresses the needs of young people who have the hearts, the heads, and the hands to be leaders. ACSI intended to fill this need.
Coming from all across Indonesia, as far as Makassar and Papua, 37 students and 12 mentors attended the conference in Surabaya, and 71 students and 13 mentors attended the conference in Jakarta. ACSI Indonesia, along with Cedarville University, served students and mentors from quite remote mountainous areas. Those who attended engaged in seminars, discussions, small groups, prayer, worship, and games. These components were all designed to impart biblical leadership foundations and to train the participants in application of three leadership concepts—servant leadership, leading with integrity, and visionary leadership—and three leadership skills—public speaking, decision making, and strategic program planning and life planning.
In addition to recognizing the significance of training students, ACSI Indonesia understands the importance of mentoring them, a process that could take place wonderfully in a school or church setting. The mentors who accompanied the students also sat in classes in which young and senior speakers presented the topics Mentoring Teenagers and How to Equip the Next Generation. It is hoped that after returning to their own school or church, the mentors can build a healthy mentoring culture that is exactly needed by teenagers.
In the conference, after participants learned a leadership concept or skill from a speaker, they broke up into small groups to share and discuss the concept or the skill in English. Activities required the students to practice what they learned. Students had to prepare a speech and deliver it in public, plan a program for their school or church, make their own life planning before God, and pray about that life planning. Teenagers are usually very laid-back in thinking about their future. But Christian leaders are supposed to be more intentional about their future. Grace Soejanto, who is 14 years old, realized this in the conference. She said, “I thought that I’m going to plan my life later when I am an adult. This conference reminded me to start thinking specifically what I’m going to be and what I’m going to do.”
In the conference, Dr. Wonohadidjojo shared that leaders, and unfortunately even Christian leaders n Indonesia, were competing against one another. He then convinced the conference participants that they should build a strong network among themselves. He hopes that the students will become Christian leaders who support one another. SELC activities involved the participants from different backgrounds in small groups and outdoor activities, including praise and worship by a bonfire. Coming from different schools and churches surely did not prevent the participants from feeling like one big family in Christ. In fact, most of the students said they felt as if they were part of a family.
In the last session of the conference, Dr. Heaton challenged the teenagers to consider their roles in Indonesia. The students prayed together that God will use this young generation to bring about a change for Indonesia. Jason Theophilus, who is 17 years old, had traveled a long way from Canada to attend. He expressed his willingness to be a part of Indonesia’s future:
“The program has encouraged me to help in Indonesia after studying. I hope it’s God’s will for me to help in Indonesia.”
Because of the complex problems in Indonesia, a lot of Indonesians have in mind to leave Indonesia and live abroad if they have a chance. However, some comments from the participants show that God has touched their hearts. Rich Tandias, who is 18 years old, said,
“I love this country Indonesia, and SELC helped me about my faith and vision for Indonesia. This country needs us.”
With the same tone, Jessen Lusman said that
“this conference also burned my spirit for Indonesia, which I’ve tried to throw away. My eyes were opened by this conference.”
We at ACSI Indonesia witnessed the result of this conference sooner than all of us had expected. We had thought we would see long-range results instead. In the last day of the Jakarta conference, the delegates from Papua shared that they faced financial difficulties in spite of the blessings they received from the conference. The other students were greatly moved, and one of them stood up and expressed a willingness to give something to the Papua students. We were astonished by the view of teenagers, who are usually thought of as selfish and without any empathy, as they raised funds for their less-fortunate friends.
When we advertised SELC, we promised that it would be a four-day leadership training that would change students’ lives. No one is more thankful to God than ACSI Indonesia to see that the conference has lived up to that expectation! The following are some after-conference thoughts that the young people had about their own lives:
- “SELC has been the best thing that’s happened in my life.… The program has got me thinking about serving Him more” (17-year-old Jason Theophilus).
- “This camp’s impact will last long for me, and I really want to be a servant-leader” (15-year-old Adrianus Hariesta).
- “I learned how to lead and walk side by side with God” (16-year-old Tommy Tianjaya).
- “Guys, keep moving forward. Don’t let this camp only be a momentum, but make your life a servant leadership” (15-year-old Gabriele Sadikin).
- “I learned a lot and it was a very wonderful experience, totally inimitable. The stuff being taught there wasn’t new stuff, but it sure had given me deeper meaning to my life, leadership, and connection with God” (17-year-old Vitto Andreas).
- “They opened and widened our mind about this world based on God’s Word” (15-year-old Cindy Owada).
SELC was a wonderful experience not only for the participants but also for the young instructors from Cedarville University. Instructor Ashley Solomon wrote,
“I am so glad that God allowed me to be a part of this SELC…. It was so amazing to see God work in the lives of the students and in my life.”
The fact that some Christians from the other side of the earth were willing to participate in a mission for Indonesian Christians shows that we are all brothers and sisters. Kelsey Griswold confirmed this truth by saying,
“The bonds that we were able to form with the students and mentors will be long lasting. It really felt like we were a big family.”
After the conference ended, all the participants, students, mentors, and speakers decided to keep in contact by creating a mailing list and a Weblog. It is our prayer that this network of Christian leaders and future leaders will last long for the sake of Indonesia and even for the future of the world.
For next year’s SELC, Cedarville University and ACSI plan to hold a two-level program simultaneously. Returning participants will be able to participate in the second level, whereas new participants will participate in the first level, which will teach the skills that this year’s conference taught.
One of the speakers in the conference, Steve Palmer, said,
“It was an enormous honor to witness the passion and the amazing abilities of the students. Their friendliness and cooperation were beyond imagination. The conference was a joy and makes me sincerely excited for Indonesia’s bright future.”
A country’s bright future surely results from how we as Christian educators disciple our students at this critical moment in order to prepare them to be tomorrow’s leaders.
Christian schools must seriously consider and carry out the leadership development of students. ACSI is grateful to be able to assist Christian schools by making available a biblical leadership program. The students who attended SELC are now equipped with strong faith and biblical leadership skills. Schools, churches, and parents now have the biggest opportunity to influence students by intentionally providing them with chances to refine and further develop these leadership skills through practice.
Note
Participants and instructors expressed their comments in our mailing list.
References
Storey, John W. 2005–2006. Developing student leadership: Is it intentional at your school? Christian School Education 9, no. 2:10–11.
Transparency International. 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Indonesia 12.3