What I’ve Learned From Leading the Christian Club at My School

 This year, I was placed into the role of leading Tiger Christian Fellowship (TCF), the Christian club at my school, and even though I’ve only been leading it for a couple of weeks as of writing this (mid-September), I’ve learned multiple lessons about being a leader with integrity and faith in an environment where I have been entrusted with leading a group of fellow believers. Here are the three biggest lessons I’ve learned over this short period of time: 

Lesson 1: The role isn’t given, it’s earned over time 

I didn’t just show up the first meeting of TCF and everyone just said, “you’re in charge,” I got the role of leading the group by showing up consistently for a year and a half before I was given the opportunity to be in charge. That quiet, constant presence showed how I made this a priority, and I was willing to sacrifice an hour of my Thursday to grow my faith and be a part of the community of Christians at my high school, even though I had a job, had homework, had a thousand other things I could have been doing, I still showed up. Even at the end of last school year, when we only had three to five people showing up each week, I still showed up. I didn’t say that I was in charge, I just showed up, and sometimes, that enough.  

Lesson 2: You only earn that role by stepping up 

The first semester I was in TCF, I goofed off, wasn’t super serious, and to be honest, I was only there because my mom made me and to hang out with my friends, especially my friend Audrey. As a result, the student who started it and was graduating that year chose to have my friends Audrey and Brenna lead the group instead for several reasons, one being they were more mature about it than me. As a result, I realized I needed to mature and change, and as a result, over the next year, I matured, and eventually began to lead the group more, not necessarily being in charge, but leading in discussions and other areas, like bringing food and trying to get people to show up. 

Lesson 3: Make every decision with intentionality 

Since school is just starting, there have been several opportunities for me to share TCF to the community at my high school, but before I could go and take those opportunities and run with them, I had to be intentional about how I wanted to go about presenting the club. Would I meet people with questions with more grace, then offer truth, which could create a tension? That was a big question I had to wrestle with, and I decided that I would attempt to meet the person with both grace and truth, knowing that I was a vessel for the Lord to use, for lack of a better term. Therefore, I had to be intentional in how I presented the club, and thankfully, God was able to strengthen me and work through me to reach more students and the community. For a town community event, we had a booth, and I wanted to make a bible trivia board, and I had to be extremely intentional in what questions I wrote, making sure to be welcoming and loving while still standing firm in the faith. 

Conclusion 

So, while I’ve learned many lessons through overseeing Tiger Christian Fellowship, those three lessons are the ones I’ve felt the most conviction and determined that are those most important for me to live out in my life. I hope that these lessons also impact you like they did for me in my leadership journey.