Last week I attended a Boy Scout meeting to celebrate some achievements my son was receiving. I was prepared for a long boring meeting, but I was completely surprised.

I sat down and prepared for a long evening of some old guy going on-and-on-and-on. I’ve noticed that when a volunteer adult leader has a microphone, things take twice as long. I was shocked when a high-school boy kicked off the meeting with a robust “Everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance.”

After that was complete he stayed up there and added two more boys to help him the evening program.

I looked around the room and all of the “leaders” were sitting spread out around the seats involved with the kids.

I started dreaming about how this model of leadership was important to the Boy Scouts and how well I saw it playing out in front of me. The group of three boys worked together to hand out over 120 awards and did a wonderful job, never being interrupted by an adult. They floundered a bit but kept on going. It gave me hope that my son would be learning from these boys.

Then I wondered about all my friends in youth ministry and how their “meetings” run. I started to picture how the leader is up front, kids are seated, and adults are huddled together in some corner of the room. Now I realize that’s a gross generalization, but I don’t think it’s too far off.

Encouraging kids to be up front leading and working alongside adults is a huge life skill that will pay dividends.

I wonder how many youth workers could learn something from a Boy Scout troop.