Youth Ministry Booster
Welcome to the Youth Ministry Booster podcast! The most honest and hilarious podcast in student ministry. Hosted by Zac Workun and Chad Higgins. We are the biggest fans of youth ministry leaders like you!
We are here for you with the humor and the help to engage, entertain, equip, and encourage.
Youth ministry is better together. Learn more @ http://www.youthministrybooster.com
Youth Ministry Booster
Youth Ministry Care & Catchphrase, Chad's Back!
Catchphrase... the things we tell ourselves (and others)
*Chad's Back!*
Join us as we share laughs and insights on relationship, care, and catchphrase. We also touch on the balancing act between Chad’s new responsibilities and his ongoing commitment to our podcast, highlighting the importance of consistency in both ministry and podcasting.
As the holidays approach, we reflect on the unique challenges and opportunities it presents in youth ministry. There are some heartfelt discussions on prioritizing scripture over daily distractions and the value of community support.
Also don't miss the parenting stories abound as we talk about Gideon, my seven-year-old's adventures in piano and the endearing catchphrases he’s inventing. This episode is a warm invitation to connect with the joys and challenges of life and ministry, reinforcing the strength found in shared experiences and communal support.
a snap. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the episode of the youth ministry booster podcast hanging out at edge 2024, so good to be here talking with. Oh, hey, chad, what are? You up to bud. I'm just recording a few podcasts. You know an etch, I'm back. Wow, Surprised to see you. Why are you here?
Speaker 2:Wait, Listen. I've heard a couple episodes Everything from I'm on a cruise ship. Yep, Amanda thought that the reservation at Chili's.
Speaker 1:That was actually true. Everything from I'm on a cruise ship. Yep, amanda thought that. What were, what were the reservation at Chili's? That was actually true. I was your triple dipper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, bye. Let's go back to that for a moment. Let's review, yeah.
Speaker 1:You did go on a cruise this year, that dude that was way back. I mean, you know they hook you, you, you go to one, they sign it for the next back to the important conversation, the triple dipper that was talked about.
Speaker 2:Britain knew. Yes, that is the correct chili's got it right. Britain bishop gets it right the other thing, that he, that man, I don't know that our listeners realize the type of wisdom that was dropped on that britain.
Speaker 1:Britain knew you.
Speaker 2:He saw into your soul the fact that he knew that, uh, the southwest egg rolls are better in an airport yeah that is a hundred percent correct.
Speaker 1:That's that you can only know that by listening to a wisdom sage person or having experience it yourself.
Speaker 2:It's it's smart or being heavy set so yeah, yeah, sure, um triple dipper, triple play. No dude for real. Yeah, he, he nailed that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, no, man. There's some other folks saying that maybe you're out playing golf a little round.
Speaker 2:You're in a new role now.
Speaker 1:You're more expected to be on the course?
Speaker 2:I don't know that that's where I'm expected to be. But yeah, let's do a little bit of updates. One of the things we want to do in this episode is just talk. Let's tell them a little bit why you're gone.
Speaker 1:a little bit while you're gone. We talked some or whatever. Chad's not gone forever, but Chad is, and we celebrate and congratulate. In a new role he has been promoted to be the senior manager of our equipping team at Lifeway, which means actually he's my boss, which is pretty fun, but he's also responsible for the ways in which we are doing training and equipping across other departments. So Chad will still be on the show, but maybe not every week, because you may have some things you have to do other conferences, events and things.
Speaker 2:Well, and one of the things, even before I stepped into this new role that Zach and I were talking about was the consistency of coming to every week.
Speaker 1:And so we are going to be back.
Speaker 2:We have been and we'll continue to be back, every single week and I think that that's just a good lesson in ministry in general. Yeah, we move to every other week and, as we just like, evaluated and looked, at things. There's some great value in consistency us move into is the reality of making sure that our podcast is connecting with people that are currently, yes, serving in ministry. Yeah, and zach does such an amazing job of of connecting and interviewing and talking because we want you, as a listener, um, to stay sharp yeah, stay informed.
Speaker 2:Correct connected yeah and and there's no. There's no celebrity mentality of like it needs to be this and it has to look like this. Hopefully you enjoy our banter. We'll continue that.
Speaker 1:We still got stories, but but which which, by the way, I've I've got ours for today once we um share a little bit. Yeah, there's been talking about changes today on the podcast, and so some changes for you in professional life. I've got some parenthood changes that I needed to talk through with you, uh well, so it's been fun having some guests. We've got some more coming um, but I have a gideon update for you that I need to talk through so so gideon, seven-year-old son, getting a little bit older.
Speaker 1:Soccer, stud, reading, learning piano lessons is new in our house, so can we pause hammering out some chopsticks the fact, the fact that gideon is seven.
Speaker 2:So one of the things, because it always been nine years. Now, when this comes out, it'll been nine years so zach and I've been doing podcasting for a while 2015 nine years yeah one of the ways that we're able to identify that is when we very first started. I would drive from bartlesville, ok, oklahoma at that time On a Friday, every Friday, to Stillwater. I told you I'd give you a year, give me one year, fridays for a year.
Speaker 1:Fridays for a year.
Speaker 2:And so I traveled to Tulsa.
Speaker 1:Tulsa and Isaiah, who's your nine-year-old had just been born that September, and so Fridays were my Sabbath day from the office and they were daddy days, and so during Isaiah's nap times we would record podcasts.
Speaker 2:And so at that time—.
Speaker 1:There was no Giddy yet when we started.
Speaker 2:We would refer to Isaiah as our producer.
Speaker 1:We've upgraded now to Producer Nathan, but back in the day we had Isaiah. If you go back to those first 10, 15 episodes, you can hear the faint sometimes of him waking up from his nap. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:We're like, hey, kid we got stuff to talk about, we got to finish, we got to wrap this up. Yeah, make sure to get the show notes right.
Speaker 1:But nine years, giddy, 7 now piano lessons. But you'll love this Uncle Chad. He's been working on catchphrases. Get out of town, so he says he's been working on his catchphrases, so we've got three. Okay, we've got three. The first one is not bad, so you know.
Speaker 2:Not bad.
Speaker 1:That's a good catchphrase, something gets said Giddy, what do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, not bad, not bad.
Speaker 1:His second one. We're still workshopping a little bit. It's don't ask me, I don't know. I don't know. That's not really a catchphrase, but he's been really confident. He's like that's what my catchphrase is Don't ask me, I don't know. So you're welcome to try it out.
Speaker 2:Does he say it in a funny way?
Speaker 1:Kind of upbeat. He's like don't ask me, I don't know A little bit shoulder stroked or whatever.
Speaker 2:It feels like something you hear in a sitcom.
Speaker 1:It's know, which leads into his third one, and this is the one that gets us. Every time he he'll run into a room and then do like a quick shuffle, pivot, and then he'll just screech drift like he's a car okay, that's good it's so, he'll move into the room and go drift, and so the first couple times did it, I was like, huh, not bad, that is the most mini me zach thing I've ever heard it's drift. So the next time you're late to an office meeting.
Speaker 2:Just run around the corner and just pivot on your heel and go drift. There's a youth pastor out there that is going to do that and he is going to bite it.
Speaker 1:Just coming in, catch one of them knees, just boom, boom, boom, yeah, just down.
Speaker 2:Some of you guys got some weak ankles.
Speaker 1:Listen before sand volleyball next summer. Let's get our knees over our toes. Let's strengthen up. Get those ankles and shins ready. Let's get after it.
Speaker 2:But I wanted to ask you One of our podcasts just becomes a health podcast.
Speaker 1:Don't they all end up that way? Anyway, listen, we're just giving listen. Jacob and I were giving beard tips.
Speaker 2:That beard starts with yeah, yeah, we got a little beauty pocket.
Speaker 1:Thank you, um, you finished your beauty podcast. Beauty the b's already there, baby, why? Beauty okay, uh, it's patent training. Uh, question for you though. Yeah, did you have any catchphrases as a kid? Because I feel like you're the guy. Well, I currently.
Speaker 2:I currently have a catchphrase. Oh, you currently do, yeah, grown up well, I utilize and use it. My catchphrase and you, I've used it a lot with our team um is don't ask me, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Don't ask me, I don't know I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:not bad, uh drift um. My catchphrase is it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 2:And here's what you need to know if I ever—.
Speaker 1:You've got to explain it because it sounds dismissive. Yeah, the first couple times. I think some of the people that didn't know you as well heard you say it. They'd be like hey, man, it's fine. People are like oh.
Speaker 2:It's like neither good nor bad. No, it is so okay with with our team people. If somebody you know, if we come out of an event and it's like how do you think it went? And everybody does, that you need to know. No matter if it's your like first week of youth ministry or you're leading at a conference you will come out and you turn to the people you worked with and it's like how did you?
Speaker 1:how do you think it went? Yeah, yeah yeah, um and so it's the immediate emotional response after the release of all the effort. It's the breath out correct.
Speaker 2:So often, though, if that happens and my response is it's fine, that's actually pretty high praise for you. That's the highest of praise. It is um and the reason. So I always have a I don't know if it's a joke or just a thought I think the things that people joke about, yeah, are actually the most safe okay so like well, because you're safe to tease, you're safe to tease so it's like you're allowed to poke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, correct, like the. The people on your staff that are like really well loved, yeah, are often the people that are poked at, because you don't actually poke at the people that are like You're afraid to Right. You're like well there's some truth behind that yeah, yeah, yeah. And so like, yeah, he's a great boss, not bad, not bad, not bad.
Speaker 2:So, but no, no, like I will often, often will follow up and actually talk about it, but like, yeah, it was fine, the demissiveness feels like actually genuine well, but it's also one of the things and we talk about this a lot people like introduce us to friends, or like at an event or whatever.
Speaker 1:You never want to oversell something because there's nowhere to go, and so it's the. It's the feeling that you have, like after you preach or teach and you're like doing the like walk outout or people are leaving the lobby of the church and we're like that was awesome, that was awesome, that was awesome. Like the first couple feel good. But if everybody says it was great, it was great, it was great, you almost start to distrust it. Sure, like, if you hear the same thing too many times, you begin to wonder like why are they all saying it the same way? Is there something? There's something that's actually like more true than what they're saying.
Speaker 2:So uh, honestly, I'm trying to think back when I started doing it and it may, because I don't use it's fine in a lot of places, but mainly like with, with our, like our student team. Yeah, um, it probably has to do with you, like we've been at places and people are like oh, I love zach and I'm always just like he's fine, he's fine he's fine, he's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't ask, because I'm a big fan I we're we.
Speaker 2:We truly are really good friends um man.
Speaker 1:So gideon's got new catchphrases uh, isaiah's uh rocking his palette splitter, so he's got a little bit, but it's okay. Like, so he's got it installed and going in. Uh, we love him, he's. He's been a trooper man.
Speaker 1:Like watching your kid and maybe this is for the other parents um, watching your kid knowingly go through a hard thing, yeah, and doing it with a lot of grit and a lot of grace, like every night, yeah, we lay back and we have to crank it tighter, okay.
Speaker 1:And there there is something like deeply, deeply formational about like bubba, we know this is the best thing, yeah, and it's gonna. It's gonna hurt, yeah, and and I'm sorry I can't take the hurt for you, but I'm gonna be with you, so I literally will lay in bed and hold his hand and we'll crank the thing in his mouth a little bit every night, a little bit every night, but already it's been a few months now. The teeth that couldn't come down are starting to come down, okay, and so it hurts a little bit, but we're starting to see the change, okay. And, like man, like it gets me weepy sometimes. This little nine-year-old is so brave and so strong, and so we're. Sometimes he would complain about like falling down in the backyard but he's like in the the thing that's been the hardest thing he's actually had to face. He's meeting it with like the most strength and good for him.
Speaker 2:So it's cool man. So we started first grade. Yeah, um, it's going so well. She loves her teacher new teacher. Right teacher's amazing um, and so it's been good man, she's just growing up so much and just getting all of the new responsibilities in her life and it's a big change getting bigger it is that's her phrase right now.
Speaker 1:Well, she doesn't like getting bigger I'll let you tell. But yeah, as you get bigger, you get more responsibilities and those kind of things Can't stay the same.
Speaker 2:And she is not. She does not like getting bigger because not all the responsibilities are fun. I'm going to throw you a curveball. Okay, I know we plan to talk about change.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're going to change it up, I'm changing it up? Yeah, good, not about change. Oh, you could change it up.
Speaker 2:I'm changing, yeah, good, so one of the things, if you're a long-time listener of youth ministry booster, one of the things that we have done so many times over the years is to have these check-in episodes yeah, yeah, of just how dude, how are you, how are you? One of the things that we want to be central in Youth Ministry Booster is authenticity. Man, as ministers, it's so easy to want to throw up a wall or a facade because we feel like we've got to make sure everybody's enjoying their time and that kind of deal.
Speaker 2:One of the amazing things about Youth Ministry Booster is the ability to share honestly and openly and we want to model that and that's always been kind of a core value for us. And so, zach dude, how are you?
Speaker 1:uh, I'm good, okay, in the ways in which I'm learning again to be stretched okay so one of the changes of you in a new role means that the rhythms that I had of collaborating there's been some other changes on our team too um, that I've inherited some just some odds and in things sure I didn't have before, and so the new thing for me is to be even more, um, organized, almost like I almost almost have cubbies of work.
Speaker 1:Before I had a to-do list where I would have these are the things that need to get done Very much if you are somebody that organizes your work by a stack or a bucket or a cubby, that's what it feels like now. It feels manageable. But I've had to almost restructure how I think about what I do and it's made me better. But the hard part is is I haven't had the person to talk to about it, because it was always a little so like a little bit for the folks to know like it was always you and nathan right and so like it'd be like hey, man, well, you know, zach and chad are working on this, or zach and nathan are working on that, yeah, and now it's just well that was yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like a little bit like isolated Sure, and so I've had to like find different ways to talk about doing the work, but also different ways of like keeping my own self accountable to the work, cause I used to always like run it by you or do it with Nathan Right. So it's just, the changes are good and it's all like bearable, but sometimes my usual check-ins for the things have changed, but it also has, like I don't know, reignited the ways in which who are the people that I check in with? Because it makes me always it is the introspective thing, right Like, if I'm in this new way, huh, who are the other people that are maybe in that new way too?
Speaker 2:And so that's the pause that I would give too. Yeah, yeah, I mean like more well, I mean my, my role.
Speaker 1:So many.
Speaker 2:So much of the stuff that I do is different, right, and so like we've gone for a long time where, like the thing we're working on is the same thing, yeah, and while it is, like it isn't right because the things continue to get bigger, and not only for me but for you, right, like new, new expansion, and you're thinking about things in a new way and and I know about you of like you enjoy and love that yeah, like you love the change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, solve a problem you know me you love a rhythm.
Speaker 2:I hate it, right like I. I want to get to. I want to do the same thing every day and that's not always possible consistent chad, not bad steady, steady uh, no, but but part of that is like getting used to the new when the relationship's still there. But it's just, it's it's different, right, um, and and I would say, and as we talk about even change and how we're doing, like there are probably people listening that things change, right and even people that are like we like change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:We like change. When we control change, I think a lot of times.
Speaker 1:So that's the thing Change is constant. One of the things I think that we've taught each other is to be stretched on change, but to be consistent where you can be yeah, because you've teased me before, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Even now, in our travels, in our busiest weeks 5 30 am I'm at the same place up adam going because it's one of the things that I can't control and that's some of the things that you change is constant, hear it, feel it, acknowledge it, accept it. Uh, but consistency what can you be consistent and you can control? So for me that's like the gym thing. That's like the you know, make sure. So for me that's like the gym thing, that's like the you know, make sure I'm reading stuff that's not work-related things. Some of those like it's the why we always tell youth ministry folks have a hobby. Because you can't control church stuff. You may have a senior pastor pivot hard or change who's your leadership or put things in a certain direction that you weren't planning on or ready for or maybe even sometimes agree with, but having the hobby of the thing that you can control when parents are frustrated or attendance is infrequent, you need something in your life you can control.
Speaker 1:That's really good, so that when the things that are happening that you can't control, that's fine. It's not your whole life. I feel like that sometimes is the struggle.
Speaker 2:I feel like to me, me, that's an aha moment. It's going to be real Because, as a guy who likes to rhythm in the midst of change, I think my knee-jerk reaction is going well, this is reality now.
Speaker 1:How do I make it? The whole universe is shifting and not everything changes.
Speaker 2:We still have our 8 am phone call.
Speaker 1:Every day.
Speaker 2:Every day and those kind of things, and so it's like knowing what changes and what doesn't change, yeah, but then controlling the thing that doesn't have to change, I think it's really really good. Yeah, that's good man.
Speaker 1:So no, I think for our friends we're entering that kind of holiday season. I think there's some family stuff, there's some new opportunities maybe. So there is a change of rhythm. I know that winter youth ministry can be a little different. I hope this is introspective for them too. This is a chance to kind of look back on this year, on what's next, and just consider, like man, what are the things that I can control, what can I not control, and how can I be really consistent in the things that I can? I think that is again you talk about it so much. If every youth minister would open their Bible before they open their email, I think that would be again. There's going to be emails that are going to pop up and like sideswipe your day, like how many of us have started off cup of coffee, it's going to be a great day. And then the people ask us something like don't ask me, I don't know.
Speaker 1:It and then the people ask us something like don't ask me, I don't know, right, it just wrecks our day, and so I think that's one of those like, well, I can't control that, but I could be in the word before I open my email.
Speaker 2:I can control that yeah, yeah, well, and I think I think too it's.
Speaker 2:It comes back to priority, and the thing I would even say, too, is it's not just the things, but it's the people, the people like yeah, one of the reasons I think it's so good for you and I to model this, but this is a real, we're having a real conversation of of just there's no script, right, but like for you and I have, and for people listening, constantly, checking in, yeah, on the people you love is in the midst of change. Knowing what's changed and what hasn't changed is good. It's good.
Speaker 1:We hope that this has been helpful. Again, we're excited to be back with you week after week, because in ministry you're not alone and there's plenty of folks that are out there. If you're willing to be back with you week after week because in ministry you're not alone and there's plenty of folks that are out there if you're willing to make or take the check-in. So thank you, our friends, again and again. So from nine years into ten more, here we go.
