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
Embracing the Call to Youth Ministry w/ Mariano Sarabia
What happens when a vibrant young leader embraces his calling in the unpredictable setting of youth ministry?
Special Guest Alert: Mariano Sarabia
This episode explores the path of youth ministry through the experience of Mariano, who shares his calling, challenges, and successes in empowering young leaders. The importance of humility, prayer, and authentic relationships in ministry are emphasized throughout the conversation, along with practical advice to engage and disciple the next generation.
• Mariano's journey into youth ministry through personal tragedy and faith
• The essential qualities of humility and teachability for young leaders
• Building strong relationships with senior pastors and other colleagues
• Engaging young adults in meaningful conversations about ministry
• The powerful role of prayer in cultivating future leaders
• Strategies for effectively preaching to the next generation
• Fostering a culture of support and vulnerability in ministry
A snap, you got it right. What's up? What's up, how's it going? Well, dude, we're crushing the linguistics over here today.
Speaker 2:And that's not bad.
Speaker 1:That's not bad for like 9.30 at night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, perfect, roll the R in everything. Mariano, mariano, yeah, got it.
Speaker 1:Oh man, so excited to have you out. This has been kind of a really fun bit of the thesis we've been working with is like what is like the next or the now conversation in youth ministry, that larger conversation, and so I just wanted to have some of my friends on that. I think are excellent young leaders to talk about it. And so, Mariano, what do you think about snowy Tulsa?
Speaker 2:What do you think? St Louis fans? I was surprised we're canceling for about an inch. We got a couple more inches.
Speaker 1:But they made the call. They made the call, you were here with me.
Speaker 2:They made the call at a centimeter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they made the call quick. That's right. Y'all are dealing with the foot we got a foot.
Speaker 2:It doesn't always happen. We use about three, or we get around the year a few times a year. But I think it's pretty crazy to call it before it was even sticking.
Speaker 1:I mean they called it what we were hanging out this afternoon at like 4.30.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, no school, no school.
Speaker 1:It's rough, so it happens.
Speaker 2:Snow to snow.
Speaker 1:Snow to snow. Yeah, we tried to fly you south to get warmer and we just found more snow.
Speaker 2:It's just wetter and more snow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but tonight for all of our friends that. Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Little Brahms, Little Brahms ice cream.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was good. It was good.
Speaker 1:That's actually the second time I had it they actually have it in Missouri, in Springfield, oh, just like on the edge.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay yeah, so we had some guys at SBU, some students went there, nice, and so we go to Brahms.
Speaker 1:It's good, I like it. Who doesn't love cheap local dairy goods?
Speaker 2:A bag of burgers is crazy, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:A $7.95 bag of cheeseburgers. Yeah, burgers by the bag. I didn't know you could quantify that. That's crazy. I mean you get a herd of cattle, a crash of rhinos. Bag of burgers.
Speaker 2:Bag of burgers. The perfect post-gym snack.
Speaker 1:Oh dude, that's just like you and the boys like listen. It's like we don't know where this night's gonna go, but we know how it's gonna end. Yeah, like. It's like like the story may have veered season six got wonky, but season seven we're coming back for that bag of burgers. Yeah, it's so crazy.
Speaker 2:I like it, like the value is so cheap. Is what that concerns it?
Speaker 1:should be concerning yeah, like, like the burger burger. You should not be able to buy burgers so cheaply. Why? Why are burgers? Why are burgers cheaper than vegetables?
Speaker 2:these, these states, government why do we pay so much for kale? We sold kale.
Speaker 1:it's expensive, it's so expensive and so not good that makes it so confusing.
Speaker 2:Why are?
Speaker 1:things that taste good, so cheap. Well, buddy, we wanted to talk a little bit about ministry stuff, but I just want folks to get to know you a little bit. You've been serving faithfully for the last four, five years just outside St Louis, First Baptist O'Fallon. You have more vowels per capita in name and church.
Speaker 2:I love it. We just say F-B-C-O, f-b-c-o, f-b-c-o. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:I want to hear a little bit how you got involved in the ministry, some of the things that you're experiencing, and then we're going to talk about senior pastor relationships and discipling, because everybody got a boss and everybody should be making disciples. I think you're doing a great job of it, so I want to hear more about it. But tell us a little bit. How did Mariano end up in youth ministry? There's a lot of things you could be doing in this economy, especially why youth ministry?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I grew up church, church kid, grew up in a family that my mom was the prayer warrior on fire for the Lord, and so really came to know Christ. Seven years old, due to tragedy, my uncle was murdered in East St Louis we talked about that city earlier and so I remember asking God like if God's real, if you're real, why would you let that happen? That common question. But what my mom did is she pointed me to the gospel. She told me that God had a plan that sometimes we don't understand, and what I saw the gospel is what I turned to. What I also saw was the church. I saw a church that was imperfect, gather around my family and they were like we're here for you, we don't know how you feel.
Speaker 1:We can't imagine.
Speaker 2:It but we're here for you. And so I saw them just be there for us, cry with us. And then I saw my family do something that was incredible at my uncle's bedside. So he was shot in the head, brain dead, but he wasn't completely dead yet. I know it's graphic, but what they did?
Speaker 2:they sang worship songs around his bedside and as a kid, when I heard that story because I wasn't there, that was what just confused me Like how, and so that led me giving my life to Christ at seven, through a lot of questions, still pondering those questions, but I gave my life to Christ. I know I was saved and so I grew up in church. I was part of a youth group, served and I felt called to ministry at 16. Pastor preached about Elisha. I can't remember much about what he said. I knew he talked about throwing the mantle and I knew God was saying Mariano, I'm calling you to ministry. But, like a lot of people do, at 16, I ran.
Speaker 1:Heard about Elisha ran like Jonah. It's a prophetic tone.
Speaker 2:There's a trope yeah exactly Ran away, got really as far away from Christ as I could, living in sin with a girlfriend sexual sin. I got in a car wreck and I was paralyzed on my right leg and so I could not walk. They told me I'd never be able to walk again and so, a year from a day like I went to every doctor, every specialist, they're throwing needles like this big in my leg. I couldn't feel it and, um, one day I started having like electric shock feelings and I was like, no, I'm feeling something, thank you Jesus. But during that time God had completely transformed my heart. He was like uh, took me down to the bottom, like that Jonah and the whale the couch was my whale okay, I gained like 120 pounds on a couch okay
Speaker 2:gabapentin rough, but at some point I'm like, lord, I'm gonna follow you and I will preach even if I'm in a wheelchair. Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna do ministry. I did some really crazy things, like I like soccer. So I went one day and and I bought these hot pink cleats the top tier ones they're better than the regular ones and I said I'm going to do this one day, and so I just had some faith moments. But what I knew is God wanted to heal my heart first. Long story short, I woke up one day and I was in pain. I wake up and I could walk.
Speaker 1:Felt the hurt.
Speaker 2:Not 10%, not 20%, but like 100%. I'm walking, trying to run, and I opened the door to our house. I was still living at home with family. I'm like, hey, I can walk. I'm screaming, I'm about to run out the door like Forrest Gump and I'm not going to stop. Then I realized I was out of breath.
Speaker 1:I was like this is not going to work, this is not going to happen.
Speaker 2:It's not going to work. So from that moment on, I had actually already started doing some undergrad while I was on the couch and I got connected to FBCO. They're young adults, okay, serving A lot of crazy, meeting people at the right time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And eventually I got asked to be the resident in student ministry.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so from resident to then the junior high guy and then a youth pastor goes and plants in Denver. So I'm like an interim guy. And then during that interim time, I'm like I don't know, god, are you wanting me to do this? We start seeing just exponential growth in our ministry and just God doing some awesome things, and so at a time I was like I'm not going to apply because I didn't, I didn't feel peace about it. But I said, lord, if the pastors come and ask me, um, to apply, I will.
Speaker 2:And so the next day after our fall retreat, the next day that that happened, and so God put me there and I've been, uh, as the actual youth pastor. I'm going on two and a half years or three years, something like that. Okay, um, but kind of worked through that process of serving, being a resident and just God opening doors and, yeah, also really really changing my life from when I was running yeah, well, but being, but being truly planted where you are which again, like that's one of those we've talked about before like it seems to be this like growing story of folks that are deeply embedded in the places in which they're serving.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that makes it like like prophetic or priestly, but just the idea, I mean, maybe it's, maybe it's just truly pastoral that to be like raised in a place but also to lead and speak in a place, that's really, really powerful. What were some of the things that changed, not just in responsibility but in perspective, from from, from like resident to associate? I think there's a lot of folks, if that story be true, and a lot of folks are in places now that they may have more responsibilities later. What were some of the things that you were seeing or learning or like? What were some of the things that you would just maybe give wisdom to, like younger mariano a couple years ago, knowing what you know now for stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the biggest thing is the resident. The biggest thing is is being teachable and humble and and acknowledging that we're all human and you're going to be prideful and if you say you're not, probably are.
Speaker 2:There's probably there's some pride. We all have it. I'm prideful, we all have something. We're struggling with pride. The key thing is you saying I don't want to be prideful, I'm going to humble myself. And I think of Philippians 2, it says Jesus did not look at his equality with God as something to exploit, but did not look at his equality with God as something to exploit, but instead he humbles himself to the cross right. So if Jesus humbles himself, I got to humble myself, I need to do it. And so I think young guys me as well we can get into the residency position. And the pastor had a conversation with me and said Marano, I see these gifts in you and God's going to use you, and that's good.
Speaker 2:Get puffed up a little bit. Yeah, we should speak life into him.
Speaker 2:But you have to say to yourself I'm going to, I'm going to humble myself, I'm going to, I'm going to ask questions. Still, I'm going to take notes, simple things like that. Like, for me, I don't care who's speaking. If it's even our junior high guy preaching on a Wednesday night for his first time, like he did a week ago, I want to take notes from him. Not because I'm maybe I won't learn something new, but I want to practice humility, even in those little things, and I think that's what. That's something I would say to the guy who's at a resident or JHM level or whatever it is. You're moving up. Don't think of how you've moved up in your place as you're all of a sudden moving up and acquiring a puffed up position.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there's still perspective to be gained. That's one of the things I think I've noticed most about you is that even in some of our little gatherings here of just conversations is like you're always the first to grab your notebook and there's just something about that quality of like I don't know what I'm about to hear, but I don't. I don't know what I'm about to hear, but I don't want to miss it, and I think that's again there. There's a lot of ministry friends that you know they know their pastor and so like, ah man, you know, like I don't need to take notes, I don't have to really pay attention, I've got.
Speaker 1:I've got responsibilities and duties right, I've got things to do, places to be, and so just to have that continuing heart of like what could I learn? What are some of the things, what have been some of those teachable moments that have like kind of called that back to you. Have there been some, in particular just in the archives, in the notebooks of stuff, that you were like, yeah, man, I got kind of waylaid on this one, or this one really was a wake up call. Or like, is there like key ones? Or man, I got kind of waylaid on this one, or this one really was a wake-up call.
Speaker 2:Or is it like key ones, or is it just kind of like a growing list? I can think of a few things, One learning from my lead pastor. There's some, I think, any guy in ministry. We usually will have an idea and then we're like this idea is going to work.
Speaker 1:I mean, I had the idea, I know it. I haven't tried it, but it was a good idea. I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or it's going to work better than what we're doing now, and so when I— Well, it's new, it has to be better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 2:I can think of—I inherited kind of a little bit of a rough small group situation and some of it I didn't know, some of it I just didn't understand, and so one thing they were doing was they had so it's Sunday morning kind of Sunday school style, and so 940 is the service, but they had the schedule where from 940, when service starts in worship center, they didn't start, and so from 940 to about 950, 55, they were kind of hanging out. And then they would launch their large at a time.
Speaker 2:But me like I didn't know anything otherwise Like that's what I had inherited.
Speaker 1:So that's what I thought was going to work. That's what the guy did before me. It seemed like it worked.
Speaker 2:We were growing, and so Pastor Doug came in one time. He's like he'll throw ideas or kind of challenge me on thoughts and he's like I didn't know this, but you guys start at 9.55. Why don't you start on time at 9.40?
Speaker 1:Why are y'all late every week, Like do you know you're late? But then he went on.
Speaker 2:He's like do you realize, because you're doing that, you're teaching them that they don't have to show up on time, and so now these kids show up even later, right, right. So I was like wait, that kind of makes sense. But then at first I didn't really, I was hesitant to do it, yeah, and then I did it and I was humbled.
Speaker 1:I was like wait, a year later kids are showing up on time and not actually having more people yeah, yeah, and we're actually more focused on our expectations right, and so there's been moments gosh darn it we got more time to do stuff. Yeah, there's more time to teach.
Speaker 2:There's more time to on what we're supposed to be doing, and so that was just a moment of like I didn't know or even I thought something would work better and I had to listen to someone that's been doing it longer than me and there's been plenty of moments where I just ask questions or get insight. And that's a key thing with that humility thing is ask questions and ask lots of questions, like if you want to learn, ask because I've never met someone. That's just like the Holy Spirit told me not to answer that If they say that there's something wrong. People want to hear why they do what they do, even if you don't agree with the way they're doing it. Hear what is effective about what they're doing and see if there's something you can adjust.
Speaker 1:Well, and again, they hear why they're doing it, because even if they don't know why, yeah, that can be as telling. I mean, that's always. I mean for the guys that like to be the tradition busters or whatever looking for, like the things to knock over. Well, you need to hear the story behind it and that story is like bubbling close to the surface. Yeah, ease up buddy, because that means that it means a lot.
Speaker 1:but if that story story has been lost to time, and yeah, 950 is when we always start, but have you thought about 940? Or whatever Like yeah, don't miss it because you didn't ask. And don't think that by asking it makes you look lesser.
Speaker 1:Because I do think that's one of the things. We have a lot of friends in ministry in new roles and new positions. That's one of the things. We have a lot of friends in ministry in new roles and new positions. Don't feel that incompetency from question asking. I would much rather a friend in ministry ask a lot of questions and be perceived like they were curious and inquisitive than to not ask questions and look complacent that actually that's actually far more dangerous, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:I would much rather have Aiden as our junior high guy.
Speaker 1:I want him to ask me questions.
Speaker 2:I want him to pick my brain on things, and for me that doesn't make me think, oh, he doesn't know this. It means he's teachable, he's trying to learn it.
Speaker 1:He's going to learn it.
Speaker 2:It's a good thing. It's a very good thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, I do want to ask One of my favorite things about you just mainly because I mean call it style, call it involvement, call it a reading list or whatever. When I first met you, I did not have you sized up to be at a First Baptist Church and I also didn't have you sized up to have a really awesome relationship with your senior pastor, which is a shout out, pastor Doug. Shout out, Pastor Doug.
Speaker 2:Shout out Pastor Doug Shout out to Pastor Doug.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Pastor Doug. Yeah, shout out to Pastor Doug. But just most of my friends in youth ministry who would flare towards the trendy either don't like being at their first Baptist church and they definitely don't have lots of great things to say about their first Baptist church senior pastor. And yet you, my friend, yeah, yeah, Shout out, Pastor Doug. So tell us like has that always been a great relationship? Or what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Or how have you strengthened it? Like, yeah, I think, when I think of Pastor Doug, I think about humble and intentional and uh, also at the same time kind of like the extremes he's also he's ready to do something new Like he's not. He's ready to do something new Like he's not. He's not slow to make a decision either, so he can be frugal but also really quick, like quick to make a big decision.
Speaker 1:He's not putting it off.
Speaker 2:Putting it off, yeah, yeah, yeah and so, specifically when I think about him, the intentionality we have a growing young adult group, and so when I first started coming to FDCO, I was serving there, attending, and, uh, one night I just ended up at his house. His son was a young adult and so a group of the young adults went over there and he wasn't just in his room, he came out and just start talking to us and I remember that that was kind of the start. We had a conversation on his couch and he's like hey, what's your story?
Speaker 1:What's your?
Speaker 2:testimony and he continually just had some intentionality with me, saw something in me, even when I later became the resident, and I think he did that more and more. Um, but what I can say is that intentionality didn't die Like when I was hired. He, um, he continued to stop by and sometimes, yes, there's the boss moments where it's like, hey, did you do this? Did you get this done? Are you working on this? How's this? But many times it was stop by my office, let's catch up. How are you doing? How's life? You're getting married soon when I was engaged and asking me how that's going or how's marriage now that you are married. And so I appreciate his intentionality and humility, because when I look at Pastor Doug in Illinois, we're a bigger church.
Speaker 1:Well, that's one thing to name is sometimes in First Baptist churches like it is pastor, youth pastor, maybe a couple other staff. Yeah, Y'all buck a lot of trends in so many ways larger staff. So this is not Pastor Doug. Well, he's only got to keep tabs on like two people, like he would not have to make the time Correct Because y'all have lots of folks coming and going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've got multiple pastors on staff. I want to say eight, eight to nine in a school, an academy a full plate yeah. It's a full plate, but he's being intentional, so it's not like hey, he's just has this one staff member to look at, look out for, he's just micromanaging. He's been intentional outside of that, and so what I've seen with him is just discipleship. But what I will say is speaking to my younger friends that's a two-way street.
Speaker 2:So, I think I have a relationship with Pastor Doug. He's open to it, like he's open to being intentional with me. But I also think he saw that I'm willing to ask him and like to pursue the friendship and the mentorship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you rose to the occasion. Yeah, and I think sometimes have there been times that you follow up with him, like, like I mean do you also initiate and like are intentional to check in and do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's times when there are times maybe when I, I have a decision and I probably think it's right and I don't go for him, go to him. He and I don't go for him, go to him. I have the ability to make decisions. So it's not like I'm going to him to say, hey, I need this approval, but I'll run him by him.
Speaker 2:Because I think it's a way of respecting him and he sees that he appreciates it and he's willing to give me feedback, and so it opens that door where him and I can talk. And I'll say that even him and I have had conversations where we're actually talking about him preaching or where he's asking me about an illustration or about how could this apply to a young adult. But if I didn't go and do that to him, maybe he wouldn't have had that Sure, that real collaboration, yeah, that openness to collaborate.
Speaker 2:And so we have to do that. And I think, just speaking with different guys, we're all in different places, different settings. A lot of us, you're right, we have the, the, the lead pastors over here, youth ministries over here and kids over here. We don't really mess with each other and maybe they even feel like the pastor doesn't want that, and I'm sorry if you have a youth pastor or a lead pastor, that maybe feels a little bit disconnected. But at the same time I do want to challenge you. Don't assume that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Actually go try to talk to him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't, don't leave that up to like chance or whatever. Yeah, like actually again, if you haven't heard from them, make sure they've at least heard from you.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, exactly, that's good couple questions I want to ask about church, and this is just mainly because we're we're in the, we're recording this in the january month. Yeah, there's a lot of folks that have come back from passion stuff or from cross con or strength to stand. What in the heck are y'all doing at o'fallon, illinois, to reach so many gosh darn young adults like I? What I like, I, man, it is the legacy you have, the, the growth, the flourish and the every conversation we have about, like the guys you're discipling or the connections, or like the people, because St Louis is a big city. O'fallon is a suburb of a big city, sure, but there's something like sweeter and more rich than just a geographic accident. It's like what is happening in the life of young adult ministry that so many of us are adjacent to, in youth ministry, I mean, it sounds like even part of your story is connected to it. So what in the heck's going on at FBCO?
Speaker 2:man, yeah, the first thing is prayer, definitely prayer, and my passion, my heart is. I left out some of the story but when I felt called to ministry before I ran. I love that youth pastor that was there for me at the time. Nothing against him, but what I did lack was hey, you're called to ministry and I talked to him, but how do I get there? It was more like thrown in. Do announcements?
Speaker 1:do video do games Be a part of the thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do it, it'll all come together. And so my heart since then has been like I have to help men bridge that gap. Like I have to, I have to help them in ministry. How? How do they get there? Because when you're 18, graduating youth group, you're probably not going to be the pastor yet. So 18 to 24, I think, is those are vital years for a man. And back to the prayer side. I've I've been praying for that Since God called me back to ministry. I called since God got a hold of my heart while I was running. I had began to pray Lord, call more men to ministry, like, help me disciple them. Second thing is I went to the oldest people in our church and I said go pray. Pray for two things. Pray for our student ministry, I said. I asked Pastor Doug. I said who are our prayer warriors?
Speaker 1:they've been here a long time they're praying and I said I asked.
Speaker 2:Pastor Doug. I said who are? Who are prayer warriors? They've been here a long time, they're praying. And I said I want to go talk to him and ask him to pray. And so I said uh, a goal about baptisms that I won't say here. I asked him to pray, that's all the to pray about and for our student ministry. And then I said uh, lord, uh. Or I said to them I said would you pray that God would bring people that he's calling to ministry Not to stay here? Some might, but really so we can send and go impact some people.
Speaker 1:So send equip and send no, that's good Okay.
Speaker 2:And so I think, first is prayer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The second thing is we just I, um, I don't want ministry's hard, and sometimes I think it's great advice, when you have a young guy that's called to ministry, to say, hey, it's hard. If you can do something else, do it. But at the same time I feel like a lot of the direction the church went was you don't want to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not good, it's like it's so hard?
Speaker 1:Maybe we talk too many people out of it yeah Like you know what I mean. If you're not ready for it to be hard, then you can go and get out, true, well, yeah, man, but like, maybe we also should like not just try to scared straight them. Maybe we can like help them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So I want to talk about, like, the beauty of ministry, the passion. It's hard, it's hard work, but it's the most fulfilling.
Speaker 2:It's amazing Like there's so many moments and memories, or seeing a kid give his life to Christ and baptized, or be bold and share their faith, and so I don't shy away from conversations while I'm preaching or while I'm talking to students. Hey, let's talk about ministry. Or this is what God allowed me to be a part of, or this is what I got to see, or this is what my friend doing, or pointing at things like these college revivals and Jonathan Bucluda's preaching to all kinds of people, like God is using people. He uses us as vessels, not just vocational ministry in other ways too, but specifically vocational ministry. And so I've spoke that and I've called them up Like we've prayed, done invitations. Something I don't shy away from is I'm I'm a gospel invitation every single week. Guy.
Speaker 1:I'm going to share the gospel every week.
Speaker 2:I'm going to prepare it. You're going to hear the gospel. My students know it and it's been a blessing. We've seen many students coming to Christ, Um, but at the same time, I don't, I don't shy away from. We're going to, maybe not every week, but we're going to have calls to ministry where we say are you called?
Speaker 2:Are you feeling like God's calling you to ministry? And so we've had many of the guys in that group have been from that. Some of them just been conversations where I discipled them in a D group. And there's some right now that don't know the call to ministry and I don't know.
Speaker 1:only God knows but I can see something in them. I'm waiting for the conversation. The gears are turning Something's behind the eyes. What I've just seen is.
Speaker 2:It's like God's just placing these students, that you can see it all over them. And they'll come to me. And just the other day it was a Christmas party no sermon at all. It's besides the gospel. I share the gospel Christmas party. He comes to me and I hadn't seen this kid in two years, and maybe off and on, once in a while. But he comes to me. He's like hey, him around him, I need to talk to you. He's like and we've talked, he had some hard conversations in the past. He's like hey, I want you to know, I'm a believer but specifically, I've been praying and I feel like God is calling me to something and I don't know what evangelism really is. I know it's sharing the gospel, but I feel like he's calling me to share the gospel with people. In fact, at school and this kid used to be so quiet he joined a paid team and it's like he was like a different person.
Speaker 1:I was like who is this guy? Just found a stride, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so he's like, at school I shared the and she gave her life to Christ in that moment and I was like what? And then he says and I think I'm called to be a pastor and those kind of moments have happened. And I do think prayer is a huge part of it Casting a vision, inviting and then just seeing God do things like that, like these things can happen in your church, like they can happen wherever you're at. God's working, god's calling people up. You got to pray for it. We've got to give opportunities for them to respond.
Speaker 2:And so this kid, he's a sophomore and so he's going to start meeting with me. We're going to read Calling Out the Called, and that's a book Shane Pruitt. We've done that. I've done a few others as well. But what I really see with these guys like I mentioned that 18 to 24 range it's awesome. They feel called to ministry, but before they're on a platform preaching, I'm not doing that. They got to form character and so really all I'm doing with these guys I have 15, I got a group chat right here on my phone. It's called the Legion of Thames.
Speaker 1:They named it that Wait are some of them named Tim, or they just happen to all be Tim. They're saying they're all Timothys.
Speaker 2:Okay, love it, love it, and so the reality with them is I tell them hey guys, I'm excited, like I've prayed for this, but I want to help you guys grow in character. I want to help you know what it means to be a godly man, what it means to have a prayer life, a quiet time and the things that you need inside before you're up on the stage preaching. And I've had some guys that are like I want to preach, I want to preach Like within. Like had some guys that are like I want to preach, I want to preach like within like two weeks. I'm like, I'm not letting you preach.
Speaker 1:I got something to say, man. You want me to preach?
Speaker 2:my way. Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 1:Let's hear it. Yeah, let's see what you got. No, dude listen. No, I'm saying on behalf of them. I've got something to say, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so let me get it straight a little bit. I'm not going to be like hey, if you want to do a Devo, like I've had some of these guys do Devos, sure, and even two of them technically have preached to our junior high eventually. But what I am careful about is the guy that was probably like me, that's 16 and folks call the ministry. And he's like I want to preach right away that quick reward it's more about. I want to get up there.
Speaker 1:I got a burning in my chest. I don't even know what I'm going to do, I'm just going to do it, which, again I think that goes back to. We can get a little bit misled to that, because it's exactly what you've said. I think for a lot of our friends, like they can be led that way too, like when someone feels called to ministry, we want to give them the opportunities right away, without any really plan or regard for the formation of their character. We're just hoping that that character forms, because we're praying that the one that called them would just ensure the character. Yeah, um, and it's not that God cannot guard them.
Speaker 1:However, I think part of our work and it's exactly what you're saying what I'm so thankful for you as my friend is that it isn't just about creating possibilities and opportunities, but having a plan to instruct and inform them so that they may know when they are tempted, because ministry is hard. All the things we've said are true Ministry is beautiful, ministry is hard, and if we know that both of those things are going to happen, why would we not have ways for them to identify what is the good and to identify what is the struggle, so they may not be led astray and it has to be a part of the work beyond, just like. Oh man, god's called you. We would love to have some more help from you. Yeah, so yeah, that's good, that's good. Okay, man, talk a little bit about what we do when we disciple. I think for folks that hear this excited to start a group chat in their phone, legion of.
Speaker 1:Tims, what. What are some of the? Nuts and bolts. I mean, what are the conversations in the text? What are the weekly gatherings? What are the little coaching moments?
Speaker 2:Without naming, names we call them all Tim.
Speaker 1:What are some of those little edges of sanding and fixing and encouraging that have been true in some of this discipling work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so um, one thing is when I, when I see someone that's called the ministry, I don't want to make them feel not called. But even with these guys, like they're not necessarily pastors yet and so I always say they feel called the ministry because we've had some that they weren't, they stepped away and that's okay.
Speaker 1:God is using them in other ways. They're testing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they at least are trying seeing if this is what God calls them to, and God is using them in many other ways. But I've experimented with a few different things when it comes to discipling them. But to start off, I really sit down, we meet on a Saturday and we're going to talk about how do we break down scripture. That's kind of step one, like we're just going to break scripture together, simple things like soap or, uh, how do you actually make observations of the text and cause? You're going to use that when you prep a sermon. But that's not. That's the least of what we do as a pastor, um, so we uh start start with that, start with scripture reading, prayer, um. But then God's kind of taken me a different way lately and it was really digging into the manhood side, and so we actually uh did better man curriculum better, man.
Speaker 1:So we did that A formal thing, walking them through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't do it necessarily exactly how they formatted it, but we talked about what does it mean to be a godly man? Like what is what, exactly how they formatted it, but we talked about what does it mean to be a godly man? What does it look like? Some of them don't have dads at home, some of them didn't have healthy mothers and fathers at home, and so we talked about what does that look like? And we talked about not just them being a single godly man, but what does it look like to be a husband one day? And so, really, the spiritual disciplines and manhood is what I've keyed on. And, um, so really, the spiritual disciplines, um, and manhood is what I've keyed on. And then we have talked, went through like calling out the called, uh, just books that will be directly for calling.
Speaker 1:So kind of.
Speaker 2:Hey, what are some, what are some affirmations of confirmations about your calling, like who's speaking into you? Um, and and then we have done a couple preaching workshops, but those preaching workshops were them preaching to me okay, yeah, like like straight up, like in your office like they were like wrote it, did it, delivered it in the office, yeah, and in the empty room, uh, yeah, so with the other guys.
Speaker 2:So they're there, yeah and then we'll, we'll grade them. I think I found I I put together like a kind of a great little rubric yeah, yeah, and grading, and then we'll grade them. I think I put together kind of a grading rubric and grading and then with that we're working now, because some of them do have that yearning to preach.
Speaker 1:And I think it's real. That's good, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:And so I said well, how about we look into the old people homes? It's old school. They used to do this Because I heard actually Pastor, actually pastor doug.
Speaker 1:We told you yeah, yeah, yeah. So how about we look into like an old people? Excellent callback. Yeah, pastor doug had a pastor doug had a plan. He's like hey, you got young men that want to preach. Yeah, I've got a captive audience.
Speaker 2:Yeah so old. We were looking into old people's homes and even a juvie that's nearby yes and I said how about we take you guys there and preach? Is it any different than you preaching to, yeah, our 12th graders, 6 sixth and 12th graders. And they're excited Like the guys are like, yeah, I want to do it.
Speaker 2:And so we have done some preaching workshops, but a lot of it is these three things. So I tell them that this is what I want you to learn. I want you to be humble, I want you to practice humility, and part of that means, when I call you out about something like, you have to receive it, and if you're dealing with 18 to 24 year old men, they're they don't like that. Um, and it's been fun.
Speaker 1:That's the learning gap, man. That's it. That's it. Yeah, it's been good though.
Speaker 2:There's been some moments like I met one guy at a McDonald's using McDonald's points and then we just had a sit down conversation I was like but all the every time like conflict is. I don't think anyone loves conflict, but I love the fact that conflict brings fruit at the end.
Speaker 1:Most of the time if it's done in a godly way.
Speaker 2:I love that and so what I've seen with that telling them to be humble, be teachable Harry talked about that Humble, teachable and then to serve. So I want all of them to serve, whether it's in kids' life. I send them to the kids' ministry or to YA ministry and some of them a couple of them are technically I call it like an apprentice to a life group, so they're teaching like sixth grade boys, which is great for them, and so I'm giving them experience. But we're also just having that moment where we come together on a Saturday and they're having that accountability hey, how are you feeding your flesh, how are you feeding your faith and how are you feeding others this week and so just teaching them that practice of accountability, because if they are going to be pastors we've seen a lot of pastors that don't have that and they fall away or something happens or a moral failure.
Speaker 2:So I hope that we can teach young guys now to at least have one person in their life that they're like I'm going through this. Let me be vulnerable, transparent and get used to it now at 18. So they're not like 36 struggling to do it or 40 struggling to do it.
Speaker 1:Oh man, do say that for the folks in the back again, because that is such a like the transparency muscle, the vulnerability window, is something that, like it's, the older you get, the harder it is to cultivate or to practice, especially for young men who find their own way, and so they try to always live in their own willpower or their own motivation or their own giftedness, and there is a far greater strength beyond whatever we could muster up or whatever. So so, yeah, I mean, all right, buddy, All right. Thank you so much for coming to hang out today and talk a little bit.
Speaker 1:What on the way out? Encouragement from a younger leader, from someone under 30, for those of us over 30 in ministry, what is something that you're excited about learning about that you would want to point us, to name us? To think about, consider, like what's what's on your radar of learning, growing, doing.
Speaker 2:Man, just God's been teaching me with preaching. Actually, I'm going to talk about this. We're having a little thing tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, but with preaching, just we have to get better at not making assumptions to people understanding Christianese and Christian language. And as the world is becoming less and less Christian 4% have Gen Z, have a biblical worldview you have got to be able to, as a pastor, take concepts like sanctification, things that they can understand, but you have to help them get there. And as I've been preaching, god has just been like I'll write the sermon and the Holy Spirit's like you got to break this down more and maybe not preach for over 30 minutes. Okay, because people they can. They can understand it. I'm not saying these kids aren't learning trigonometry and all kinds of crazy mathematics, but I'm saying that our job is. We need to be able to break down God's word in a way that they can take it and live it out in their lives, and I'm seeing a lot of people, including myself. Sometimes we struggle to do that, no matter how old we are.
Speaker 2:You can be 18, 19, or you could be in your 40s. You got to learn how to be culturally relevant. You got to be authentic and not cringy. You got to be just real with your students. The biggest thing I see with these two generations is they can sniff out fake. Don't be fake, just be real. Be who you are. You love them. You love your students. Show them, you care, love them well, and then take what you're preaching and help them apply it in their lives. Break it down.
Speaker 1:Make it fun, size Mario. Thank you so much for hanging out today on the podcast. And hey, bud, we'll see you for our conference stuff next week.
Speaker 2:We'll be good, we'll be back with more. We'll be back with more next week.
Speaker 1:Sweet, that was fun. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast. If you want to learn more about what some of our young leaders are up to, make sure to follow the podcast for the next few weeks, as we are interviewing some of our favorite friends in youth ministry with ideas, insights and things that you should get to know. We'll see you back next week with more Bye.
