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
How to Thrive as a New Youth Minister w/ Miguel Adesokan
What's it like to be new? Feel like you are the only one?
Welp you are not! There is a growing trend of folks leading youth ministry that are 1. new to the role 2. home grown from the church where they attend. In this episode we learn firsthand all about it!
Join us for an eye-opening discussion about the journey into youth ministry with Miguel Adesokan, who shares his unique experiences as he transitions from volunteer to staff.
This timely episode brings to light not only the challenges faced by those new to the ministry but also the incredible opportunities to make meaningful connections and create a thriving youth community.
This conversation highlights the vital connections, challenges, and opportunities within the youth ministry landscape.
• Journey from volunteer to staff
• Unique opportunities in youth ministry
• The importance of communication and administration care
• Empowering dream teamers and creating leaders
• Balancing responsibilities and personal care
• Wisdom for newcomers in ministry
Hey, we're back with the episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast. Hang out with my buddy, miguel. What's up, miguel? Thank you so much for joining us on another cold, blustery day in tulsa man, we just can't get out of it we can't.
Speaker 2:It's just everywhere we go escaping uh, dude, I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1:So we, we just got done hanging out with some folks uh coming in, uh from all over the place. You, you made the drive. Some, some folks made the flight, made the long uber ride, you made the drive in the snow, um, but one of the things I'm excited to have you talk about is what it's like to feel new in youth ministry. Fresh to it, miguel, like a year and a half year and a half into it. New to ministry, newly married, congratulations, yeah, all the feelings of new are happening here, Everything oh my gosh man.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, tell us a little bit, man, how you ended up in Tulsa. I think that's one of the things we talked a little bit about, like how did you wind up at the church that you're at? But talking through for folks on the side of new things, like how did you end up at the church that you're at that led to the job that you have, that's always like the question of like oh yeah ministry work is like it's the thing that we do, but it's also who we know.
Speaker 1:So how did you, how did you wind up at a church in South Tulsa in 2020?
Speaker 2:on one pandemic day? Yeah, no, that's a great question. I and I am originally from tulsa and um back in in 2020, after I graduated, right, I'm part of that covid group. Yeah, um, where it shout out to the covid grads.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a fun time. Did you just like walk across the zoom call, or like what did y'all do so?
Speaker 2:instead. So or you. They said, hey, we'll push back commencement because you know they want everybody together we don't have the, the separate colleges that graduate together.
Speaker 2:so, um, they, they told us, hey, we're gonna move you guys to august. Uh, we got sent home, I think in in march, and I was just chilling at the house for a couple months doing Zoom, just zooming it out yeah, that was our classes and just trying to finish, you know, as business management major. But I had my freshman year at ORU. I had served at a local youth ministry, local student ministry, for about a year and you know it wasn't bad, went well. And then the last three years that I was there I hadn't done anything. I was just part of my dad's church. He's a pastor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, second generation, like born into it. Yeah, technically yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I had my parents didn't have, or at the church they didn't have a student ministry. Okay, and so after I graduated I met up with Wyatt Pennington, who was the student pastor at the South Tulsa Kips at the time for Battle Creek Church, and I just had some life questions yeah, Just about something that was going on, I guess kind of in my life, but really just had to do with someone else and I was just trying to get advice on you know how do I handle this? And then at the end of that conversation he mentioned hey, man, students are starting back up for us and we need some people to help serve. We'd be interested and I said you know, like I'll come check it out, we don't have anything going on on Wednesday night, so like I'll come check it out. And um, tried it and I tell people all the time like I didn't. I said kind of prayed about it, but I knew that that was where the Lord was leading and, um, it didn't take long for me to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what Like let's do this. Let me try this out and see how it goes, and I had so what was the ask?
Speaker 1:okay, so I'm always curious. We know why we love, why his episode will be on in a few weeks. Yeah, what was the recruitment question? Like because that's always, like we'll pick on him because I love him, because that's always we talk about. Like you know, it's dangerous to be like, hey, do you want to help out with youth? Because that's too, broad. I know that he's quality standup guy, so like what was his like recruitment invite to you.
Speaker 2:I think it, from what I can remember, I think it was just a straight up like we were done with our conversation about the the topic of discussion, and then it was hey, do you, would you, by the way, would you be interested in coming on a Wednesday night? Just to check out what we have going on.
Speaker 1:Nice the slide, yeah that was it.
Speaker 2:Wednesdays with you is pretty cool, man, it's pretty cool times, and he was new at the time too. I think he was only a few months in. Yeah, that would have been right, yeah yeah, yeah. So it was, and then I remember that first night and it was, and then I remember that first night I don't know if Josh Mosteller has ever been on here, but he was. It was his first night of doing like a shadow Okay, because he had. I think he just finished interviewing for For that.
Speaker 1:BA role. For the Jinx role yeah, where he was before, that's right yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, we got a new guy over here, a dude named Evan that I knew from college and he was before that's right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, we got a new guy over here, um, a dude named evan that I knew from college and he was serving, and so we just had fun, played ping pong, met the, met the students and, um, it was a lot. It was smaller at the time and, yeah, man, they're probably. I think at that time there was maybe 12 that were consistent, maybe less than that, and now they're at about maybe 100, 120. Just going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been incredible to watch.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's I mean we'll give big shout outs to that crew because it really is the story of like a post-COVID, like recentering, rise, excitement, and so for Wyatt Allie and so many countless volunteers. It's been so, so exciting. But that volunteerism this is one of the things that I'm excited for you to come and share didn't stop there, Because we would eagerly love to have you on, just as another person that's volunteering and serving in youth ministry, but that volunteerism actually led to you now serving leading youth ministry out of campus.
Speaker 1:So what was the? What was the move from? Hey man, you're volunteering here too. Would you ever want to come work for us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think back to the, the times where all of our campuses, campuses would come together and we do those bigger events like a TUL weekend that we, you know, we're going into and see all the people come together and we'd do those bigger events like a TUL weekend that we were going into.
Speaker 1:See all the people come together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a student camp and I think the first camp, TUL, when we were still in town, weren't going anywhere for camp. I think that was the first time I met Brian Preston and I remember him asking me hey, have you ever thought about?
Speaker 1:going into ministry.
Speaker 2:And my answer at that time was always I'm not opposed to it.
Speaker 1:That's what I always said.
Speaker 2:I'm not opposed to it, it was never it was never a yes or no.
Speaker 1:You're like I wouldn't be against it.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying yes, but I'm not against it, cause there was that part of me that when I would look around at battle Creek and their staff and the way that they did things, I was always like, hey, this is, this is pretty cool, they're doing a really good job here. And I I'd been at a bigger church before and attended as a student and seen a little bit of that, but I mean, I just I was very impressed with the way that Battle Creek did things and the way that they operated and so, even as like a business major, my brain was going, oh, this looks like a really healthy organization.
Speaker 1:Well, so that's one of the things we want to talk about. Again. I love you as a friend and love kind of like watching this trajectory of like volunteering and to leading and staff. But you also are really representative of one of the things that we've seen in like the national data.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause we get called all the time and I'm sure that Brian and Josh and Y and others, I'm sure the calls are coming for you, man, they're coming of like hey man, do you know anybody?
Speaker 1:Like it is that like, so that's all. So in the terms of youth industry questions, they're like hey, would you ever? Hey, do you know anybody? I'm not opposed to, but it's those questions of like, of like. Where do we find quality folks that love this work and would do a good job? And the answer has been trending in the last few years post-covid stuff they're probably already at your church. Yes, and so like. That's one thing I love about, about getting to know you and kind of just watching and learning and being a friend to you is like someone that was already there, that loves the church, that wasn't opposed to it, that gets invited into more and more leadership so instead of like oh, we're going to go out and like find somebody from somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Or we're going to like call the seminaries and have them like send somebody. It may have somebody that was already volunteering on a Wednesday that loves the ministry and org that you are, like they already love the church, because that is one of the things that, like I mean, you already bought in.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, you weren't like yeah, the relational equity of like do you love this church and what it's about? Like, those were easy yeses, because you were doing ministry work for free, right. So the question of like do you want to come do this, as your job was just like ratcheting up instead of like the big shift over, exactly. So what, miguel? Like what are some of those staff questions you now have? Like, what are the things? This is what we're supposed to know. What are you thinking about or asking now that when you were a volunteer before the staff role, what has the shift been, the gear shift of you're there on Wednesday serving faithfully weekly and now leadership responsibility? What has been the shifting questions or concerns for you?
Speaker 2:no-transcript. I mean I know going into it. I think the biggest question that I had was, more operationally, how does this look like? Or what does this look like day to day? What does this look like throughout the week? Now still being new, I think it's what. Where is that next opportunity for somebody?
Speaker 1:And who?
Speaker 2:because there's some people, and again I'm not going to say names, but we've got some awesome dream teamers that I do look at and whether it is and I know we even talked about this when we were all meeting earlier in the week but is where can we empower people to help them take their next step?
Speaker 2:And of course the next step is something that I'm sure is not foreign to most people who listen to this and in our whatever church they're a part of. That is something that I lingo, that we all use, yeah, but it's an important one of how am I going to replicate what was done with me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, whether that becomes a staff position for someone or just they become more an awesome dream team, yeah, Well, and I think even hearing you say it that way, right, or just imagining what could be for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think for so many folks it's, I mean it's two things. I wish I had more students, I wish I had more help. Yeah, folks, it's. I mean it's two things. I wish I had more students, I wish I had more help. Yeah, but part of the things that are not knotted up in those questions with enough layers is more students to do what again. Next steps, like, yeah, more kids in the room cool, but for the ones that are already there, what are they going to do? Right. And then same for your leaders. Like, yeah, you want more leaders, but what are your leaders that have been with you for two, three, five, ten years doing differently now that they weren't doing when you just wanted more?
Speaker 1:I think, that's because, again, there's some really big things happening there organizationally, of not just imagining it through the churn, but also imagining it through like I need more. I need more, but like how are we going to? Sit and grow with them.
Speaker 2:So so what?
Speaker 1:what are some of those like those like layers or roles or things that you've kind of thought through from seeing it from both sides?
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, well, I can even give an example of just it's an opportunity that was presented to us and I'm super thankful for. But you know a lot of our campuses we have interns.
Speaker 1:And so having an intern Paid unpaid usually paid Okay, Okay, Okay.
Speaker 2:And so we're. You know we are now, we've become their coaches, yeah, and something that I've always loved is the coaching profession. Yeah, and I can talk about college football all day, right, I'm not going to get onto that tangent, but boomer sooner, there. Not going to get onto that tangent, um, but boomer sooner. That's there you go, okay, good, yeah, plant the flag, right, yeah, but, um, that has challenged me so much to where you know. A question that we were given is how will you empower your intern that by the end of that, there is whatever you've implemented, whatever is new, that they are able to empower somebody else to take on those roles, and so that has been like the.
Speaker 2:The challenge is we're we're building up, especially those first three months. It's a six month internship and then the next three is a little bit of the. The challenge of okay, let's have you run a service. I'm just going to take a step back and you are running with this, but then also with the new things that we have in place, instead of me going around worrying about how are we going to get this done when you're gone. Who can we empower to be to take on some of these roles? It doesn't have to be one person. You know, we can't pretend that a dream teamer can all of a sudden become a paid intern.
Speaker 2:If that's, you know, if they've got a family and kids and got a job and something else that they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a whole career going on yeah.
Speaker 2:But we can probably take bits and pieces of what this person is doing and then start to give those things away so that we can still run at the same capacity, regardless of whether or not we have somebody who can fill that or not, and keep building off of it, because that's going to create more dream team opportunities and roles to run an effective and efficient ministry, and not just one that's, like you said, just getting more.
Speaker 1:I need more help. Yeah, well, you don't make it plain, like, what are some of the things like the empowerment, the opportunities, like what have been some of those specifically for? We don't have to name people, but would you name some of the like, the functions or ways? I think that imagination block sometimes gets into the like what are expansive ways that we could think of to take back to our church?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so, one right now that we're looking at. So we just she just completed a girls night and it was incredible, Something that helped the ministry as a whole.
Speaker 1:Just owned it.
Speaker 2:She owned it, she planned it the whole thing, did an incredible job, and so now what we have to figure out is for next year, when we replicate that I'm not going to just assume that we're going to have another intern that can run that that will do that Exactly.
Speaker 2:So we have to find the Dream Teamers to help with it. So we'll do that Exactly. So we have to find the dream teamers to help with it. So, though we haven't begun the process of of someone already putting those things into place that is a big part of what we're going to do is she finishes to go okay, who, what is this going to look like when it's dream team run and just lead with those assumptions Again, I would rather lead with that than just assume that I'm going to have this opportunity fall into my lap again. Campus ministry is another one that I've really trying to get the dream team assistance with that. Another one that I can give you is we're about to empower one of our current Dream Teamers. Had it on my heart for a while because, owasso, we've got a lot of kids that get off of the bus not far from the church and then have to walk in front of the church to get home.
Speaker 1:They're walking to their neighborhoods, so they're literally just like they're cutting a path across the church campus. Exactly From school campus, from bus stop to church, to home.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, we are street facing and they're just walking right in front of us. And the question for a long time has been how can we?
Speaker 1:show up for these students.
Speaker 2:I mean whether they ever show up and come to church or not, they're literally on your doorstep. Exactly so. What we're going to do is, you know, I had a dream teamer, when I mentioned it to them, who said I would love to be a part of that. These are the days that I have free.
Speaker 2:So we're going to empower her to lead that team, okay, they. If they already serve in students, great. If it's people that are on team, I don't care, but chances are there's at least three to four people in our church that would love to help out with that as well, to make that window Exactly. She can lead it, we're just going to provide the resources for her to be able to do that Because again she said I have these two days free. How can I help? What?
Speaker 1:can I do Exactly, because they're there every day. Well, that was when one of the churches I served at right out of college, um, the, the youth building. So there was a church building, the youth building, like like a lot of places do, or whatever across the street was the public library and after school, a lot of middle school kids didn't have worlds.
Speaker 1:This is like I'm dating myself. You know, 20 years ago they didn't. They had maybe had internet, but it wasn't great, yeah. So they would all go hang out the library because there was homework club and there was like Yu-Gi-Oh Pokemon club, and so all these middle school kids would go from school walk to the library hang out and then we were across the street so getting connected with them, because some of those kids were our kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Man. We started opening our doors earlier on Wednesday nights and we would do pizza and halo. And so it was one of those like it was like the guy out of school at three 30, the greatest combination.
Speaker 2:It was it's everything.
Speaker 1:They were like they were at the library from like four to five, five, 30. So we just started opening our doors at like five, five, 30, instead of starting six, 30. Cause it was like, well, don't go home, just you know, just trek across the street, we'll have food. And so, like we had this like boom in middle school boys ministry, because they just would like from like the whole day and they just would, you know, they would go home at 9 at night. But it was one of those like, it was one of those opportunities on your doorstep of like well, there's kids here. So instead of trying to imagine like well, what we want to do, well, where are they at and how can we?
Speaker 2:intersect that or whatever Exactly? Yeah, meeting people where they're at, I think is huge, and it's not necessarily something that I was super gifted in, and so it's a muscle that's been stretched and worked on is okay. What is the opportunity that's right in front of you? I've been asking myself that question a lot, right in front of you. I've been asking myself that question a lot and I feel like it's something that the Lord has been challenging me with is, hey, it's you got to remember. It's okay to take the easy wins. That's just what I call. It is that there are some easy wins that are right in front of you. And you know, I know not every church is placed right next to a school or is in a town like us where we have one major high school.
Speaker 1:That is one benefit. Again, not everybody has it, but for y'all there's one major high school. So it it like, when you talk about campus ministry, you aren't deciding which school to go to, but which places to show up which helps. It still works, but it helps yeah.
Speaker 2:So that, like that's our, our easy win right now is especially for the students who maybe they're not involved in a sport and maybe we don't have that doorway in with them. This is a way that we are able to easily interact and hopefully bless the students who maybe don't have a whole lot going on, but especially days like this where it's super cold outside, it might be nice to have a lady hand and use some hot chocolate on the side. Exactly. That's good man.
Speaker 1:Well, what are some of the things that have been surprising? Challenges, cause I think we it's. The new responsibility always begets new opportunity, but new responsibility also begets new challenges. Just just just to speak honestly and again like, say, wyatt, kate, brian are all friends, so there's no judgment, but what are? Some of the things that have been surprisingly difficult, because I think sometimes in the circle of youth ministries we always get teased by our kids like what do you do all week?
Speaker 1:Or whatever, like I only see you on Wednesdays, what else do you do? You're like well, a lot. So what are some of the things that have been like?
Speaker 2:like like staff challenges that maybe like surprised you or have, like I don't know, pushed you. Yeah, oh, I think the the two easiest things that come to mind that I can I could tell anybody about is the biggest challenge is that I'm that I'm still learning how to manage. The tension with the two is working with the calendar and administrative work, and I don't say that because I think that I don't do well with those. It is making sure that I am taking care of the ministry responsibilities while still managing the calendar well in doing the administrative work, because I was somebody before I stepped into full-time ministry I would have told you I'm great with admin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got this.
Speaker 2:Pretty solid with the calendar because I came from working in finance. Yeah, and that's that's what I did. I was working in personal financial planning and doing a lot of assistant work with our VPs and it was to me like that was, that was fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, when it became making sure that I can stay on on task with the administrative work, but then also the ministry side of things as well, I started to feel how that that tension a lot of times people, I think, can end up going one way or another. But it's also, I think, living in the middle of the tension and not necessarily letting it pull me one way or the other with with the ultimate goal in mind of, like I am doing the, I'm going to do this as long as the Lord has called me to it. I believe I am called, yeah, um, and I'm not going to let go so far towards the administrative end that I become cold. And now there's there's really no drive in in ministry and I'm not doing it for the Lord, but I'm just getting something done or with the ministry work, um, letting the admin fall to the side, and now, all of a sudden, I'm not doing well with follow-up and um, just making sure that people are taken care of and have the updates and the information that they need.
Speaker 1:Um, because it, like that, is ministry too yeah, the communication is care and I think that's one of the things that the calendar, the calendar, can be care, yeah, and the communication can be care right, because that's where I mean I so so sympathetic to as now like dad of two busy kids and church calendar and work calendar, like I mean anything to get ready for when the church puts on our calendar. It's like man, you got to get to us early and you got to get to me frequently.
Speaker 1:And so it's just some of those things that, like I know there's so many youth pastors have been thinking about camp or D now, or this sermon series, or this amazing event but, I need you to think about it out loud earlier, at least to get it in front of me. Don't. Don't surprise me with the big fun thing two weeks ahead of time, because man like our family may be planned out through the next six months and that's we're not mad, we're not mad. We just we're planned out.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it's it's my job to make sure that I don't. You never want to get to a point where now you've started holding that against people.
Speaker 1:You know that's, that's either consciously or subconsciously right, You're like exactly Working family, but they won't be there. Yeah, the enemy's going to attack you with that.
Speaker 2:Oh man, they must not care, or whatever, and it's like no, that's not true, it's just. This is a family that does a lot of vacation right they do family stuff and they're not working in it Right, and so that's something that I've learned I've got to be very respectful of, and it's any job right.
Speaker 1:Have you felt yourself in that Like? That's always one of the things that I would love to hear. The tension of of, of volunteering to staff. We tease with our booster community like, uh, you think about something for 40 hours a week?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Most folks think about it for 40 minutes a week, like have you, have you felt that? Like has that been a shift that you felt yeah, oh and it is unlocked. Yeah, true grace.
Speaker 2:Yes, Like I do feel as if I have grown in my capacity and ability to give grace and just have an understanding of, oh yeah, they have a life outside of this.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? You didn't complete your Bible study plan, Right, it's like well a lot of of things.
Speaker 2:Let people live their lives and have that understanding, but then and it's okay to still offer empowerment moments and go hey, could you help me with this? And it's not typically. No one's ever offended. Yeah, um, and I don't remember if it was you or somebody else, but I'd heard recently of I cannot remember who it was but they said hey, make sure to offer up time off for your dream teamers. Don't wait for them to get burnt out, make sure that you are, don't burn through them Exactly.
Speaker 2:Make sure you offer that, maybe at the beginning of the semester, and so that's something that we're going to do this year too is I want to make sure that they know that and hopefully they can find some instead of just the blockout dates on planning center, which is great, thank you for putting in your blockout dates, but hey, let's schedule an intentional Sunday or Wednesday off. Yeah, um, just to help you out, because I want them to know that they are loved and respected, not just as dream teamers, but as human beings and children of God who I know have lives outside of the church.
Speaker 1:Have spiritual needs, have tanks that need to be filled Right. I mean I really value and appreciate that. I mean again, you have that perspective that I think sometimes people that serve in ministry a really long time only see it through the staff lens or the office lens Right and it's really challenged and I hope it challenges others to not try to plan too much. Like ministry, effectiveness is not in how much we can plan and I think that's a really careful note.
Speaker 1:That's a good one, because the temptation for sure of like well, if we do a lot, then we've done a lot, and I don't know if that's always true, because y'all have really slashed. I mean, y'all pretty much operate inside of the weekly rhythm and then just a few key events, right, and even some of those events just happen in the regular rhythm.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, that's right TO Weekend and camp. It's really just two right.
Speaker 1:There's only two outside the bounds of Sunday and Wednesday for y'all right, okay. Right, some of the folks in the background like I plan a special thing on saturdays once a month. You can, you can do that, but but like y'all, y'all have transformed sundays and wednesdays into the, the hosting sites for girls nights, dodgeball nights, special nights, cook-offs, karaoke like that all happens inside of the thing it's.
Speaker 2:It's awesome. It's awesome. It's one of the things that I've always loved and appreciated about our church and, um, I just it really does. Especially with being multi-site. It helps with the overall, I think, morale. Yeah, we love both. We love when we all come together and we love when we get to. We get that empowerment from our executive team or our student team really to say, hey, whether it's a dodgeball and hey, we're all doing this on the same night, but this is at your campus. This is something that you get a lot more say in of how this is going to look and how you're going to operate that night, and there's some things that we all do that will look the same at every campus but also get to be unique to the places where we are, and it just helps out a ton.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's one of the questions I was going to ask you about this. One's not everybody, but we have a lot of folks that are serving in growing numbers of multi-site churches. Yes, um what? What are some of the uh group dynamics or group identities Cause again, one church, many places. What what were some of the things that were different or that you learned or adjusted or saw from like, uh, from, we'll just say, campus a which we knew was like south tulsa like what were some of the shifts?
Speaker 1:like like I mean again youth ministry's youth ministry and yet the composition of the kids there and the leaders could change it. Like were there things that you had to adjust or learn or pivot? Or like what were some of the things again? Yeah one church, new campus. What was the shift?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, so the biggest shift, I think, was more about the schools that were in the area, okay, the way it was fed, exactly because south tulsa is super unique. There are students there that were attending from different schools like like 10 or 11 different schools, exactly. You've, you've got Union Bixby even some Broken Arrow kids. Jinx kids, even though we have a Jinx campus.
Speaker 1:Still was at the crossroads of all the things.
Speaker 2:It's such a unique location because it literally is in the middle of about four or five different school districts, so some kids really just lived closer to that campus, whereas in Owasso the focus is just different school districts, so some kids really just lived closer to that campus, yeah Um. Whereas you know, in in a waso the focus is just it's a waso um high school, middle school all your kids basically go to school together.
Speaker 1:Like functionally, almost all your kids will see each other. Wednesday morning and Wednesday night at church Right.
Speaker 2:Well for the most part, but we also do have a large homeschool population.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And that has been the coolest thing. I will say I did not know a whole lot about homeschooling until I got to Owasso.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I'm learning a ton. I've learned what a co-op is and how they operate and just what the homeschool life looks like. I thought I knew a little bit in high school and college because I went to ORU and so you know there was a lot of students that were there that you know they they'd come from a homeschool background. But let me just say it is really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I've met some awesome families that homeschool their children, and they're also, a lot of times, some of our most faithful, and I don't think that's just because of the time freedom, but I do think that there are some that have just chosen that route because it's also allowed them to be a little bit more involved in their local church involved in their local church, um, and you know, whether there's there's no fault to anyone who's doing private school or public school, that's it's just something that they've chosen to do and it's been an incredible to watch Um, and so there are a lot of those students, naturally, are going. Oh, like, this gives me more time to be able to help out at church, yeah, um, or to do a little bit more throughout the week, and so I'm like, okay, yeah, come on, I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, Matt, I have one more question for you, and really it's a question for you to throw out for others. Like if someone's starting new and we've seen the since COVID, the national data of people that have been at their church or in their role three or less, or two or less years has gone way up. The median age people starting out in ministry has gone up. It's probably closer to like 28, 29 than it is to like 23, just across the board. And then that growing number of folks that are serving functionally their home church, but in this new role, like it's a church they were already a part of and they've been like tapped and they weren't opposed, They've been tapped to go serve in a staff way.
Speaker 1:Like what are some of the things that you would encourage them to be thinking about? Asking? I mean again, like this is these are real questions that like there are folks that are are looking for or have been found to do so like what would you encourage them? What would you tell them to ask or notice? Just from your wisdom and experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the first thing I would say is definitely look for your easy win. I know that just sounds so simple, stupid, but it is. That's just what it is Like there every campus, every church, campus. Has got one yes, there is something Everyone's got, something that is unique to them, and so I would say, just look for that and then and own it.
Speaker 2:Just again, I don't know what that is for everybody, but there has to be something. I don't care what it is, there's got to be something that's unique. And just take that and run with it and see what God does. And look it's a word that I think we hear all the time in different ways but, hey, all you have is all you need, right, and just look for what is right in front of you and what he's already blessed you with.
Speaker 2:I know we always want to, we want to have that next big thing to offer up, but what if you were just really faithful with what has been placed right in front of you? Yeah, and see what god can do with that. And then another thing I would say is, just outside of just looking for ways to empower your dream teamers, figure out a way to offer rest that is outside of the dates that they already have blocked off. But just to say, hey, I also, I care about you as a human being and as somebody who needs to rest, uh, to hopefully you're working from a place of rest, um, and so figure out a way to offer that, because that's something that we want to do this year and I do believe that that's going to help with just overall team morale and that want to be there.
Speaker 1:It's that long play right. That's one of those like instead of trying to burn through folks, the churn part of some of their next steps is giving them enough to actually take next steps. Yes, I just want to be involved Instead of just pushing gas on everybody until there's nothing left in the tank. Yeah, we actually want more from and for them, exactly, exactly. Well, Miguel, thank you so much for coming by today.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Dude, it's so good to hang out, thanks, and so we're going to finish our coffee and enjoy this cold weather. That's right coffee and enjoy this cold weather.
Speaker 2:So until then we'll see you back next time Snap.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Advertiser Podcast. Make sure to check us out on Spotify, apple Podcasts or YouTube. Wherever you're not listening or watching, check it out, leave us a rating and review. And remember Define the Relationship comes out April 1st. Check it out on Lifewaycom. Define the Relationship by Chad Higgins Zach Work and learn how parent ministry can better serve you.
