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 Work, The Summer Slump, And Preparing For Fall
The hype of camp is fading. The smell of leftover sunscreen and emotional debriefs still lingers. But now it’s time to face the real ministry question: What’s next? In this episode, Chad and Zac unpack the sneaky shift from summer chaos to fall calendars, and how to survive the mid-summer mental fog without quitting or creating a whole new youth group (again).
July can be a peculiar time in youth ministry. The adrenaline of summer events still lingers while the pressure of fall kickoff looms on the horizon. Some of us respond by mentally checking out ("laid out on the carpet," as Chad puts it), while others frantically start dreaming up complete ministry overhauls. Both responses stem from the same reality: seasonal transitions are hard, and our brains don't always cooperate.
Chad shares his strategy of scheduling a dedicated "dream planning day"—a physical and mental reset that helps him formally shift from summer to fall mode. This intentional transition, often accompanied by a change in location, creates space for creativity to return. Meanwhile, Zach offers the complementary approach of completely stepping away through hobbies, physical activities, or creative pursuits that engage different parts of the brain.
Perhaps most powerfully, let's talk about "Tuesday faith," learning to find meaning and purpose in the ordinary moments of ministry between the mountain-tops of camp experiences and the valleys of crisis. As Chad notes, "Not all flowers grow year-round," a reminder that seasons of apparent stagnation are natural and necessary parts of ministry.
🛠️ IN THIS EPISODE:
- 🌀 Mid-Summer Drift: Why it’s hard to go from bonfires to budget meetings.
- 😩 Two Ministry Mood Swings: Burnout Brian vs. Overhaul Olivia.
- 🌳 Change Your Place, Change Your Pace: A new spot might mean new ideas.
- 🏃♂️ Hobbies, Health, & Holy Distractions: Stepping away might be the secret to stepping forward.
- 📆 Why “Tuesday” Faithfulness > Friday Night Lights: Embracing the unglamorous middle.
- 🧠 Ministry Dopamine Detox: Recognize when your body is addicted to “big events only.”
- 🧍♂️ Be Honest, Not Isolated: The power of having someone to call out your spiral.
- 🔍 Know Thy Patterns: The better you understand your own transition style, the better you lead through it.
This episode is for the youth worker staring at a whiteboard wondering if it’s too early to plan the fall kickoff or too late to nap until Christmas. (It’s not. Just… plan a little, nap a little.)
If you're currently navigating the summer-to-fall transition in your ministry, this episode offers both practical strategies and the reassurance that you're not alone. We're all still learning—even after decades in ministry—how to work effectively through the rhythm of seasons.
Want to connect with a community of youth workers who understand these challenges? Check out Youth Ministry Booster or reach out directly to chad.higgins@lifeway.com or zac.workun@lifeway.com to learn more about how we can support you in your ministry journey.
Hey, and we're back with another episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast hanging out in the garage with the one and only the returning, Chad Higgins.
Speaker 2:I'm back, he's back Two weeks in a row. What a guy Don't call it a comeback. I'm back. He's back Two weeks in a row. What a guy Don't call it a comeback.
Speaker 1:I like that. Showing up for two days in a row is a comeback. That's good. Hey, buddy, you're working hard.
Speaker 2:Back to work, back in the saddle. Yeah, dude, come on, message your friends.
Speaker 1:Tell them I'm back.
Speaker 2:Tell your mom She'll come back, she'll listen. I pull really well with the uh older female demographic?
Speaker 1:I didn't know. You know, can we just talk about that? If you haven't got your tickets yet for etch this 2025, late october, um, bring your mom, because I'll tell you right now. When this man right here, this face, look at him, look at that face. Uh, when this man is billed on a breakout at a conference that is co-ed, all the women 45 and up will be in attendance wait, hold on, 45 is a little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I pull a little bit.
Speaker 1:We're 40 now, that's true a little bit better in that 60. And oh, okay, okay, yeah, um empty nesters. Yeah, the, the, the nest is empty, but uh, you know, looking good well, I remind them of a little spry right there. All right, all right, that's enough of that. Yeah, you remind me of a young Tommy Bahama Back when her husband was known as Tommy and not Tom. That's it, man. Yeah, you're looking like Tommy. You're looking like Tommy. Yeah, he's got a motorcycle in the garage and she hasn't seen him in a few years.
Speaker 1:But it's fine, it's fine. I don't know. I've been in. I've been in a backstory for Shirley. That may or may not be true, so she's going to be there. She's going to be there. She's bringing the whole team, bringing the whole flock from First Baptist somewhere. It's going to be great. It's our next-gen conference for preschool kids, student and next-gen leaders. Great lineup of folks. We'll make sure to list some things below. I think by the time this one comes out, the breakout should be ready to go. We just sent out emails recently for all of our breakout folks. We've got a lot of things covered, from campus ministry to multicultural, to middle school, to high school, to transitions, to girls ministry. Uh, it's great. We're excited about it.
Speaker 2:We're back in nashville, tennessee it's time to bring your entire next gen team.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah oh yeah, end of october spooky, scary, crazy, awesome yeah uh, I know that breakouts aren't out yet, but when we talk about. We're talking about ours, I mean I. I said yes to the confirmation email, did you I?
Speaker 2:need to say yes to the confirmation email.
Speaker 1:Add it to the to-do list. And pulling up my email Cut for emotional break.
Speaker 2:We're going to be there.
Speaker 1:We're going to be there Talking about a book. Yeah, have we done a podcast since the full release of the book?
Speaker 2:I mean, when you make the Amazon top seller list.
Speaker 1:Top seller list in your subcategory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, our moms. They bought a lot of the book.
Speaker 1:I need to go official so we've already in second printing. But I just want everybody to know my mom did actually buy a lot of the book because the last time I saw her she handed me five copies. She's like I couldn't give these away. It hurt a little bit. It hurt a little bit. I don't know enough people. I gave them to everybody I could think of, but I still had five left. So thank you, carolee, so much. That's amazing I still got three in the garage. If anybody knows anybody else, yeah.
Speaker 2:My mom bought one copy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good One for the family. Share it around. It's not that long of a book. She can read it in the weekend, hand it to your dad. It's fine, it's good, it's good, but we'll be there. No, actually one of the relationship. Share some of the stats, the thoughts, the strategies, any preview, any teaser of why we should, because I know there's more coming, even November, about it.
Speaker 2:If you come mention this episode, okay, let's hang out and have coffee.
Speaker 1:Oh, if you come to Etch and talk about this episode, Chad will buy your coffee.
Speaker 2:I don't know how many Chips on your coffee, ooh, oof, I don't know how many Chips on the table. For the first four.
Speaker 1:For the first four, then yes, we'll take them out. Take them out to coffee, all right, okay.
Speaker 2:Schedule it, throw it down. Throw it down. Remind us if we forget about that we won't.
Speaker 1:We won't Cause you'll remind us It'll be good. We're gonna talk about the book, we're excited about it. Lots of good feedback Got off the phone Even this morning. Folks come in calling for us to meet with their staff teams, their parent teams. We really do hope that it it generates or opens up the conversations that maybe need to happen in parent ministry. I mean, I think a lot of folks have like a circle drawn around what parent ministry has been. We hope that either this like tilts the lens or expands the circle and churches of every size, like that's. That's one of the things I want to make sure that we say whenever we talk about the book.
Speaker 1:The phone calls, messages and texts that we've got about this stuff have been for, have been, have been conversations starting for churches of 150 and 1500. Like it is. It is one of those like legitimately, whether it's a zoom call, phone call or in person consult, like it has been an ongoing, like. Okay, fellas, I read it, I've been challenged by it, let's talk it through. And so I'm so thankful for the stuff in the book, for the six month plan that you wrote at the end. But yeah, I mean it's exciting stuff that's going to be at etch. Just all part of the package. Just all part of the whole thing. Come on now. Come on now, uh. But speaking of getting back into work and doing emails during a podcast, that's what we want to talk about, right, we could never, uh, let's be honest, how do you work when you're not feeling it?
Speaker 2:one of the things just you know peek behind the curtain oh gosh one of the things zach and I do. We we talk about. Okay, what are? What are student ministers feeling right now?
Speaker 1:Those kind of things.
Speaker 2:And you know, zach and I, we were full-time at Lifeway, but we were student ministers for many years, and so we were asking man this time of year, like what? Were we feeling Sweaty? Feeling sweaty and there's in this July time period. There's still some summer things that are probably happening, but at some point you're going to start to shift to fall Right and for whatever reason in student ministry at least, I felt this way it almost to me feels like the new year starts August 1st.
Speaker 1:It does. I feel like in youth ministry there's kind of two or three new years, which is, I think, part of the reason we talk about momentum a lot, because, like, call it August 15th or September 1st, there is a back-to-school new year. Like the school year weighs heavy, but the first of summer also feels like a new thing, right. And then January 1st sometimes means new budget money, so, yeah, it feels like a new year's coming.
Speaker 2:Here's the reality, and this may not connect with all of our listeners, but I think there's a good portion of them that probably feel this way. We run relationally hard during the summer.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And then we find ourself right about this time period. Yeah, thinking, starting to think about fall.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And I don't know if you're like me, but it's like I don't want if you're like me, but it's like I don't want to do that like I just cue sadness from inside out just like on the floor just done uh and right, like you ever feel that way uh, I actually feel the opposite, so I was going to share the other take the undertake, which is I feel the need of like maybe I should just change everything. Oh, because it's like so. So we're peeking behind curtains, we're talking real about stuff. Sometimes, when things get slow, I either get a little bit the sadness like just lay me on the floor. I'm terrible at this. At least every six, six weeks I asked chad, like are you going to fire me this week because I haven't changed the world yet?
Speaker 1:You're like, well, maybe. But the other times I'm like, well, maybe I should change the world. And so there are some of those like slow moments or those in-between times where I'm like I'm just going to, we're going to paint the walls, we're going to rename the youth group, we're going to launch a new pro, we're going to add summer discipleship from July 16th to August 17th, and it's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like we're going to, we're going to it's after camp dude, it's, it's, we got it, we got to crush it.
Speaker 1:We got five weeks and we're good, we got to do something big. And it's like, realistically, you have five weeks, can you do something big? We're like don, and then I end up walking into back to school Not prepared, exhausted. Yeah, because I was literally putting all that energy into something else instead of like putting it into the thing that, like I knew could be done, needed to be done, because I just was like, well, it will get done, and so I was chasing the new or the different, because I mean, sometimes the shiny thing is exciting, right.
Speaker 2:Interest I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, say more about the laid out on the carpet, part Uh well for me.
Speaker 2:it I feel like I have to shift my brain sometimes, do you?
Speaker 1:feel like you can do that, because I do feel like sometimes it happens for me.
Speaker 2:Oh, I feel like I have to make mine you have to hard shift it. My brain won't shift to the other thing, and that's probably exactly why we feel different For you. You naturally start to dream of what next For me. I'm like, okay, because it's in July. Yeah, I had my plan for the summer. Yeah, I'm now in fulfillment mode of said plan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And now I know that I'm going into the fall and that's a different plan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I've got to, like mentally, start to shift. So that was going to be my first advice that I gave how do you make those shifts?
Speaker 1:And that's a different plan. Yeah, and so I've got to like mentally start to shift. So that was going to be my first advice that I gave how do you make those shifts? So what tell me about your gearbox?
Speaker 2:I need a day. Okay, I need.
Speaker 1:Like a Lord's day or like a holiday.
Speaker 2:It's not a rest day. It's the exact opposite.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I, I need a dream planning day. Okay. So I need a dream planning day. Okay. So the thing that will excite me and get me like you're talking about how it naturally happens for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I got to plan that.
Speaker 1:So let it be said on July 27th we will make the formal shift from summer to fall, there will be dreams. Let it be decreed unto the land that this is now fall student ministry but that's the way that that's.
Speaker 2:I know how I'm wired and so for me, like that's a part of it, but so, if, if, I wanted to be really good, yeah, I needed to make it special okay like this is the day where it's like okay if I normally work in my office or I normally work at home, like my ideal is if I could go, like do, to a retreat. Oh coffee shop time or a coffee shop, but I'm going to sit with it all day, so you're, you're physically shifting.
Speaker 1:I need, I have to have the work shifts and the location shifts. That's an important piece that I don't know. I mean, I I love hearing it like I, selfishly, I'm like, I'm with you, but I think for some folks like, it's hard to make that energy happen in the same office or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you're you're in maintenance mode or you're in this like summer rut or whatever you want to call it or it's the frustration of I need to be doing something big and so it's like you've got to, instead of just being like oh well, I feel unsatisfied right now so I need to have something next week. Pause, okay, breathe. Yeah, we've had a plan. Yeah, we're gonna carry that out. Yeah, but now let's start.
Speaker 2:Let's start dreaming, making the next way okay and it may not just be fall, it may be like the next you know calendar year or whatever. Yeah, but I these are great times to like pull away, start dreaming. If you have a team, if you have volunteers. Yeah, maybe not the first part of that, but like plan it out of, like okay, I'm gonna get my thoughts together yeah uh, then I'm gonna bring in other people have a little bit of a whiteboard day coffee, yeah, so if I can start with that, a little free, free, free, free, free flowing, yeah it brings energy to me, I get excited about things again.
Speaker 2:What about you? So how do you quilt the? And I've walked with you through these, so I'd love to hear what you say you do, uh.
Speaker 1:So I mean, some work has to get done every day, like there, there is some some things like emails come in, emails go out, phone calls have to be made, meetings are scheduled legitimately, yeah, uh, when I feel really stuck in it, the thing that I found the most is to work on me. So read something. That's not again, it's a little. We talked about the last episode legitimately, yeah, when I feel really stuck in it, the thing that I found the most is to work on me. So read something. That's not again, it's a little. We talked about the last episode. For sabbath, I have to do anything but what my job is, so it's like I don't know man, like, it's a little bit of like the like. I gotta go to a movie, I gotta go. I gotta go on a hike, I gotta go.
Speaker 1:I gotta get out of all this stuff. So that's why I'm like sympathizing with you on the like it's got to be in a new location, because sometimes it's like, yeah, we worked really hard, really hard, and so like I'll flip my day and I'll like do some yard work, because it's like I gotta go be physical, I gotta go do like something, and then it just kind of like either in the middle of the day or like the next morning it's like, oh, we're back. I don't know. It's like this like weird.
Speaker 1:There's like a biological shift of like you work so hard and pound so hard, like making something happen in one direction that, for at least me, like having the like, not not a like take it easy day, but something that like breaks the cycle of I was reading a novel or I was you know me and the boys were like like not like the boys, but like my sons were like really into a new hobby, like we've been doing the little battle top thing or whatever recently and the creativity of like thinking about this has kind of unlocked some work thoughts of just like how does some things fit together?
Speaker 1:I can't explain it, but it's like I have to almost like come at it from a whole other direction, because me, just trying to wake up every day and be like, be excited about work, be excited about work, like it, just it doesn't work. Like it just trying to like, like, like, trying to force myself to like, shift a second, shift, a second, it just doesn't show up. It's like we're gonna skate, we're gonna ride a bicycle to work today, be like man, I do miss driving a car I, I or something.
Speaker 2:I feel like what we're talking about. I think younger me probably felt moments like that, okay, and it was like I was like, oh, maybe I should be like moving church, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like feeling like oh, like a big shift like you should actually like shift jobs, roles, whatever.
Speaker 2:I think when we have these like moments of angst, like in immaturity, it's like we throw our hands up and not realizing that like there are seasons that are just like we do feel angst and we feel frustrated and a lull.
Speaker 1:Not all flowers grow year round.
Speaker 2:Speak to that.
Speaker 1:Well it's, it's the um hold on, Say that to yourself again. Hold on yeah yeah, yeah, uh, not all flowers grow year round.
Speaker 2:I feel like that is something that like once again, some 50-year-old mom has on a board in her kitchen.
Speaker 1:So if you're at Etch and you want to bring us a needlepoint, this is the cross stitch that we need. But it is a little bit man. It is the like not every week is camp, and that's to go back to last episode and a little bit of this caring conversation of how we think it's a little bit of part A, part B. You have a week of camp and you're like, oh, next week's going to be like this too, but that's not real, like you can't live that way. But that also is like part of the seasons of life.
Speaker 1:So, from my friends that are a little more liturgical, that do the circle calendar at Church, life or whatever, the biggest part of the wheel is ordinary time and so, ironically, ordinary time happens, so it's Easter and Pentecost and baptism and then, like summer, through advent is ordinary time and for for a lot of us we've got to find a way to live in that ordinary time, like faithfully, healthfully, and again, that's some of that I do think and you named it comes from growing older and just having lived through more of them. Like if you've only gone to camp two or three times, you're like, why isn't all of you history camp? But it can't be.
Speaker 2:And yet it might even be better, if and so I refer to it as a tuesday, okay, so, uh, I talk about that a lot just with in discipleship process yeah helping somebody like grow in faithfulness, yeah. Like we understand low and high moments right. Like we will often run to the Lord when the bottom's falling off, yeah. Or it's like thank you, lord, that you've brought me.
Speaker 1:And success and suffering. Blessed is he.
Speaker 2:Right, but it's Tuesday.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like Tuesday is what I want to know about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the bills are paid and the job is held Right, but nothing really happened. It's Tuesday, it's boring, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not Monday.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Monday it sucked.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not Friday that we're excited about. Yeah, and in the student ministry world, wednesday is fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, Wednesday is super exciting. We live for Wednesday.
Speaker 2:Thursday. Maybe we get to follow up. Yeah, or maybe it's good or sad. It's the shine of Wednesday, right Saturday, that's my day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sunday that's my senior pastor's day.
Speaker 1:Amen Bless him.
Speaker 2:We're thankful for him, todd, yeah, but it's Tuesday, yeah, and I think faithfulness is often found, like when it's not good, it's not bad, it's just there, yeah, and I think, learning to walk with the Lord in the mundane.
Speaker 2:There is something truly like good about that, because it protects us, I think, when the bottom falls out, and it puts it in perspective when we're on the mountain, when the bottom falls out and it puts it in perspective when we're on the mountain and I think I think God, I think I think true growth happens in that space and it's lived out and seen in the others.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I think I think for us recognizing the season and I think, I think, vocalizing it, I think sometimes we try to like brush emotions under the rug or feel like I shouldn't feel this way or I this shouldn't. You know what I mean like we almost like beat herself up. You know what I mean? Because, because I don't feel motivated or I want to change everything and I just feel frustrated that I can't and all of those kind of things. I love what you said, like to realize that there's seasons.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, I think, identifying our own patterns.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that that's I mean. You talk about Youth Ministry Booster. Yeah, and our hope and our goal and it's what I mean every one of our groups. We can't be in Right and we can't force it to happen. But one of the things that we ask, like if you're joining Youth Ministry Booster, that you're really kind of buying into this vision of so I, for a season, am committing to be a part of a group that we're going to meet monthly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in a rhythm, in a rhythm and we're going to talk about real life and we're going to get to know each other and we're going to invest in each other. Yeah, like in the same way that we see the value of our students being a small group. That's really what Youth Mystery Booster is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really what Youth Ministry Booster is. We're trying to create community for student ministers to know each other, to be known and to hopefully, over the years, that we leave this profession of student ministry in the United States better than we found it, that it's more healthy and these kind of things, and that's a required sacrifice for men and women who are willing to invest in each other's life and pour into them and encourage each other. So I think that part of what we're talking about here today, zach, is a little bit back to our own friendship.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you know me well enough to see when I'm stuck to go. Hey, buddy, maybe we need a new idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, so that was going to be the question I was going to ask you related to this conversation is so we both kind of shared. We kind of have to get outside of ourself right in one way or the other. We have to get outside of ourself, and usually getting outside of ourself takes someone other than ourself, either in the place that we're at or the people that we're with. So what would you encourage? We often hear people give advice to a person. What would you encourage? We often hear people give advice to a person. What would you give on behalf of a friend that someone else could hear to share with their friend? In what ways?
Speaker 2:Like if you're feeling, what you're talking about, what have you?
Speaker 1:offered me that you would offer somebody else to offer their buddy. Because I think that's one of the things that when we for those that don't know the story we call each other every morning 820 in the school year, 845 in the summertime Because we every morning um eight, 20 in the school year, eight, 45 in the summertime, cause it'd be sleepy. Uh, and so it was. So in what way? Like, cause those, those conversations? We don't plan them, it just happens, but we've learned things from those. So what are some of the things that you would offer? From a buddy to a buddy that if, if, again, maybe they're doing okay, but man alex or tim stephanie, they're not, they're like dragging moping, they're like rethinking their whole life in ministry. And if they should change churches and their friends like concerned about them, what would you offer? How would you advise them?
Speaker 2:to advise them or counsel or question um, I would say someone wired like you that wants the new and is looking for it. Make a change. Those type of things I would say very sincerely stop listening to the lie and remind yourself of it. You talk a lot in different scenarios about like saving photos and reminders of like what's happened and all these kind of things, and so I would remind you, like when you're feeling those kind of ways, like now is the time to pull those out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, especially like work stuff like you're talking about, it could be two weeks after you get back from an amazing summer camp and you're like angsty for the next thing yeah, and you're like I haven't done anything this week. You're like, bro, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:two weeks ago was camp yeah, you know what I mean. Kids got saved, people got called the ministry and, like families, are still sending you thank you notes and you're in the you're. You're in the dumps, right, right, yeah, but nothing happened this week, right.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think I mean, if we're going to really talk mental health, I think some of that is probably dopamine addiction.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Of like all of these things have been happening, yeah, and so then, when it gets quiet, your body's going, something should be happening. Right, got a fever.
Speaker 1:I need something should be happening, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Got a fever.
Speaker 1:I need a little Calvill yeah.
Speaker 2:Dude, if there's been all of these emotions right for yourself, you've got highest of highs of like book release speaking stuff and all of these kind of deals and then life happens. You know what I mean. You know what I mean, all of the feelings, and then you start to deal with the quiet yeah you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, then your brain's going to tell you all kinds of lies yeah instead of having somebody to remind you of what's true and what's real and so all that. So for you, you got a friend who feels like, all right, well, we've been running this one game plan. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Feels like we're starting to come into a new season. I don't feel tired, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like, what advice do you give? Uh, well, a little bit of today, I think, change the location. Like some of the best moments for us in rekindling, reconnecting, have been like when we got a chance to like go take over a coffee shop. Hey, if I knew coffee shop, come check it out. And it was just like that's where some of this started was let's go meet somewhere, let's go do something. And again, a little bit, that's like my wiring is like let's make an adventure out of nothing, right, or whatever. And so I think for someone who is like needs that hard reset, you can help by like creating the opportunity for it of like, dude, we got to go check out this new restaurant. We got to go to, we gotta go check out this new restaurant. We gotta go to this new thing. Dude, there's this cool space at the park, like at the gathering place. There's like this big reading room thing. Let's go like, let's go have coffee there it's just different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's go check it out, yeah yeah, I think you've you got to break those cycles in some way right like, and I think part of this is it's learning to know yourself.
Speaker 2:I, I don't know. I, I I think. I mean I'm 40 something years old and if you had told me that I would still be trying to learn myself when I was in my 20s, right, I've been like, because at that time I was a little learner. Well, think about it when you're like your 20s, you're like I know me, yeah, and then the older you get, you're like your 20s, you're like. I know me and then the older you get, you're like I don't know who I am.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit like being the age you are still biting your tongue. Yeah Right, like there's that, like this thing's been here the whole time and we're still doing it, like yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I think, the realization of knowing some of your patterns that you get into. So if you're listening, you know we're getting closer to summer. We know a lot of youth ministers feel this way. Our big encouragement, and one of the reasons that we even started doing podcasting, was to connect with youth workers. And so, man, if there's any way that we can ever connect or encourage you, those kind of things, don't hesitate to reach out. Our emails are not a secret. It's our first dot, last name at Lifewaycom, and so reach out, shoot us an email. However, we can connect with you, encourage you. That is really what we hope to do here. If you're not in Youth Ministry Booster, we want to invite you to that man, zach works so hard to connect those groups. Every year we're trying to to to really make sure that those groups are connected well with each other those types of things and so awesome hosts.
Speaker 2:We have some amazing literally some of the best student ministers from around the country that lead each one of those groups for us to invest in that time. So what I'm asking you is this really weird thing, because it's not just a come and see and come and get. We're asking you to come, join a community and invest. That's what we need from people. If I'm just going to like unsugarcoat this thing, the profession that we in ministry and student ministry in general if we want to make it better, we can't just be people that throw stones and sit on Facebook groups and be like student ministry ain't as good. Forget it. We're about health and we're about growing a community of ministers that are willing to invest in each other. If that interests you and you want to be a part of that, then come and help us make a great community. We have some incredible and a large group of student ministers that are always in that every year, and so we'd love to invite you into that.
Speaker 1:Come on, man, we'll see y'all next week.
Speaker 1:Hey thanks for coming back for another episode of the Introducer Podcast. Check out more. We talked about Etch. We talked about YMB and other ways in which you can connect with a meaningful community. We mean it, friend. You stayed this far to listen to this part of the episode, so either you're a fan or you're thinking about it. Make sure to hit the emails or ask us questions online through Instagram, facebook or leave a comment on a YouTube video If you don't know where else and you just want to ask something. We are here for you and the ways in which you love and lead the next generation, so we'll talk to you soon.
