Latest / The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison / Why This Camp Founder Says Gen Z Is the Church's Best Hope | Dan DeMatte

Transcript

Why This Camp Founder Says Gen Z Is the Church's Best Hope | Dan DeMatte · The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_06: I'd rather be on the streets talking to the poor people than hear networking.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm like, all right, I'm prepared though.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_06: This is part of my job.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can do hard things.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_06: And we were just like, all right, we're just gonna share Jesus with our class.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_06: And it was really beautiful, a class of people who are, you know, hurting with anxiety.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_06: And I was like, okay, this is like I think what my life is meant for, to lead people to him.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: You knew that in eighth grade.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I mean, I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but nope, all perfection.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's been no problem.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Don't ruin this vision for me.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_06: I think our call is to live in the world, to love the world, to be a part of the world, and to learn how to wrestle with living our Catholic faith every day in a normal, natural, healthy way that doesn't say the world's evil and bad, but instead to be able to see the good and the beauty.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_06: And there's so much goodness in the world.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: So much goodness in the world.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we all have so many Catholic devotions, right?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_06: And I was like, I want to be the saint that's like known for the devotion of the big toe of Jesus, you know?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_06: But no, that's not my devotion.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm excited because I've heard about you for a long time, which I'm sure that sounds creepy.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_06: You've been stalking me for how long?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the one, no, yeah, yeah, seriously.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean, I in Texas, we have, which is where I'm from.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm in Houston.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: We have a couple of camps like the Pines, and we have, you know, a lot of speakers and things like that.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: And then every now and then people will be like, Oh, have you heard of this thing called Damascus?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, that's not real.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so they're like, No, it's in Ohio, and it's like, and also it's in Maryland.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_06: We're in Maryland.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_06: We have a camp in Michigan as well.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_06: Do you really?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: So you have three different ones?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, our goal is to be across the whole country.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so you do want to be across the country.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Where are you hoping to go to next?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: With yeah.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I would say either probably southeast area, like uh that part of the country or west coast for sure.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, that would be amazing.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, okay, so what is it?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's a you Damascus is for those who don't know, who aren't in Ohio, Michigan, or Maryland.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's a camp.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: But it's all year, like you guys do programming all year long, don't you?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_06: So we consider ourselves a missionary movement.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_06: So we we really raise up young adult missionaries who just love Jesus Christ and love the call of mission on the church.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_06: And we use outreach to middle schoolers and high schoolers as a way to form young adult missionaries.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_06: And so we run camps, retreats, conferences.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_06: We serve about uh 25 to 35,000 kids every year.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_06: Uh three day to six day events.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_06: It's pretty cool.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, now, so are you are you the guy that came up with all of this?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Are you that guy?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Are you the one that founded it?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: I want you to be that guy.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, no, well, geez, Jesus works in teams.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_06: So I I was a critical part of the team, but I wasn't the only guy.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, I'm one of the founders.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_06: You're one of the guys.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, one of the guys.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the one of the first times that I actually heard about Damascus is my son, he did vagabond ministry.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yes.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so he was in Pittsburgh working, you know, in the in the inner city with youth.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: And then he goes, Mom, I'm driving these kids to a camp in Ohio.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, you're driving?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: He was 19.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_06: And I was like, A bunch of inner city kids to Ohio.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, this sounds like a terrible plan.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, who is in charge of this?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_06: You can even, you're not old enough to get a rental car and you're driving a bus full of kids.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_06: You understand where my concern was.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: And it's vagabond kids, which we love them, but they're still they're, you know, they're a little rougher on the edges.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_03: They're not, you know, they got some stuff going on.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so he said he came back and I was like, well, how is how is the retreat?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: How he ended up having his hair shaved on stage and like he yeah, he did all this crazy stuff.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: He loved it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: He had like this great experience.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: But I said, So what did you think about Damascus?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Well, I'm not sure if we're their normal clientele.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: We work with a lot of white suburban Catholic kids, not necessarily a ton of urban youth, but because we came in and we were like, so we need to explain what our kids they have different uh boundaries than other kids.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: It was like it was great.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, so that was kind of my my first touch with it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then um I have family friends that I was talking to you about earlier, yeah, that they're um, you know, they have a daughter right now that's working with you guys, and it just sounds so beautiful because, like you said, you what y'all are doing, and I'm you know, speaking for you, and I want to hear what you have to say.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: You're not just forming the youth in the area, but you are forming these young adult leaders.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that seems very intentional.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Is that what makes Damascus, in my opinion, different than other programs that are out there?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, I think the every program has its own unique flavor.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_06: I think 100%.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_06: I think God has just given us a charism for being people who are super Jesus-centered, mission-focused, and joy-filled.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_06: And so uh we love Jesus more than anything.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_06: And we want people to know Jesus and to love him as well and to live Jesus' life.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_06: We want to imitate Jesus as much as we can.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_06: And then we love mission.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_06: So we just form young adult missionaries who are mission-oriented that everything they do from sunup to sundown, it's mission, mission, mission.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_06: And we love joy.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_06: And so, like we we always say that you know, there's nothing boring about Catholicism, there's just a bunch of boring Catholics.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_06: And so, like, our goal with our ministry is just not to be boring Catholics and to give the kids because young people just there's nothing worse than being involved in a parish or a church dynamic that it's boring and dead and apathetic.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_06: And we're like, well, why did you leave the church?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_06: It's like, well, because you gave me such a bad example of what it looked like to live a joyful Catholic life.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_06: And so our goal is to give kids a positive experience with the Catholic Church, deeply rooted in the sacraments in a joy-filled environment where they're like, wow, these people love Jesus, and that that love has transformed their life to the extent that they're giving their lives to others.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's amazing.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: So you've got to, I mean, how long has Damascus?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's been around for like what, 20 years or so?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we're in our 25th summer.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_06: 25th summer.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_06: That's exciting.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: Your silver anniversary.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, actually 26th, I guess.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_06: We started in 2001.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_06: But we didn't start as a like, you know, we did not start as a like professional ministry.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_06: We started as like a ragtag group of like, you know, I was a teenager uh running a summer camp for middle schoolers.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_06: And so it's one week of camp for 63 kids that went to our church.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_06: It was basically a glorified vacation Bible school.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_06: And uh, and that ministry is like a group of us that just were like, wow, we we want to give young people uh an experience of the church that we feel like we didn't have uh as young people.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_06: And we just kept doing it year after year.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_06: 60 one week of camp turned into two weeks of camp, turned into four weeks of camp, turned into eight weeks of camp, and now it turned into a national movement.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_06: It took 15 years for it to become a full-time job.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_04: But you did it.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: You're here.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you could go back and say something to that teen kid that you were, what would you say?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: What would you say to your younger self, really and truly, like as as you were building all this stuff?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like speaking now, 20 years, 26 years later, what would you speak into?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: What truth would you say to that kid to keep him going on?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think uh that's a great question.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_06: I just think that uh Jesus' vision of the way he loves people in the gospels is the best vision for life.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that's I fell in love with Jesus in seventh grade.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I went on a mission trip and I did a I was in Appalachia.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_06: I saw the poorest of the poor in America.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_06: It blew my mind as a seventh grader.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_06: And I got back to my suburban Catholic school, and I realized, wow, there's a ton of poverty in my own school, right?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_06: Like uh I don't know if I was different or if like what happened, but when I got home from this mission trip, all of a sudden I realized, wait, my classmates have scars all over their wrist and they're OD.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_06: Oh wow.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_06: I remember going to my mom as like a seventh grader, like, mom, I don't, I don't know what to do.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_06: Like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, whereas like there's so much, like I just saw this poverty in Appalachia.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_06: And then now I'm experiencing like the pain and the hurt and the suffering of my own classmates in a suburban neighborhood.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_06: And she was like, you know, Dan, the the only answer in this world is Jesus.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_06: He's the answer to all the pain, hurt, suffering, and brokenness.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_06: And so, like my first retreat, I I knocked on the parish uh rectory and I asked the priest, I was like, Hey, we don't have a youth ministry program.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_06: Can you unlock the gym?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm just gonna run a retreat for my eighth grade class.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_06: And uh so as an eighth grader?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so it was like going into our eighth grade year.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_06: The the parish initially was like, Well, I don't know, liability, it's sure.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_06: No kidding.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_06: But they unlocked the gym for us, and it was a Michael, we our theme for the retreat was Michael W.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_06: Smith.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_06: It was I I think I can't even remember what song it was of his, but it and we were just like, all right, we're just gonna share Jesus with our class.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_06: And it was really beautiful, a class of people who are you know hurting with anxiety and suicidal ideation.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_06: They gave their life to Jesus, and and like I was like, okay, this is like I think what my life is meant for to lead people to him.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: You knew that in eighth grade.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I mean, I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but nope, all perfection.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_06: There's been no problems.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: But don't ruin this vision for me.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_06: I'm just kidding.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I mean, I think it was pretty clear that Jesus was was uh I mean, I just have always had an eye for the broken.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_06: And uh I think that it was like, okay, how can I serve them?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's just so profound.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: So before eighth grade, tell me that you wanted to be like, I don't know, a police officer or a fireman.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_06: So many imaginary friends.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_06: Like, yeah, Joe, like I didn't if you're gonna make imaginary friends as a middle schooler, they should have good names, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_06: But my imaginary friend, yeah, they were Joey and Bob.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: No, you would Joey, but I had a little dragon and I can't remember his name.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: See, you gotta remember this guy's stuff.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: I can't remember his name.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: I can remember he had a porta potty in the bathroom, yeah, and he would he would sit on it in the corner and I would be like, Stop, like you're bothering me.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: Move your tail.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like I remember talking to him like that, and I for the life of me, can't remember his name.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I love that though.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, so you had a but that makes a lot of sense if you were a kid that had a big imagination and understood the power of play.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think that's something that doesn't always get incorporated, especially in a spiritual sense, how important play is, especially with God.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I was actually, I was actually on a retreat and the priest said, I want everybody to close their eyes and I want you to imagine that you were playing a game with Jesus, and then I want you to share what game are you playing with him?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: What is he playing with you?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it was so profound how many men were like, We're throwing a ball together in the front yard.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: They're crying.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're like ballot wound, you know, at these guys, which we're not supposed to do on retreats.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: But but do you see a connection between play and the growth of spirituality in a young person?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so we teach our missionaries what we call the theology of play.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_06: It's like God reveals himself through play.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we did it.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_06: Well done.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_06: Nice, but it's really important to us because so our methodology and ministry is high adventure activities lead to a high adventure faith.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_06: So we play with kids, uh, we do adventure activities like paintball, zip lines, rock walls, like high ropes, and we just get them out in the element doing things that they haven't done before, goofing off with them.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_06: We put seminarians and capuchin priests and religious sisters and habits, and these like the priests religious are out there like playing paintball with the kids in their habits.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_06: They're out there on the zip line in their habits.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_06: And what happens is like it's like, oh, okay, the faith is normal, and all the barriers let down.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_06: Like we do, like we throw away time doing funny skits, all kinds of silly games, putting paint all over kids.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_06: Because I think it's what the heart has been conditioned to protect itself in this world.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_06: And what happens when you play is those that that barrier of fear comes down.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_06: And when that barrier of fear comes down, the first person who you accidentally let in is God, right?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_06: The Holy Spirit starts coming in and and and softening your heart.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_06: And then once God starts softening your heart, then you're able to start communicating with your small group and your small group leader, and then real discipleship starts.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's silly sometimes that we try to do discipleship and these like well one-hour classroom setting type environments where it's like, what like how is how is a classroom actually gonna open the kids' heart?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_06: And how are you how do you expect a a one-hour session once a week to really break open the barriers of self-protection the kids have formed?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_06: And so, yeah, so we throw a lot of time away to play, and uh, and what we have found is that leads to a real powerful transformation.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's I mean, I absolutely believe in that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I can see where where that you know, the breaking down.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: I love how you explained that around the heart, and then the Holy Spirit can come in.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: That was great.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: I I really like that.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: How has doing what you do affected your family, your family life?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_06: It's the best.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_06: I have four kids, and uh, so they were raised at camp, basically.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, we would spend all of our summers at camp, and uh my you know, like they were my my son Giovanni, he was born, and then two weeks later we were off to camp.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_06: Like, so they like they were conditioned, and uh in the early years it was wild because we were renting different campsites, so we didn't own our own property until 2016.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_06: So from 2001, yeah.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: So okay, then that's pretty recent.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_06: So 01 to 015, we I mean 015, uh, yeah, sounded good.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_06: We were renting, and I mean, we we would rent these small, broken down, beat up campsites because what other campsite other than a failing campsite has open weeks for you to rent?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_06: And so we are renting them out, and uh like we wanted so many kids to get there because we always had wait lists, and so we our family would stay in a bike shed, and so my my wife and I had four little babies, and our house for the summer would be a bike shed.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_06: And uh she's still married to you today?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_06: Well, yeah, I mean, it was yeah, so it's a constant debate, but yeah, so it was a beautiful like if you can make it through a bike shed situation, that's impressive.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_06: She she was impressive, yeah, yeah.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_06: It was impressive.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's incredible, but it was like our kids like knew no other, right?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_06: They just loved the woods, run around, freedom.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it was beautiful.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_06: It really blessed our family life.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: So, how have you seen the besides just your children, which I want to I want to hear about this also, like your personal life, but the kids that have walked through those doors or you know walked onto that camp, how have they changed in the last 20 years?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: Have you seen any change in because you know, you hear the older general these kids these days, you know?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like, doesn't every older generation say that about the younger generation?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I do have to say it does feel like, and maybe I'm showing my age, but it does feel like there's been a lot that has come at these kids at this point that didn't exist, yeah, you know, 20 years ago that they are having to navigate, that then parents are trying to navigate.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, how have you seen that on a camp level?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's a great question.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_06: I I think the I think the youth population uh always changes, but also doesn't change, right?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_06: Like young people, the reason I love them is that they they they have a vision for the future and a vision for change that I think sometimes adults have a hard time for.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_06: They have a uh a desire to try new things.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_06: Like I think the reason young people encounter Jesus way more quickly than adults do is because they they're not afraid to try something different and they don't open their hearts.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_06: Adults are very closed off.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_06: Like I I run a lot of ministry and I do a ministry for young people and for adults, and it is easier to minister to youth than it is because adults are so self-protective and so guarded.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_06: And and then we're like, well, why aren't the kids opening their hearts?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_06: It's like, well, do you have you really opened your heart very much?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_06: And but it's so I I think I I love their beauty, their vision for the future, their desire for change.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_06: They're like, I I the reason John Paul II and Pope Benedict and Pope Francis spoke so beautifully at World Youth Days is because young people have a real vision for a a better future, and so I've always seen that in the kids.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_06: But I I think today, believe it or not, I think the um the reality of young people today is the best I've ever seen it because they're really struggling with like I don't want to be a part of a church that doesn't love like Jesus loves.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_06: Like if I'm gonna do this church thing, it's gonna cost me something.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I don't want it to be just an institutional expression of white right wing politics.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_06: I want it to be a real expression of a transformed heart that loves people like Jesus loved people.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_06: And that means that I can't put myself in a box, I can't find myself by some uh secular label.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_06: I wanna I wanna understand who Jesus is, I want to encounter him, hear his voice, and I want him to tell me how to live my life.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_06: And and so I think there's a real like uh expectation that the church has to be credible and you're not gonna sell me a bill of goods.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_06: And so they they demand something of the church.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_06: They're not just following along the way, they there's a demand and and there's a uh a demand and and then a hunger.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_06: Like they really, really want to know God.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_06: And they're um they're willing to uh put themselves out there to discover the divine.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_06: And when they discover the divine, they're not afraid to um allow that to become a real part of their life.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_06: And so I I think this population of young people right now, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, they they they have what the church needs more than ever before.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_06: They're they're entrepreneurial, they're innovative, they're they're they're they're thinking critically.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, they're not just uh they're they're willing to use their voice to challenge uh authority.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_06: And so I think this is all good things.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's like this this feels more like Jesus and and his disciples than I've seen in a long time.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: No, that is such a good message to hear.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: That is such a message of hope and of because again, you know, it depends on who you're listening to.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: And now the world is saturated with voices.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, everybody has a voice, everybody has a platform, everybody has an opinion.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: So it does depend on, you know, who are you listening to?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: Some people are like, this is the end of the world, these kids are da-da-da-da.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Some are over here saying, No, these kids have it together, they're gonna save us.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's really great to hear someone who actually works with them and sees them on the ground level saying, guys, they've got they're they're crushing, they're gonna do amazing things.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_06: Well, and like just think about what our youth are going through right now, like it's causing them to ask questions that we didn't have, we weren't asking, like, we didn't have access to the whole world at our fingertips.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_06: We weren't hearing every every yeah, every ideology, we weren't being uh sold, uh all kind of like we weren't we we weren't faced with the brokenness and the burdens of all the world at our and and so I think because of that, the kids who are like uh serious about this, at least that show up at church events, they're like, okay, I I I like I want to know like like what's the deal?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_06: Like this world isn't working.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_06: So, like, whoa, what's the answer here?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_06: And uh I think they're finding a lot of hope in Jesus.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: No, I think that's incredible because instead of being part of the problem, they want to help fix the problem, you know, which starts with God, which starts with with a relationship with Christ, yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: Where they can come to a place like Damascus and get formed and experience that.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I gotta ask, do you think you'll be there 20 years from now?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's uh that's always the question.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, I have 25 years behind me, and I've got another 25 years clearly uh of runway.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm like, okay, yeah, what do we do?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I think there's a uh We have Red Bull.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we have Red Bull.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I I mean, I I think I well, I'll I'll never get old, right?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_06: Like it's all perpetual youth.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_06: But um keeps you young.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_06: No, I think so.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think the the goal is uh at a zero.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_06: So our our methodology and mentality and ministry is always at a zero.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_06: So if you've served 30,000 young people, well, let's add a zero.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_06: God wants us to think, plan, pray, and strategize until we get to 30, 300,000 young people.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_06: And so I think that's the the, you know, like our plan is to reach every young person with the name of Jesus and to raise up a missionary culture that's able to go to the nation.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_06: So I hope I I love our missionary program.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_06: Like right now, we have 400 young adults serving as missionaries uh across the country with our ministry, and we were able to form them and shape them.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_06: And we have a mentorship program that uh coaches them and trains them on the missional life of a Catholic all summer long.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_06: And then I've been able to have 25 years of watching what these young adult missionaries go off and do.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_06: So I know all the fruit that's come from my ministry, not because I not just the work I've done, but the work of those I've formed that are now doing more work.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_06: And it's like, uh like I want to keep doing that.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_06: So if I can send, if I can send hundreds and thousands of missionaries across the world to uh proclaim the name of Jesus, and that's what my life is given to, like, yeah, sign me up.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_06: What's better than that?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, geez.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_06: So it used to be like I want to serve the youth.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_06: Now it's I want to raise up young adult missionaries who are equipped to serve the the church for the rest of their life.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: Do a lot of the youth come back to be formed as young adult missionaries?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we get a lot of that, yeah.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of return.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: And for you and your family, how what is the age range for your kids?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_06: Oh yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_06: I have one middle schooler, 12, and then three high schoolers, uh, so uh 12 through 17.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: So are you interested, or maybe they're already showing their their colors?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Are they interested in going off and becoming missionaries for Damascus?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: Or are they kind of like, well, we've done it, we've put in our time.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we don't know where in a bike show.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_06: I think I think they'll all serve at least one summer.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_06: We have a two-year mission program.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_06: And so, like, uh, but I'm always like, I kind of want you to be formed in other people's houses, you know, like it's not necessarily healthy if you're only because every Catholic ministry has a uh a charism that the Holy Spirit's given them, and we have a very distinct charism, and uh I think it's healthy to an adolescent formation to experience other charisms.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_06: And so uh I think they'll definitely do missional work.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_06: I just don't know if it'll be with us.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_06: I uh but I you know I'm I'm introducing them to other mission programs and hopefully that they'll find a place that suits them well.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I think that's so fascinating.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's gonna be really fun as a parent.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's already fun as a parent.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what you think, but you know, I have a 23-year-old and a 16-year-old.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so to see them turning into the people that you were hoping that you were, you know, kind of molding a little bit or kind of shaping into, and especially as Catholic parents, you're wanting them to keep the faith.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: Were you a cradle Catholic?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have or you know, like did you start out all the way from the beginning from birth as a Catholic?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Or did you find it later?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what is your what is your story with with your own Catholicism?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I've uh yeah.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I grew up in a Catholic home, went to Catholic schools my whole life.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_06: I went to Catholic Catholic uh elementary school, high school, uh college, and my master's.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_06: So I got all the Catholic education.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you weren't gonna be a fireman.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I wasn't gonna be a fireman.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_06: No, but it was I mean it was it was my formation.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, but I did definitely, I mean, I remember my senior year in high school, I had a journal.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and my journal was like the first page, like what my church will be like.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_06: So my plan throughout high school was like, Oh, I'm gonna leave the Catholic church because I was hanging out with all these cool Protestants, they talked about Jesus, they read their Bibles, they shared Jesus with the world, and they loved, they love, they had a passion and enthusiasm that I didn't see in any of the Catholic stuff I did.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_06: So I was like, kind of like, okay, I'm gonna leave the church and I'm gonna start my own church.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, evangelicalism's great, I can do it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_06: And uh so and in my senior year, I had a pretty profound encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist that was kind of a mic drop moment for me.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, all right, so it's like redefining.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so I think for for me, it was like, okay, I don't think the Catholic Church is serving young people as well as it can.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_06: I don't, I think there's a lot of uh brokenness in the church that needs healed, and um, I just want to be a part of the solution.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: So it is kind of interesting that you didn't start your own church, but you did definitely start a movement.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: Your parents must not be surprised by that at all.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: They, you know, if did they know that you had this journal and this dream of leaving the church?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_06: I remember I remember an argument one time in high school with my mom.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_06: She I was like, all you do is listen to some old celibate guy in Rome, and I'm gonna think for myself.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_06: She's cried and she's like, and I was kind of a I was a cool punk rocker in high school.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_06: Like everywhere like studs all up my arm.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_06: A bike chain, like a legit bike chain I took off of a bike, cleaned it up.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, no, I'm gonna do a joker.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_06: Like I'm not gonna go to a hot topic and buy a chain.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_06: Like, I'm gonna make my own.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_06: This is gonna be authentic.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you just brought it in a hot topic.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_06: That is fantastic.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_06: That was the place about it.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: Every time I pass a hot topic, which is not often, I'm always like, I gotta go in there.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's like it's like a magnetic, there's not great stuff in there anymore.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_06: But uh shout out to uh Gwen Stefani and uh my wife and I just were in Vegas and oh my god, it was the black It was unreal, it was like the best thing ever.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, she crushed, she's like 900 years old, yeah, and she's like jumping all over the stage in her like fish nets.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_06: I think it was living the gospel in the way that's like normal and natural, I think.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that's like what you mentioned my kids.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_06: Like one of our goals in parenthood is like to make sure, and this is kind of a concern that we have as parents in America right now and American Catholicism is sometimes we actually gently just isolate our kids and put them in our little Catholic bubbles, and they're like, well, we're gonna put you in a little homeschool bubble growing up, and then we're gonna put you in our little like Catholic university that's super safe and sheltered, and then we're gonna like make sure that and it's just this bubble.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_06: And we we're very much like, no, we want you to understand the world because I think our call is to live in the world, to love the world, to be a part of the world, and and to learn how to wrestle with living our Catholic faith every day in a normal, natural, healthy way that doesn't say the world's evil and bad, but instead to be able to see the good and the beauty of uh of where is God moving in the world?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_06: And and there's so much goodness in the world, so much goodness in the world, yeah, even with the bike chain around.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: I love the bike chain people, you know.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm like, they're still my people.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_06: I can't say I have all of those things, yeah.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's what we're gonna call Bob Lapneski right now.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I've I've been negotiating with God since the beginning.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_06: Like, can I like can I do multiple different things?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, like I have I have lots of desires in my mission of life, and you just have me in this one little bucket over here, but but he has kept you there, which it sounds like you're doing exactly what you should be doing, yeah.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it's and it's kind of you know, dripping around you, which is so fantastic because you know, I've known a lot of people, like I said, who have come across Damascus and they literally their lives were changed.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: And that's gotta be how do you not let your own ego get inflated by having such profound experiences that came from Jesus, but it's because you directed it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: That you you built this space.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: If you build it, they will come.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then you're having these profound stories of you know, you're changing lives.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: How do you keep your ego in check with that?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, well, uh there's I think the greatest spiritual gift God can ever give you is the breaking of the ego, right?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_06: Like when it actually breaks, like so.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_06: I can't say I was never ego, but I do think God really has brought a breaking of that in my life.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_06: And I think it's uh there's something.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I mean, it's just it's so holy to see young adults changing, like ministering to middle schoolers and high schoolers and changing their lives.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_06: It's like it's not, it's not a it's not a it's like it it happens, like you said, the kids' lives are changed, and they it's not like oh wow, we do this camp with like you know 300 campers and one kid's life.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_06: Like we've seen for 25 years consistently, like every kid is encountering Jesus, and every kid is their life is being transformed, and and they're hearing his voice in a real way, and they're encountering his presence in a real way, and they're they're being filled with the Holy Spirit in a very real way.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_06: These these testimonies that we hear, they're it's not it's not make-believe, it's not emotionalism, it's it's real, it's real healing, real power, real presence.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_06: And and so I I think that the easiness behind it is um it's like, well, yeah, I couldn't manufacture this.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_06: Like I manufacture a lot, uh, and it it's just show.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_06: I you can't manufacture a kid saying, I heard Jesus say I love you.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_06: Like you can't, like only Jesus can say those words in a way that a young person receives them.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_06: And so there is no manufacturing of that, yeah.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so I think it's just I love the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of all conversion, and uh it's uh I think that's it's just like yeah, okay, Holy Spirit, you did this, not me.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: No, I love that.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a specific devotion that keeps you grounded at all, or a specific saint or someone that that tethers you beside your wife that tethers you to the world and keeps you we all have so many Catholic devotions right now?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_06: Like, I want to be the saint that's like known for the devotion of the big toe of Jesus, you know?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_06: No, that's not my devotion.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I I would say my like my deepest go-to devotion is just Jesus uh like loving people on the streets.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and so like I think I have a devotion just to the life of Jesus, like in relationship with Zacchaeus, in relationship with like uh Mary Magdalene.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_06: Like so I think those are like those interactions are like my deep devotion, but uh Therese and Francis, those uh the those two get my heart all the time.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and so I have a huge devotion there as well.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're like the prom king and queen of Catholicism.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_06: They are, they are, yeah.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we voted.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_06: I feel like that's so cool.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: They got all the votes, but they weren't dry.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're they're like right there, they switch over here.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: But no, that's so great.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: I want to say thank you so much for being here because I've wanted to meet you forever and you know, and and hear your story and and who you are and what it is that you're doing.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I really appreciate your time.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_03: The the last question I was always asked my guests is how can we be praying for you?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: What is something we can do um and joining you in prayer?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much for asking.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, you know, um it's I that question is always hard because you want to be sincere about it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_06: And I think my sincere heart is like, I I would love for a real missionary movement to like just continue to be raised up that it would uh that Damascus would multiply and multiply, and not because of a marketing plan, but because God actually brought multiplication.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: Not because you want more bike sheds.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: I can't get over bike.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: You have a good wife.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_03: This has been fantastic.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: You're amazing.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_06: This is part of my job.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can do hard things.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_06: And we're just like, all right, we're just gonna share Jesus with our class.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_06: And it was really beautiful, a class of people who are, you know, hurting with anxiety and I was like, okay, this is like I think what my life is meant for, to lead people to him.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_03: You knew that in eighth grade.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but all perfect don't ruin this vision for me.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_06: I think our call is to live in the world, to love the world, to be a part of the world, and to learn how to wrestle with living our Catholic faith every day in a normal, natural, healthy way that doesn't say the world's evil and bad, but instead to be able to see the good and the beauty.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_06: And there's so much goodness in the world.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: So much goodness in the world.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: But we all have so many Catholic devotions, right?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_06: I want to be the saint that's like known for the devotion of the big toe of Jesus, you know.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_06: But no, that's not my devotion.