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YOUTH PASTORS: Are You Challenging Your Youth Group? · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Every single time you get up to teach, make a B line to the gospel.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Every story in the Bible connects in one way or another to the gospel.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Your students need to understand that the Bible is one big narrative of our rescue, redemption and restoration through Jesus Christ, and that just is a big challenge for youth pastors.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: To kind of up your game when it comes to teaching.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking about four ways that you can challenge your students in youth ministry.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Isn't our speech phase constant?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: There is, there is, say, children's children.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: There is, there is, there is.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: There is no completely language perspective.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: That is not really there.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: That isowanez about social distance, lgbt, native American, that Qingzhouote, kanari, amongst these people in the name of men.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: And certainly there are Zoom reporters andierte who are asking you Okay, cool story.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Today we are talking about four ways that your students need to be challenged, so let's just jump right in, because that's what we do.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: We get right to it.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: We know you're busy, you got stuff to do, you're ready for the contest.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I don't have anything to do, but here I am so number one your students need to hear the Bible as a narrative.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: That's super important for their spiritual development.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: And keep in mind, for all four of these, you are only gonna have your students for a few short years and then they've got to row on their own.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And one thing I love to be super cognizant of when I'm teaching is to make sure that I'm not just telling isolated Bible stories so like here's.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: An example is telling a story of Adam and Eve.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So you tell the story of the original sin and the fall and all of that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Well, you could just tell that story or you can connect it to the larger narrative of the Bible.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So what I would do if I was teaching Adam and Eve is I would connect them to the gospel and I would say were Adam failed, jesus was the new Adam.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: And then I would point them to the New Testament of how our failure was absorbed by Jesus and he lived the life that we were supposed to live and through his death we find new life again.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: So connecting the Old New Testament, making a B line, as Rick Lawrence would say, to the gospel.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So really great book for this.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I have books for all of my points today.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: A really great book for this is one that totally transformed the way I thought about teaching in youth ministry, and it's called Jesus Centered Youth Ministry by Rick Lawrence, and his whole point is that every single time you get up to teach you've got to make a B line to the gospel.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Every story in the Bible connects and, one way or another, to the gospel.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: You can always bring Jesus into every story, because Jesus is the narrative of the Bible itself.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: So the point here is your students need to understand that the Bible is one big narrative of our rescue, redemption and restoration through Jesus Christ.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: They've got to understand that there is no point in teaching them the story of Shadrach, meshach and Abednego unless you talk about Jesus.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: There's no point in telling the story of David and Goliath unless you talk about Jesus, there's no point.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: There's no inherent value to these stories apart from the gospel.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Because which brings me to point number two is that they need to see Christianity as more than just moralism.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: So if we're just teaching them, hey, here's a good story with a good moral to the story.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: It's Aesop's fables, right, like there has to be the power of the gospel behind each one of these things and that just is a big challenge for youth pastors.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: To kind of up your game when it comes to teaching, getting them to understand this is a big, epic story and you're a part of it.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: So what I like to do is actually draw their attention, even to the book of Revelation pretty frequently, to let them know this is the story of what has happened, but it's not over.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: The story is going to continue, and if you're a Christian, it actually mentions you and I start to take them through Revelation 19 and 20, when Jesus is coming back with the saints and lays a smackdown on evil, and I'm like you're a part of that, like this is your story too, you're the evil.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: No, you're coming back with Jesus.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Depends on the day.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: As his army.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: And I say this story is going to continue.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Evil will not run rampant forever.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Jesus will deal with it eventually.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: And so I say do you want to deal with Jesus?
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Then you want to deal with.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Revelation 19,.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Jesus, well, you're going to.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: You're either going to be on his side or you're going to stand in judgment.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And so what, jesus, do you want to meet?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: You know, and just like those sobering moments of guys, this is an epic story.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: This isn't just like the be good club.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Let me teach you guys how to be better, cleaner uppers in your house and make your family real happy.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Now, it was important to have a servant mindset.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Absolutely why?
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Because Jesus did, and he gave the ultimate sacrifice and died for our sins.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Like everything can go back to that.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, we're just teaching behavior modification, and I think that is the weakest motivation for students to stick their faith out when they get into upperclassmen, high school, college, when they're making their own decisions and adults of, oh, they just taught me how to be good.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Well, there's an app for that, I'm sure, and there's a Pinterest board for that, I'm sure of just be good for the sake of being good.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: And nobody is good except for one, and we always want to point them back to Jesus.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: So the book that goes along with this is Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh and Sean McDowell, which is a great book on.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: You know like we want students to start to engage their minds with this faith that we're telling them Like we're not just saying be a good person, but we're trying to get them to understand.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: No, this is for real, like Jesus is real.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: The Bible is true.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: All this stuff really happened.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And pointing them back to that over and over and over again, it's bigger than like.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: When I was little, I told my mom once I don't need to read the Bible, I already know what it says.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And she's like really.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Like, what does it say?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like be nice, don't say anything bad and share your stuff, and I just thought I could sum it all up like that, which I mean love God, love others, you know.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: But I just thought it was like, why would I need to read a whole book about how to be good?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Just be good Like the law of?
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: morality.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, even with your three rules, you still couldn't do it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Exactly, you know.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: But the point is we want to point them to a relationship with the one who is good, not just teach them how to be good, Because the only thing that can change and transform you is Jesus.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: So they will get to a point where they're like this doesn't work.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Well, did they ever meet Jesus?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Or did you just teach them how to be good?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And it's crazy how we can miss that and just think like well, I taught them this and this and this and this, but it's like, well, did they ever know Jesus?
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Because it's crazy, how many people are sitting in church that are religious or ritualistic, that have never met Jesus?
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I know those people, you know those people, and it's just like they don't have any transformation of faith and that would be such a tragedy for a student to come and go and just feel like, well, I guess it didn't work because I couldn't be a good person Instead of them understanding.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: No, this is so much bigger than behavior modification.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Like this is like the gospel is so simple but so deep at the same time.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: You know, however long we've been Christians, it still blows my mind, because it's like a diamond that you turn and you see a different aspect of it, of like, oh my gosh, these facets, and when this light hits this particular part, it's all illuminated all over again.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Which brings me to the third point.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Is my book, for this one is when I just finished that like blew my mind, as even a longtime Christian Tim Keller.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I'd have to say he probably has the most impact on my teaching and theology of any teacher I've ever studied or read Tim Keller's the Reason for God.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: That book is like bananas of how mind blown.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Like he takes the simplicity of the gospel but like supercharges it and makes you see it in a whole new way that if you are a skeptic or you deal with skeptics or you've ever been skeptical, like it is the most logical.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Like how could?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Like I couldn't even try to not believe in Jesus.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Like I couldn't, even if I don't want to it's just too true.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And he puts all that together.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: So, number three what our students need from us, why they need us to challenge them, is why Jesus and Christianity is so logical.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And for those of you that might be thinking well, no one ever argued anyone into Christianity.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about teaching your kids how to debate, necessarily.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: What I am saying is that students knowing the facts and not just thinking like, well, this is just, we have faith.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: You know what does that mean?
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: That's so vague, I don't know what just have faith means, because everybody says that and it's ambiguous and it's kind of a stained glass window kind of word that loses a lot of depth to it right.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So having faith, I just think that's not enough to tell students.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: But if what got me through as a young adult, those times of doubt, was the indisputable proof, because I'd be like there's no way like that book, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist, that's a really another really good resource for this topic.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I forget who the author of that is.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: It might be Barna.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Is it the Barna group?
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: All these books will link in the description below, whether you're listening to the podcast or on YouTube.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: If you check in the description, if you want to check them out, they'll be there.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: So we'll figure out who the author is.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: All that to say.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing, barna, I could be wrong, but basically what we want to communicate to students is you don't just have to be like it's just faith, close your eyes and believe.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You know something like that.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: It's not like Santa Claus.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: We have really Santa Claus Claus.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Santa Claus Santa.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Claus the floss dental floss Santa Claus, santa Claus.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Anyways, more just like this idea, like no, it's totally logical.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: We don't have to equate it with fairy tale.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: And I think like sometimes, when you get into some of those Old Testament stories, you can be like, well, whoa, whoa, swallowed by a fish walking through fire I don't know about you guys, even Peter walking on water, like sometimes it can seem fantastical, you know, and sometimes people, well, like when you get them behind closed doors, they'll be like, do you really believe that?
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Like are you really serious right now?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And so what we want students to do is have this separation of like this isn't a fantasy world, like you know, I point them to and these aren't just boring facts.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: That's like who cares?
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: But what?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: These are things that me, as a young Christian, got me through knowing, okay, jesus was a real person, jesus really existed.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: There's more evidence to support Jesus' death and resurrection than there is that George Washington existed and died.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: And yet we just are like, yeah, george Washington's real, but yet with the Jesus stuff and I tell them about Old Testament prophecy, and there's 400 years of silence between the last Old Testament prophet and Jesus coming on the scene in the Gospels, and he fulfilled every single prophecy what's the probability that somebody could do that?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Could you even name someone in your family 400 years ago, let alone what they did, how they lived, how they died, what they wore?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: what they said all of that kind of stuff.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Yet they did that to a tee.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: People, authors that had never even met each other, all writing about the same person the same way, like get their mind blown about this stuff because when they get in that college classroom or when they're on that YouTube channel of that influencer who's distracting, or whatever it might be, they have to be able to go back to something, not just like oh, you know, one time a whale was swallowed and I learned you know, make sure you obey God.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: It's like who swallowed a whale?
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: The fish Must have been.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Oh you didn't read that one Class.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Santa Claus.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Claus, you know what I mean.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Like give them something like when did we get the Bible from?
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Let me explain that to you.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Let me explain how old it is and how they've cross-referenced each other.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And Jordan Peterson does a really cool thing on this right now, of like how many cross-references are in the Bible and like the odds of those being able to line up perfectly, and he actually draws lines from one to the other to the other, and it's like this, like rainbow almost.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Of like, oh my gosh.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: He's like there's no book, even in 2023, that has that, let alone all these different authors.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And these are the things that I.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: You might underestimate the power of logic to a particular person.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: That person is me, you know.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Coming back to creation, well, we all have to start with.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: There was nothing.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And now, there's something, every single person, whether you're an atheist or a Christian.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: You've got to jump from square one to square two.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: How did we go from nothing to something?
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: And what is your explanation of the in-between?
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: And I always tell my students the thing that I could not get over is was simple math zero plus zero, it always equals zero.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: So you're telling me for this.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: So all of modern science.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: They don't want us to believe in miracles, except for the one giant miracle called the Big Bang Theory.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: That everything else hangs on the most hard to believe.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh no, miracles defy science and we would never believe in a miracle.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: But I just humor me and believe in the Big Bang Theory, that you know what I mean.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And so I tell students what is more probable, when you look around at creation and the design that we see and I give them all these examples what is more probable that nothing and nothing got together and created complex biological systems that we don't even understand fully, and the tilt of the earth and the?
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: You know, it's just mind-blowing.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Well, what exploded and does explosion ever?
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Equal organization ever.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: No, it's destruction in life, conscious life, I mean Michael B.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: He has a great book called Darwin's Black Box and he talks about this idea of irreducible complexity, meaning that organisms can't develop slowly over time because they are nothing prior to that.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: So what would be the advantage of continuing to develop when you were nothing and non-functional one step behind?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: So there's so much out there.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of a nerd for that stuff and because it solidifies and gets me fired up as, like Jesus is real.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: This is the truth and the most beautiful thing of it is you don't even have to open the Bible, because the conversation could be over if you say well, the Bible says right here, it's like I don't believe in the Bible, oh well, now what?
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: But I love showing students how logical the faith is.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: When we start to look at archaeology, history, science, astronomy, you look at all of it.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, you put it all together and it makes a very compelling picture that our faith is totally reasonable and totally logical, and that is, I think, what we want to equip students with.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: When I'm talking about ways to challenge students is help them understand.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: This is reasonable, Like thinking people.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I read this book.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I think it was in Tim Keller's.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I just got a new book of his.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: It's called the First Christian or something like that and he's talking about like Mary Magdalene and her being seeing the risen Christ and all of that.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And this author was saying the thing that haunts him the most is how many people he really loves, respects and are highly educated that believe in Jesus and the Bible he's like.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It's like people that are like legit like that in every other sense of their life.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I totally respect them and it makes me think, like what do you know?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: That I don't know and that's what students need to know is like this isn't a bunch of like weirdos who, like are just blindly following some pie in the sky thing, like we've got evidence upon evidence upon evidence and it's like that book says it's almost like I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I couldn't if I tried, even if I didn't want it to be true, and that's kind of what that author was saying.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: He's like I don't want it to be true.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: That's why I'm running, because if I say this is true, that changes everything.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I don't want it to be true, I'm hoping it's not, I'm hoping I'm right.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: But everywhere I look, people are like this is this, is it?
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: There's no way we can refute this anymore.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: And we want students to get to that point to have some of those little nuggets in their pocket that maybe they can't articulate them to debate an atheist.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: And that's not what I'm trying to create.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I don't want kids who know how to debate atheists when they're 13,.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: But what I do want is when that little seed of doubt comes in from that tick tocker, that person in their class, that YouTuber, that professor on a college campus that they know enough to know.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I might not be able to articulate it perfectly, but I know you're wrong and that's all I need them to do right now is just have enough to be a little bit bulletproof for their faith so that when they leave me and someone tells them something weird, a little red flag or a little bell will go off in their mind to say I can't totally explain it, but I know you're wrong, and then they'll do some more research on their own and they'll solidify it for themselves.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: But I want them to at least have the foundation to know there is something to this, not just like a crutch or a fairy tale or oh.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: It's for people who are just sort of need something to get by in this purposeless life of ours.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: It's like no, like this is totally reasonable thinking people believe this, and here is why.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: This isn't just-.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately that's not the narrative that's out there.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: It's the opposite, where it's like the Christians are just like Lottie-Dah.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I'm just going along with this fairy tale and I don't ever question anything.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: But the reality is like the more you research it, the more it points back to God.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: And the people that come at you or come at Christianity I feel like they are a lot of times the ones that they're not doing their research.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: They've been told.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: It's like well, there's science and then there's religion, and science is fact and religion is just fairy tale.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: It's like, no, like a little science will take you away from God, but a lot of science, and the more you dive into it, brings you back to God.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: So it's like these simple things where it's like, yeah, but there's this, so therefore I can't believe anything.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: It's like, well, no, if you look further into this, you'll realize that this points to Jesus and so that brings up a good point which I was just talking to my students about.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: It's like hey guys, you're allowed to doubt and you need to challenge students with that.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Like you can doubt, you can ask questions.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: If we're afraid of your questions, that means we've got something to hide.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Jesus is not afraid of your questions.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of your questions.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: If any of you have doubt, that is A-okay, that's how your faith gets stronger.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: But I warn them, the most dangerous is an unexpressed doubt.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: And then you do this like feedback loop in your own mind of like, well, maybe this is wrong and these people said this and did it.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: And if you, like you were saying, if you don't research it, if you just leave it hanging, if just a question, well, yeah, maybe it could take you further away.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, if I always tell my students, guys, if Darwin were alive today, based on the science of 2023, he would laugh his head off that we're still peddling this stuff.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Because he even said, if it could be proven that organisms did not develop with slight successive modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's like saying smoking's good for you.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Well, in 1950, research maybe, but how far have we come?
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I think, he would laugh his head off.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Well, they don't have anything else to give us except for intelligent design, which they say is microwaved creationism.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: But students need to know this stuff is guys.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: They don't have an explanation.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: They don't.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: They're gonna pretend they do, but they do not have an explanation.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: So gives them a little courage to say it's not like oh, all these brains on a sticker.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Like, oh, my gosh, those silly Christians, not the case.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Expose them to people like Steven Meyer, really from the Cretan Institute, people who are very smart and very scientific, and give them these little nuggets over time.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: You don't have to hose them with it all at once, but give them these nuggets, drip it into your messages, drip it in so that they know smart, logical thinking, reasonable people are saying this is the way, so that they don't esteem the people in academia who are like oh no, they're the smart ones and we're just the idiot Christians.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: No, and that's the narrative that's out there it is, and I don't want our students to fall for it Like.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Expose them to how reasonable this is, because that gives them what they need to get by to make it in this world.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: As a Christian, we can teach them about how to resist temptation.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: That's a great message.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: But also make sure you're giving them something that, when their faith comes under fire, they're not going to sway from it because, they're like where else?
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Like I love the words of Peter when else are we going to go?
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: What's the alternative?
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And that's what I always ask my students too.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Tell me what's the alternative.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: There is none.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So even if you doubt certain parts, like you said, you can't throw the whole thing out.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: You've got to dive into that one thing and kind of figure it out and research and talk and ask and pray.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: But it's not time to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because you don't understand one part of.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Christianity.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: What happened to dinosaurs?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, I can't be a Christian.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: It's like, hold on a minute.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: We need to give them so much that they're like well, this part doesn't make sense, but 95% of it does, and so let me figure out the 5%.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I think that is such a gift that we can give our students in student ministry, because they're right around the corner from adulthood and having to do this on their own.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: The last one, number four, this kind of is a rogue one.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: It doesn't really go into the theme of what we've been talking about, but Just a little extra for you, yeah a way that you can challenge your students is give them a place to serve, figure out, help them figure out where they fit into the body of Christ, and that makes their relationship with God I feel like so well-rounded.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: It's one thing like I believe I'm a Christian.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I come to church and then I go home, but something comes alive in your soul and we've talked about this before when you're serving within the gifts that God made you.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And like that runner I think it was chariot Sapphire, he said I feel his pleasure when I'm running.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I was made to run and we wanna help students figure out.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Well, what were you made to do?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And then it's like this synchronous relationship of I feel God's pleasure.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I feel pleasure because I'm working harmoniously with him and what he's created me to do, and all we need to do is invite students into that, because a lot of times they don't even know it's an option.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: They're just like well, you work out the church, you make church happen.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: It's like whoa, no, you are the church and we make this happen together.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: What can you do?
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Let me, why don't you try something?
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: You hate it, let's do something else.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: You wanna try this, you wanna try that?
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: So, giving your students places to serve, places to try stuff, inviting them to the core of ministry, inviting them into serving, it's not just like hey time to pull your weight around here.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: You guys need to serve, but what serving does is it gives the server so much more than they're ever gonna output.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: One of my leaders he served with me for nine years and he finally took a break and he said I did a little going away party for him here, remember, and he said he was kind of like choked up, which got me choked up.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: He goes.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I got so much more out of serving at chaos than I gave.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: I know that who rescued?
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: who rescued who?
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: And it was beautiful.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Because it was that, yeah, because you were doing what you were made to do and you're so good at it.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And he texted me the other day the video of me baptizing his daughter at camp and he's like we've been part of so many miracles together, like I'm just so thankful this was such a cool season of ministry and.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I can't agree more.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: And so we want students to experience that as like there's something cool waiting for you.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: You've just gotta step out and try a couple of things and you might not hit the jackpot right away.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I remember I helped out with three year olds when I was like 19,.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, no help me.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Ah, my soul is dying, not coming alive, and I realized that's not for me.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, what else can I try?
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And you know, landed in junior high and totally love it and stuff like that.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But where can we do that service for our students?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I'm like come on, what are you good at?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Let me teach you something Get involved in church.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: You are the church you've got, and that's when people stick and come alive and get addicted to like being a part of God's family is cause they're like I did something that mattered.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Addicted in a good way.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like feeling the pleasure of God in your service is surreal.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: It is so cool and we've got to open up doors for our students to do that.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: My vehicle for it is my student leadership team.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: My student leaders get an opportunity to serve inside and outside the church.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if you have a vehicle for it, but it is just such a cool thing for students, so I feel like I got really passionate today.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, you need to take a nap or something, I don't know I had a big matcha earlier.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe that was it.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe there's no caffeine in matcha.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: You know what it is.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: It's this topic.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I love talking about the reasonable basis for our faith.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: That's when I get.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: That is when I come alive.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: That is your wheelhouse.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: That's one of the things you really love to talk about when you have a guest speaking role.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I know that you really light up for that.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I do Welcome to Completely Shift.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Gears, let's do a question of the day, and this is gonna be a what is your favorite galaxy and why, and what does it say about Jesus?
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I can name one galaxy.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: So this is a.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Would you rather and this is when meeting any person for the first time would you rather have to spit into the palm of your hand and say, put her there, partner, okay.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Or put them in a headlock and say how's that armpit smell, you little freak.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'm in a weird mood.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: You're in a weird mood.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: How does that smell, you little freak?
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Probably unpopular opinion, but probably the headlock.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I have a real thing with spit.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I guess it's my own, but-.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what if they double down?
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, I hate spit they're like I call your hand spit and they spit in their own and just-.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna gag just thinking about it.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I hate spit, so I think a headlock.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like maybe I could pretend it was a hug, like kind of be like.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, sorry.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: How does that smell?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Picture the people I meet, you know, it's like oh, you know what I do so many different, like circumstance I.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Would say I would do it kind of like a hug, like a neck hug, and I'd be like how does that sell you a little freak, have you?
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Seen that movie.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: It's a line.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: No, it's a good one.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: What was the name either?
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: way.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: You just put them in a headlock first time you met the?
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: I know better like someone's grandma that came to visit church or headlock if you were ever to or to meet a King or queen or the president or whatever.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Kids and headlocks probably every single day.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I know you make a smoker armpit.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: No, but I usually put the boys in a headlock.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: What if you had to give them a new key to?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Is that what it's called?
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: I think it's a nuggie, no gee not a new new.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Gee.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Nuggy.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I think I'd go with the spit one, just to be I don't know.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: It feels like they can refuse, and then you could say, okay, well put her there, they're their partner.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: All right, weirdest one.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I'm running low on ideas.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: Let's do a quick community comment of the day.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: This comes from KC, like letters, kc 785 to sir at Kansas City maybe.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: So helpful.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: This podcast provides everything games, encouragement, strategy, fun ideas, etc.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: It has helped me in youth ministry so much.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Highly recommend.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: We appreciate that.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Kc 785 to thank you, kc 785 to extra, taking the time and putting that 78 Thank you for taking the time to put that review on our podcast.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: If you guys are listening, we would be so thankful if you would just take 30 seconds and leave us a review.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: That would be one you act like you don't know what you're going to say.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: So here's the thing I've been toying with the idea of miking myself up during when I'm greeting at church.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, I have become more and more socially awkward over the years.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: You need to get out more job and that, yeah, I feel like greeting is making it worse.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: It's not even worth repeating.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Dumb stuff, that I say that like it's an out-of-body experience as I'm listening to the words that come out of my mouth and it's every week that, every week that I have to serve that, that I do the green.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's not do the greeting.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's not how God has gifted you.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I don't think I need to put you back in junior.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been trying for years and I'm like you're funny texting people like I can't believe what I just said to somebody.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Not bad, just so dumb and awkward and weird.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: I put him in headlocks.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: So I'm asking when I'm greeting people, should I?
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Which one should I go with?
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: But anyways, kc 7852.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for the for the review.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, hey.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you guys, so much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the ministry coach podcast where we bring you weekly Welcome to the ministry coach podcast for every week, we what is it?
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: What?
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: What are four ways that you can challenge your students in youth ministry that's coming up.