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Young Adults and Families and the Church with Julian Scavetti · Centrally Speaking

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Centrally speaking, it's the Central Schoenfeller Church's podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks about issues that would be of interest to our society.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, it addresses how a Christian worldview intersects with Western secular culture.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of the church's founder, we take the perspective of the middle way, which is in agreement with the historic Christian Church.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Drake Williams, Minister of Mission and Theology at the Church.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Our website is www.cscfamily.org.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Today I'm joined by Julian Scavetti, who is not only a good friend, but also the pastor of young adults and families here at the church.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Julian.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: And uh congratulations on uh the passing of uh your nation exam uh just uh a few weeks ago.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate that, and I appreciate uh uh everybody's support here at the church.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great church, uh loving people who uh who always lift you up in prayer and encourage you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: So uh I'm uh I'm uh blessed by everybody and uh I feel like this is more of a group effort.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Julian, you've been a pastor here at Central Schwenckfelder Church for over ten years, and you've been working largely with the youth as you were finishing off your Master of Divinity at uh Mystio Seminary.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: During that time, of course, you've seen changes in in the youth, uh the youth culture.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Could you share uh some of your observations as to how youth have changed and also how uh ministering to youth has changed?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: I think um overall culture has and and will continue to have an impact uh on students socially.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Ministering to youth is very unique because uh number one, there's a lot that stays the same.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: If you can reflect back to your high school days, not a lot has changed as far as the struggles that you have trying to fit in socially, the pressure of grades, the pressure of parents, all of these outside forces, the struggle to find your identity and who you are and fit in.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's the same.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: The way that students uh all throughout the these are are impacted by their environment has changed.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: And in particular with technology.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Growing up, you and me would talk on the phone, people we were dating, girlfriends, and we would some people be on the phone for hours and hours.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I remember uh the the shock that I experienced uh when on a youth trip where I was not allowing the students to have cell phones, and mind you, they had flip phones at the time.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: One of my uh students said, Well, I I need to I need to get in touch with my girlfriend.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, you can call her and talk to her from my phone.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: You just can't have your own phone.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: And he was appalled.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: He said, I don't want to talk to her, I want I just want to text.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a uh you you it's like that passing of notes in the classroom it moved to the phone.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so now you're passing notes back and forth.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: I guess there's more courage behind writing something and and waiting to see how that is communicated and the reaction that you get from that than to actually talk and speak with somebody voice to voice.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a lot of miscommunication when you're when you're texting, when you're writing somebody on social media, than when you're actually on the phone with them and you can hear the tone of their voice and and what they mean.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of lot of social cues that you miss in that.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and there's a lot of social cues that you miss from the phone to actually speaking in person.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: I remember uh it was about a year ago coming back uh driving an event.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm used to I like conversation.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: I like people to get to know one another, you know, life on life.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: All right, what's going on?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: We'll tell what did you think about the the trip to the theme?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: What was your favorite thing?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll try and get people talking because students don't talk anymore.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: We've we've totally lost the art of conversation, and and students need to learn that art of conversation because they they're closed off and they're in their own worlds and in their phones.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: Car full of students.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: I was driving back from uh a trip to to Hershey Park.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: All the students in the car were tuned into their phone.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: These were friends, none of them were talking to one another, and I had a big conversation about that in the car with them.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel life on life then becomes even more important when people are texting or sending em emojis back and forth to each other?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: Is that is that time together then especially more important?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, definitely.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh time together is i is much more special than it was before because you don't have a whole lot of it.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: You're you're stuck in your emojis came out because you want to communicate more, uh, that you a deeper conversation through messaging and just writing, it it has taken over and uh and people relationships have have really suffered.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, with relationships suffering and people plugged into technology more, do you find that uh affects students and their interest in Christian faith?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yes and no.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: Students are looking for an identity, students are looking for something, uh some sort of purpose to their life in this world.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: They're looking for those things.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so their phones, their uh entertainment, video games, whatever you might have, um, are a distraction from that, from having to grapple with that, from having to think about that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: But yes, I think that there is a more connection out there, but it's a shallower connection.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: And students uh are looking for something that they're not gonna find on social media on their phone.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: To be quite honest, there the enemy is out there, you know.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: There are forces trying to keep you from Christ and and distract you from him and his message, and students are vulnerable to that.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: That while there are a lot of positives with the technology, there's there's some real negatives, and I feel like the enemy knows how to use that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Would you be willing to share about uh one or two people that you've seen um that you've been able to help over these last 10 years?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: How they've changed, uh, how's uh a time with uh the youth ministry helped change them here?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: I I will say that I notice a difference between uh kids when they're in middle school and high school and then after they leave middle school and high school.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: It seems that they are under a far greater amount of pressure when they're there.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: They want to be accepted and fit in with their groups so badly that they tune other things out and they micromanage their behavior.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: To try and connect with a student in high school or middle school can be very difficult.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: But after they graduate and they don't have the same pressures of high school, you have college, you have workplaces, there's these other pressures, it seems socially that they're able to open up and connect a little bit more.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: They're they're looking for more guidance, they don't have the the teachers and the parents that are basically there holding them up the entire time and guiding them.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: So now they're off on their own and and they're looking for some guidance and some help.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: And and it's a great opportunity to go deeper with these students and help them in their next steps as they move along in life.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: I know that uh you asked for a couple of instances.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you, these I'll give you a couple uh one instance, um, student come uh great student, helpful, would do anything for me here, service oriented, uh attended on a regular basis, uh, went to college, first year of college.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um I didn't see very much of them until maybe the second half of the year, and I got a phone call.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Pastor Julian, I need to talk to you about something.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: What is it?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: Anything you need?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think I got my girlfriend pregnant.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: Here you can't assume that um that students who hear the gospel, who believe in Jesus and that they're gonna go off and just live perfect lives.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: There's temptations that are hitting them from every angle, and and then and once they leave high school they have more freedom.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so in that freedom th there's freedom to give in to some temptations they wouldn't have maybe given into before.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I got to talk to that student, minister to them, pray with them, listen to their anxieties and and direct them.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: For a student to be able to come back to a pastor to talk about this is huge.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's building up that um confidence that the student has to come to a pastor and and ask for help.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Knowing that they aren't going to be judged and shamed, but that there's somebody who's there is going to share the love of Jesus Christ with them and help them through uh the difficulties that come from making bad decisions.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Julian, you've been working with youth uh now going to be working with uh young adults and families.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um you're a family man yourself.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: I have uh beautiful, wonderful, supportive wife uh that I have been married to.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: It'll be 18 years in July, and I have two uh incredible boys, um, definitely uh a lot of energy, challenging.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh those of you who have boys uh understand that.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um they are uh nine years old and eleven years old right now.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm truly blessed, but uh there's a lot of challenges that come along with family life.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: How do you plan on building relationships in the life of the church so that people can uh uh share of their their troubles, their uh their needs, and uh and find help?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well I'm I'm blessed in that I have been here for 12 years and I have built a lot of relationships with students over the years.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: I do notice that there is a um and it's not unique to our church, it's it's most churches across America when when kids graduate from high school, go off to college, start work, there's a disconnect where they they will not go to church after that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a matter of being able to reach out and with those relationships that you have built in the past and draw them back in.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um let them know that this this place is a safe place.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's one of one of the detriments of many churches is that they have become a place of judgment as opposed to a place that's a safe place for people to come.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: There is the standard of uh righteousness that you will find in a church, which is Jesus Christ.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: So we need to aim for that goal all the time.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's always gonna be here.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: And you're gonna have to speak the truth and love sometimes to people who are doing things that they shouldn't do.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: However, the church should be a safe place where people can experience the love of Christ, they can experience the forgiveness of Christ, and they can they they can be restored.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: Building those relationships with the students and trying to get them back into the church is really important.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: And putting them in a situation where they can bond and have relationship with one another.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: The pastors aren't the only ones to do ministry in the church.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: The the body of Christ, everyone here, is supposed to minister and build one another up as iron sharpens iron.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Creating opportunities for relationships to build between the students, between the uh the college-age students, between families that are here at the church going through some of the same struggles and in the community, bringing them in here saying, hey, we can deal with that stuff here.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: You're not alone.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: If you could share with me some of your specific plans uh for uh creating safe places.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: I believe there is a significance importance, uh, a significant importance to groups here at the church.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: We want to get together uh young adults, uh we want to have opportunities for young young adult women to gather together, young adult men to gather together, and both of them to gather together with regards to Bible study and and growing in Christ.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a lot of relationships that are built in those groups while at the same time being discipled.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's really important to truly be discipled and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: There are uh a number of families in this church who need to be connected to a group.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: In particular, uh the main focus that I would have is on marriage and and having groups in the church where you have people who are going through studies that are marriage focused and build up marriage, have comp maybe even have conferences here sometimes.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: But uh marriage is the key to the family, period.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: If a marriage is distressed, the kids, if you have kids, uh it's it's gonna it's gonna have a major effect on them.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh sticks out in my head uh from a funeral we had here uh several years ago.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: The gentleman who who had passed away uh had that had this quote that he put out there that the thing you can do to show you love your kids the most is to love their mother.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: Love between the husband and the wife is crucial.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think the church needs to do everything we can to minister to families and to uphold the union of marriage.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then you have people who have struggles where where where things some of these things come into the marriage picture, but some aren't.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, starting some groups here at the church that are care groups that that people who might be single parents can get together and talk about the struggles and and be ministered to and minister to one another, uphold one another.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh single parent, that that's it is I I had my mom was a single parent, and I know the struggles that go along with it, and I have the utmost respect for single parents.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so they need help.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: They they need other people uh to be there with them, and they need Christ as their foundation, carrying carrying them through their struggles.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so I believe that we need to have something to offer to the community.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to Centrally Speaking, a ministry from the Central Schwankfelder Church in Worcester, Pennsylvania.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Sunday morning services are the following a traditional service at 9 a.m.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: with organ and various choirs.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Our praise team leads a contemporary service at 10 35.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: Sunday School for Youth is at 9, and at 9 and 10 30 for adults.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: We warmly welcome you to join us.