Beyond the Event: A Youth Ministry Podcast
Bringing together influential voices from the CIY community to walk alongside you in your journey to maintain momentum between the mountaintop experiences of youth ministry.
Beyond the Event: A Youth Ministry Podcast
BTE4.10 Resourcing Decisions: Part 2 with Matt Stevens and Katelyn Adams
Mailbag questions or topic suggestions? Text us!
Through her inspiring personal story, CIY Director of Digital Resources Katelyn Adams shares how a high school camp experience ignited her calling to serve, and how the mentorship from her youth minister shaped her spiritual path. This episode promises insights on how to create supportive environments where students can confidently discuss their ministry aspirations with parents and mentors, and highlights the growing importance of digital literacy in church roles today.
We'll also explore how identifying and encouraging potential leaders early can make all the difference, featuring real-life stories of students at Calvary Christian Church in Omaha, NE. Their experiences shed light on the power of mentorship and practical ministry opportunities in guiding students towards their callings. This conversation underscores the crucial role of local churches in preparing students for their ministry journeys.
Calvary Christian Church sets a remarkable example of investing in future church leaders through intentional prayer, educational resources, and the removal of barriers to ministry training. We discuss the complexities and victories in building new ministry programs, celebrating student achievements, and adapting to real-world feedback. Offering encouragement to those embarking on similar initiatives, we stress the importance of starting, learning, and maintaining motivation. Tune in for an episode filled with inspiring narratives, practical advice, and a heartfelt commitment to equipping young leaders for their spiritual vocations.
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- Email us at podcast@ciy.com
Hi, I'm Brad Warren and this is Beyond the Event, a youth ministry podcast presented by Christ in Youth, where we help you maintain momentum Between the mountaintops. Today we are following up on our conversation that we started last week with Jason French about helping students follow through on faith decisions that they make in their life. A little bit later, we're going to be talking to Matt Stevens. He's a student pastor at Calvary Christian Church in the Omaha, nebraska area. Matt's a great guy and they're doing a lot of really, really cool things to help these students not only follow through on their decisions, but actually come to a decision about what it looks like to step into this life of vocational ministry. So I hope you will stick around for that conversation, for sure. But before we do that, we get to talk to an absolute legend, cioi's Director of Digital Resources, caitlin Adams. Hi.
Speaker 2:Caitlin, hey Brad, how are you Thanks for having me on Doing great, Doing great, hi caitlin, hey brad, how are you doing great, doing great?
Speaker 1:I am so thrilled to hear that you might be the first ever ciy co-host that we have had zoom in. Oh, well there you go, because you live in oklahoma.
Speaker 2:You were gonna say the first ever co-host with a cold. I couldn't tell you how to call it.
Speaker 1:This is what you sound like all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no something like that.
Speaker 1:No, it's not Sorry. Uh, you know what Tis the season? Yeah, you have two little rugrats in your household. I do.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they are just little germ bombs. Man so many germs.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is a problem, it is a problem. But you know what I respect you. I respect that. It hasn't stopped you, it hasn't slowed you down.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:We're still here, we're still podcasting.
Speaker 2:Here we are, it's happening.
Speaker 1:Caitlin, you are on our last episode with Jason, actually kind of like teased you being here this week because you are, as our director of digital resources, kind of spearheading a lot of this initiative for CIY to equip students to follow through on decisions that they make to be kingdom workers, to be in vocational ministry, to repent, whatever it may be. We're focusing really heavily, to start with, on helping students follow through on the decision to go into vocational ministry. I want to know how you got into ministry, cause I honestly have no idea what your. How did it happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I uh, I had a moment, um summer before ninth grade I went to high school camp for the first year and sat in the next to the back row on you know, one night of camp that the speaker made a call for those interested in going into ministry.
Speaker 2:And you know my story I had been through just some tough seasons the year before that and so really found safety and belonging in the church and found just a lot of life at camp that week in particular and belonging that when he made that call I stood up and had one of those stand up and say yes moments, which is a cool thing to look back on, and also had no clue in the moment what that exactly meant.
Speaker 2:But my youth pastor was looking at me and and and excited, and you know, pumping her, pumping her fist in the air and um, and so yeah, so, so walking forward from that moment was, uh, just doing life near ish, my youth minister, who also did not know necessarily what her move was going to be or how to raise somebody up into ministry and um, so it was very um, organic and and just came with, um, you know, watching how, how others were doing it and um, kind of having a continual moment, not not really believing that this is a, this is a viable career choice, but this is something I can actually do with my life and just loving it.
Speaker 1:So here you are. It's a viable career choice yeah exactly. So did you have like the you didn't go to Bible college, did you? I did it. Yeah, how did that yeah?
Speaker 2:So this also informs some of the work that we're doing as well, in a way, because I I have wonderful, super supportive parents and God honoring family, but when I went home and told them I wanted to go into ministry, they were scared, and my parents are a teacher and a police officer, so you know not that they thought I was going to make a ton of money or anything, but they wanted, they wanted me to be secure and anyway. So they, they sent they. They really had it in their mind. I was going to go to a state school, so they wanted me to quote unquote get a real degree is what they told me.
Speaker 1:And so I think in their defense, I went to Bible college and got a degree from a school that no longer exists. So that's just in defense of. Mr and Mrs More.
Speaker 2:More yes, yeah, no, that's fair and truly. I mean, when we had that conversation at the time, it also made sense to me and I didn't have friends. I grew up in a Methodist church. I didn't have friends going to Bible college. You know they would go to school and then go to seminary, so everything was a seminary track and I took that path. So I got a degree in graphic design because I knew I could serve the church that way. So I got a degree in graphic design because I knew I could serve the church that way.
Speaker 1:Um, and that the church needed a lot of help in that area. And then every youth pastor is a graphic designer.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, so got some skills in that, in that realm and um, and then went on to seminary. So it was, it was, you know, just a different um, a different path. So but I think that's that's informed a lot of. You know, as we see students making this decision, wanting to equip them for those conversations with, with parents and youth ministers.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but you talking about, like your, your student pastor, um kind of celebrating you in that moment when you stood up and her not really like.
Speaker 1:It's like okay, I guess we're going to figure this out. I think that is an overwhelming thing for a lot of youth pastors and feels like a very heavy weight where it's like how in the heck am I supposed to do this? Prepare this person for the life that they've chosen? To take the right next step in order to get there to hear the Holy Spirit and how he's clarifying his will for their life, and that's just a lot. And I think well, I know, because I've talked to you about it that it's your heartbeat to alleviate some of that burden for student pastors and I want churches to know how, in what ways, you're excited to be able to serve them as they kind of figure some of that stuff out.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Absolutely kind of figure some of that stuff out, Absolutely, Absolutely Well, I um, yeah again, I think so much of my story has informed this process, but not only that, as, as we've talked with churches and youth ministers and students as well, and just heard from um heard a similar story um, around a lot of tables, Uh, I am excited to be able to say we're creating resources, you know, real tangible things that are going.
Speaker 2:I believe really that they'll help alleviate some of that for youth ministers, Some of the questions around what do I do next or how do I equip a volunteer mentor or volunteer small group leader to be able to help a student walk through this when they're not in ministry either, I mean some of those things. Just that it's not one more thing to juggle when you get on the van to get the students back home, thing to juggle when you get on the van to get the students back home. So a couple of those things, truly, that will just be, I think, helpful. We've worked through sort of a philosophy around what things we have learned are integral in a student, taking those next steps and closing the gap. So we've seen students get called into vocational ministry at our events by the thousands for years, for decades, and so the fact that the pipeline is drying up and that student pastors are hard to find and fill spots for is just mind blowing for our organization.
Speaker 2:We sit around and we're like but I just watched 2000 of them raise their hands just six months ago, you know. And what is happening? Um, exactly. And so so we've we've sort of been circling around three things that we believe will help a student move from that calling moment into a commitment, into this, the next step, whatever that might look like, um, and they're, they're easy, and they're just because we've continued to hear them, uh, repeated from others as resources, relationships and reps. So, resources, meaningful ways to um to learn uh about god, about themselves. Relationships, you know, caring adults who can walk alongside them. And then reps being ways for them to serve and lead in and outside of the church and just get started, just practice. And that was the thing that my youth minister was great at is she gave me the keys and was like, all right, you're doing this now, you know, and that was something she needed help with and it made sense. But it also built this trust and it built this opportunity for me to just start right where I was.
Speaker 2:And some ministries lend themselves really easily to that and some, you know, some don't anymore. The, you know, particularly if you're a larger scale ministry, it may be harder to hand over the keys to the AV booth to whatever kid walks up, but to build in service opportunities is huge, I think. So we've identified a philosophy around that and now we're building out resources that are going to help churches walk students through those One in particular I mean the one I'm the most excited about is a relational discipleship app, really Like it's a learning management system that is going to help a student connect with a caring mentor and walk through some of those things step-by-step. So we're really excited about that, and others that are going to help help a church really get set up well to utilize something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm going to ask a leading question here, but I think it's important. What's the price point on all of this?
Speaker 2:Well, Brad, I hate to break it to you, but it's completely free.
Speaker 1:I know, but like I think it's important because people hear us talk about these things and they're like, oh great, how much is this going to cost? And it's like organizationally. We believe in this so much. And it's like such a huge part of what we do that it's like you, pay for these incredible experiences, and we are going to, as part of that experience, give you what you need in order to follow up on the commitments that your students are making.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I think that's something that you know we have really again as an organization. I'm sure Jason talked about this, but we have felt the weight of stewarding those decisions. We're we're putting those decisions in front of your students and we need to support you as a church, as a youth leader, as a volunteer leader, as a bi-vocational leader we have got to create. This was just. This is just something we owe you guys 100%.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm excited to get to dig into that conversation with you and with Matt here in just a little bit um, you having kind of the CIY expertise and Matt having kind of already put a lot of these types of things that we're talking about into practice and just kind of hopefully inspiring um student pastors in in their journey to help provide these pathways for their students. But before we do that, michael, it's time for the mailbag.
Speaker 4:Oh man, Okay, Caitlin. So I have a question from, uh, from from our old pal Casey Lanier. Um, and.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna, I think I'm. I'm gonna maybe sort of open this question up to be a little bit more broad than than what it is, because I think I think everyone is a little bit different in in what. I'm not gonna try and set this question up. I'll ask the question and then we can expand. Okay, are you ready? Um, so casey basically is asking with all your travel this summer, how many minutes of music showed up in your spotify wrapped and who were your top artists?
Speaker 4:I listen to apple music yeah honestly, when I'm traveling, I actually spend a ton of time listening to podcasts over music and so like I think really, you know, if, if, if you're, if spotify is your main thing and you have wrapped numbers to pull, great, can't wait to hear them if not I would love to know what are your like travel, pastime activities and what is maybe your favorite thing that you listened to, experienced, etc. All right.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate the out that you're giving me because, as mentioned previously, I have two rug rats it's just all paw patrol my rap is ninja turtles and followed by all of the um monster truck, all of the Hot Wheels and Monster Jam Monster Truck theme songs. So that is not a fair question to me, casey, but I appreciate what you're getting at. I will give this plug. Also, on my top played songs are the Lullabies from Christy Douckles album, which you guys aren't gonna care about this, but I do have to say this if you've got kids, the christy knuckles lullabies album is incredible. I love it. It makes, I mean, my kids we listen. We have five little songs on it and they listen to it every night and they go to sleep and if we're in the car it puts them straight out and it's these just beautiful, virtual. Oh, it's just great.
Speaker 4:So, um, let me, let me see if I can, if I can add one more sort of like addendum or something to this question. Oh gosh, you, you work remote and you travel to Joplin. I don't know how often do you come, like two to three times a month almost.
Speaker 2:Uh yeah.
Speaker 4:One, once or twice a month if I don't have another trip. Yeah, and that drive is like it's not long Hour and a half.
Speaker 2:But, it's not really short either, so like what do you put on in the car whenever you're like do you have a podcast that you're like time to start making some real headway on this one? Uh, well, I, I do use that time usually to catch up on beyond the event, so that's on my podcast playlist, obviously, obviously, um, I am a big fan of oh great, so great.
Speaker 4:Oh good.
Speaker 2:So great.
Speaker 4:What a relief.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm more in. I listen mostly to podcasts or books through the Libby app. Those are my go-to Really over. I feel like I'm so far out of the music scene now that I don't even know what to turn on anymore.
Speaker 1:It's like is Missiott still doing things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, three albums that I like to just put on rotation out here.
Speaker 1:I just don't even michael michael and I have some significant podcast overlap oh yeah, okay that's uh. You still listen to smartless michael oh yeah, smartless is a great podcast. Uh, there's a movie podcast called the big picture that we both listen to. Smartless pico. Oh yeah, smartless is a great podcast. Uh, there's a movie podcast called the big picture that we both listen to. Yep, uh, do you do rewatchables too?
Speaker 1:I've listened to it like once okay, all right, well, anyway, I love podcasts. I love true crime podcasts. Uh, hot wreck for a podcast. Right here I just listened to a podcast called the good whale. It was about the whale who played uh willie in free willie, and every episode of it made me cry actual, real tears.
Speaker 3:I'm, I'm, dead serious it is so emotional ah okay, but if you need that if?
Speaker 1:you need that. Release the good whale.
Speaker 4:That's what you gotta listen to alright, let's do one more quickly, one more we have a question from Matt Berry rolling out the red carpet for Matt. Matt wants to know what should we be doing as youth pastors to get our leaders ready to kill it at CIY events?
Speaker 2:that's so good as youth pastors to get our leaders ready to kill it at CIY events. That's so good. That's so good, um, man, I mean, I think prepping leaders, uh, get, get some rest before you come, um, but I think the main, yeah, the main, the main thing for, yeah, the main, the main thing for for leaders is to be uh, to to be full in heart and mind coming into the week and ready to pour it into students. So I think getting, you know, making sure that they are feeling like they're in a good place, that they have authentically spent their own time with the Lord before coming in there, um, you know, ready in those ways, uh is is the most that they can do to prepare.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, so many of us are. Uh, it's much easier to get the packing list ready and make sure everybody's got all the snacks that they need and everybody's in the right spot. But, um, spending, spending, uh, spending time in prayer, having them ready, get them the list of your students, have them pray for them by name, set a reminder on their phone the week leading up. I mean, some of those just rhythm reminders would be a much better investment than even a snack list. Also.
Speaker 1:I will say this episode comes out on February the 3rd. It's February the 3rd. Happy February 3rd, everybody. If you don't know, who your leaders?
Speaker 1:are yet for Move Mix, get on it, because those people are going to have to request off time from work and the whole thing and if you like some people start recruiting, you know, in march or whatever it's like, if you give yourself the extra two months, are you gonna have a couple people that are gonna drop off because something comes up and they can't be there? Yes, but are you going to be in a way better position than if you start late? Also, yes, so getting them signed up, that's a big one. That was a hard one for me. Always They'd be like June, I don't know. Can you ask me then? I'm like no.
Speaker 3:Tell me now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyway, all right, thanks Michael. Thanks, matt, tell me now. Um, yeah, anyway, all right, thanks michael. Thanks matt. Thanks casey. Uh, thanks caitlin. Uh, we're gonna go talk to another matt, not matt berry. Uh, we are gonna go talk to matt stevens. Uh, matt, thank you so much for being here, hey. So if we're talking about helping students follow through on decisions to go into ministry today, if a student comes up to you after move, after camp, after anything, on a random Wednesday night and they say Pastor Matt, I want to be a minister someday, just like you, what happens at that point?
Speaker 3:Well, I can say up until a little while ago it would have been pretty reactive to say, hey, let's sit down, let's talk, let's meet, let's kind of like hear your side of how you feel called to ministry and then kind of figuring out a plan forward to help prepare them for that and walk alongside them in that calling that they feel like God has placed on their life. But we've found just over the past year or so just to be a little more proactive on that and asking questions of so just to be a little more proactive on that, and asking questions of hey, who's considering the call? And then developing some things to help them grow in certain things that we think would prepare them best for that call that God's placed on their life or vocational ministry. So I think just starting that conversation with them and just help preparing them for the days ahead for life of kingdom work and uh, and just help preparing them for the days ahead for life of kingdom work.
Speaker 1:So that's part of your normal language is just talking about like hey, this might be something that God is calling you to and we want to be out ahead of that a little bit, rather than just waiting for a student to stand up and move and be like I want to go into ministry and you'd be like you really Okay, um, so what does that? I mean? I that sounds I Caitlin has talked to a lot more people about this than I have, but that sounds different to me than what I think most people do. Is that, would you? Would you agree with that, caitlin? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, definitely. So tell me, like what, how do you identify a student who's who's considering a call, maybe before they've had that camp moment?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's, it's part of next steps conversations, um, whether that's through a message or or a devotional, or if we do go on a trip, um, simply asking the question has has has provided a lot of fruit for us. Like, who here is considering vocational ministry and just kind of impressing that idea of we need more workers for the harvest? And you know, data today just shows we have far more people leaving ministry and stepping out of it than we do stepping into those roles in ministry. And so I think we've maybe relied on others training them up for too long and sending them off stepping into those roles in ministry. And so, uh, I think we've, we've maybe relied on on others training them up for too long and sending them off and kind of farming that out to say, hey, we'll let our Bible colleges do that, and um, and and now we're at this place where it's like we as a local church have a responsibility to help be a feeder for those, those Bible colleges, because they play such a vital role in that educational piece and preparing them.
Speaker 3:But just those next steps conversations of hey, some of you in the room might your next step might be putting your faith and trust in Jesus, but for some of you that next step might be hey, I feel God kind of stirring in my life to call the vocational ministry and sometimes just asking that is like, yeah, I think that is what God might be calling me to, and just helping them discern that call is really we found a lot of fruit in that lately of just being intentional on asking that question regularly and saying who here is considering a life of kingdom work in a vocational ministry setting.
Speaker 3:And we've had far more people respond than we ever imagined and I think just being more intentional in the way that we approach and ask has almost forced us to create some systems rather than being reactive but to say, hey, we've got something for you. We'll still sit down and talk with you, but we have things that we can share with you right now that can get you plugged into discerning that call and kind of training you and educating you and walking alongside you as you figure this calling out for your life.
Speaker 1:I definitely want to.
Speaker 3:I think that's.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I definitely want to hit on the system stuff at some point because I do want to get way into the nitty gritty on all of this, but I'm curious, as you were saying that, the thought that popped into my head was twofold.
Speaker 1:It was interesting that you said you're actually getting more students who are expressing interest in vocational ministry that way. But also I'm just thinking through some of the experiences that I've had with students who have said that they want to go into full-time ministry and a lot of times it's a light switch type of moment, like oh, I didn't, I wanted to be a lawyer, and now I'm seeing that you know kind of thing. But I'm wondering if the way that you guys do it actually prevents some of the drop-off that we've observed and seen and Jason talked about a little bit on the episode a couple weeks ago where we're seeing a lot of students say initially like yes, I want to go into ministry, but then that not always having a lot of legs. Have you noticed anything with that? I know that was kind of a long rambling thought.
Speaker 3:No, I think for us, what we've kind of heard from the students that say, yeah, I want to go into ministry, is they might feel like they want to be a teacher or that they want to invest in the lives of young people in some way shape or form. And then when we start to talk about it after we're like, hey, are you interested in vocational ministry? And they start to kind of lay out like I feel God calling me to reach young people, then some of that like epiphany or light switch is like maybe I feel called to youth ministry or kids ministry, and so then we can have those conversations with them to kind of say, hey, these are some great opportunities for you to kind of like discern that call and get some experience and be like is this where God really wants me to be serving in a vocational ministry setting? And so does that answer the question?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think so. Caitlin, I kind of cut you off earlier. What were you going to say?
Speaker 2:You're all right. You're all right. I just think I think that, uh, you're doing something that, um, that a lot of youth ministers aren't necessarily thinking about yet, or that that I wasn't in my time in ministry of um, of making students aware of the need, um of the, the, the pipeline shortage of ministers, that that is coming for us, that there are more youth ministry jobs available than we have people to fill them, um, but you're consistently putting that in front of them in those moments, not just after a particular experience, but ongoing um, in a way that is is consistent and um, and continually just just asks the question, and I think that's huge, um, I just think that's huge. So I think, what, what would you? What advice would you have for um a youth minister who, who maybe isn't doing that at the moment? What's the instigating factor? What's the easiest way to start putting that into their language more regularly?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question, I think, a simple ask. I don't think it has to be pretty or beautiful, just asking the question, like, have you ever considered the call to vocational ministry? We found that even asking middle schoolers like we've had middle schoolers raise their hand. We took a group of students for the first time down to Getaway at Ozark Christian College this past fall and we just asked the group. We said, hey, are any of you here considering the call to vocational ministry? And we had seven kids raise their hand, and so I think just a simple ask is is a great place to start. Just ask them are you considering vocational ministry?
Speaker 3:Um, but, but I think maybe a little more intentional to go back is is this is something that is not just, you know, the heartbeat of our youth ministry. This has really been the heartbeat of our church and at every level, from next gen to our senior pastor and our elders, I mean this is a whole church initiative that we have said we want to invest in the lives of the next generation of church leaders, and so it's something that's prayed about, it's something that we talk about, it's in our language, with each other, and it's really something that we all try to participate in, and so it's not just one ministry trying to say, hey, we're doing this on our own, this is really the whole church. And so I would say, if you haven't had a conversation with your church leadership, then it should start with that Saying hey, how are we doing at raising up the next generation of church leaders? Are we asking the question, are we coming alongside them? Are we resourcing them in things?
Speaker 3:I think, as I mentioned earlier, more often than not we've been very reactive with it, and it's just by accident that if most of us were like, hey, I've got this kid in my ministry who said I want to go into vocational ministry, then, man, we would celebrate that. But it would be like what do I do now? And, uh, yeah, so just to be a little more intentional on the front end, where these aren't happening by accident, but we're being intentional on, on helping direct and point them towards vocational ministry so you guys have made it part of the dna of the entire church, which I think is really important thing.
Speaker 1:You mentioned something interesting, which is the eldership, and it was the first time that I've ever really thought about this, because I'm an ignorant person in general, but, um, that it's like the elderships, like that's their job, is to take care of the like, spiritual health and longevity of of that body of believers. If anybody should have a vested interest in seeing Calvary Christian Church raise up Timothys and get them into vocational ministry within the church, it should be that group of people Are they tell me about yeah, just tell me about their involvement in all of this, because that's such a cool thing that I don't know that a ton of people think about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they play a huge role in it.
Speaker 3:Like CIY, you know, we've sent pictures.
Speaker 3:I have one elder and our senior pastor that I usually send a picture and say, hey, these are the students this week that have raised their hand and said I want to go into vocational ministry, and so we'll get a group photo with them.
Speaker 3:We'll send the names and I'll say, hey, here's the students, here's the names of them, and they say, great, we're going to share this with the rest of the elders, we're going to pray for these students, we're going to come alongside of them, and so they've really played.
Speaker 3:I mean, they're the ones driving the shit on it and and we're just getting to do kind of the follow through and the tangible side of things. But really, this is something that, um, they they've done an excellent job on making sure that this is a priority for us, that it's it's put in front of us and everything that we do, but also that we are. We are putting our resources in that as well, from educational things to money to help with getting them those resources, scholarships, all of those things to help them remove some of those barriers that might be in place or going to Bible college or training up for ministry. They just try to make that process as smooth as possible, and so just the prayer is a huge part of it, just the amount of time that they spend together just praying over these students, praying over the kids who have made that decision.
Speaker 1:So Super great. All right, I want to get into the practical side of this. Like, I know that not every church is going to want to or be able to replicate exactly what Calvary is doing, but I have heard and we actually haven't had a chance to talk about this, but I've heard that Calvary is doing a lot of really neat things when it comes to some of these practices and guidelines that you put in place and events that you do and all kinds of stuff in order to help these individuals kind of follow through on this calling that they've received from the Lord about vocational ministry. So let's kind of circle back to my first question, but I'll ask it in a different way, because you've very lovingly and graciously told me that the premise of my question was stupid.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, what? So, like what infrastructure is there around these students? So yeah, at the you get to the end of a sermon, you're talking next steps, You're saying maybe you want to get baptized, maybe you want to start serving, maybe you want to tell a friend, maybe you want to go into vocational ministry, right, and somebody comes up to you after and says you know what I actually do, really have a heart for kids and I serve in the nursery with my mom on Sundays. I serve in the nursery with my mom on Sundays, and this is something that I really think might be something that God is calling me to.
Speaker 3:So what happens at that point? Good question we have hijacked a number of ideas from a lot of different people in churches doing different things and kind of assessed those things and how they would best fit our ministry context here in Nebraska, and so I'll kind of back up. I will answer your question, but I'll back up a little bit. We decided, following up from CIY, that we were going to have this event called Mark the Moment, and so in August we didn't want to wait too long after they got back from CIY we went through the rhythms journal together. But those students that said I want to go into vocational ministry, and then ones that we had on our radar that didn't come to CIY, we put an invitation out and said, hey, we want to mark the moment of you making this decision to go into vocational ministry. And so we had an event that was a whole church thing. We had it on a Sunday evening. We had a meal and just a time of sharing with them and just kind of celebrating this decision that they made.
Speaker 3:And then we laid out some things that we had been developing for what that follow-up would look like not just celebrating those decisions that they made, but to put something in front of them. And so we had come up with a few things. We took some things from CIY, just kind of the four legs of that table. If they ever go to that next level course at any of the CIYs, I encourage, if you have students interested, go to those courses. But just having character, skills, experience and education just being those four legs that are going to help sustain you for life of ministry. And we've kind of like just summarize that into we want to help them build character and competency. And so if that's a good starting point is, if they haven't been to a mark the moment, we want to get them to a mark the moment, but we don't want them to wait. So within those four pillars or those four legs, we've come up with some different things.
Speaker 3:So every month we have kind of a skills gathering. We have one of our residents who kind of heads up that time where after we meet for youth group time for 30 minutes to an hour, they'll gather and we get them all together and it'll be a different topic for the month. That's a skill that will help them prepare for vocational ministry. So really it's hey, here's our next one. It's the second Sunday of the month, they know right after youth group that's a gathering time for that. So we would point them towards jumping into one of those skills training portions. We definitely want to make sure that they're serving and giving them experience in whatever area that they feel God calling them to. And sometimes those experiences for those going into ministry they need to be a little more unique than just that regular opportunity to serve.
Speaker 3:And so with Super Start coming up, we've got a number of our students who want to go into vocational ministry and they're going to help lead, like our fourth and fifth graders that are going in.
Speaker 3:So asking them to do things like that, educational pieces I mean we want to get them down to our Bible colleges and get them exposure and experience to know how important it is to prepare yourself educationally for vocational ministry.
Speaker 3:And then that character piece is really that's something that we can't do as a church, but we can lead them to scripture and help them grow their character, in the sense that we're not the one transforming them, but your time with God is what transforms you, and just that relationship that you have with Jesus and then developing that mind of Christ that Philippians talks about, that it's really it's an attitude that begins to change and that changes our actions, and so we just encourage them, walk alongside them in how to read their Bible, how to study it in context and how to interpret those things and apply it in their life, just to help them with that character piece, because, really, if you're not building your character and competency, if one's lacking man, it's really tough in whatever field you're going into, especially ministry.
Speaker 3:And so we don't want to neglect any of those areas, because if we're sending them off to churches, at the end of things, hopefully you know they're going to be kingdom workers all throughout the US or all throughout the world. We want to, we want to prepare them best for that, in both their character and their competence side of things. So Caitlin.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. I have a question Something that has come up a lot in our conversations with churches and Bible colleges and others who who care deeply about these students in particular, who making it from that moment of calling into some next commitment. Something that's continually come up has been around relationships. So one thing that we found in research and surveying students who had answered this call at a CIY event, who did pursue ministry in some form, they consistently answered that someone in their church believed in them, and that was this instigating piece of their story In particular.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, A caring adult believed in them. And so what does mentoring look like? How do you train leaders around these concepts? Are there? Are there, you know, caring adults of some form who are walking students through each of these resources? And then I would even tack on you know, parent conversations. What is, what does all of that look like in this world for you guys?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we developed kind of to help us track these kids. We were just walking through them this morning in our student team gathering and we have 47 students who are in our pipeline and we kind of have different stages of where we place them, based on where they're at in that commitment. And so you know, our initial one is Kingdom Work. Those are the ones that have raised their hands and said, yes, I would like to pursue kingdom work in a vocational ministry sense. Next would go into our mark the moment have they gone to one of our mark the moment events mentorship have they been plugged into a mentoring relationship in whatever area of ministry or somebody that best fits that student? And then we have, I have to think for a second mentorship Bible college interest is next. So if they've showed interest, maybe they're applying for Bible colleges, they would go into that next category. And then those who have applied, we have interns, if they've done an internship or residency. And then we have placement, and so we've been able this year to have a couple that are now placed in churches and in full time settings.
Speaker 3:We've got some that are interns and residents right now.
Speaker 3:We've got some that are at every stage, and so we just kind of looked and assessed where is each kid on this, just to make sure that we're serving them well or wherever they're at in this process. And so those mentoring relationships are so important, just the emphasis we make with our small group leaders too, just the importance of having adults that reinforce this conversation, that care for them as they walk through life and as they walk through these decisions. It's not just pastoral ministry folks here at Calvary that are ones doing mentorship In fact maybe a few of us are doing that but many of them are small group leaders that they see every week. They're the ones that hopefully, like if they get a life-changing event, like they're their first phone call, not us, and so I think those relationships that they develop with them are so important, because that just helps us have a second voice in it to say hey, um, uh, I really see this in you as well and and just reinforcing that, that call to ministry. And so, um, yeah, those relationships matter so much in it.
Speaker 1:What, uh, can we, we can you tell like a story of a kid that you feel like has benefited really well from this? Because you're laying it all out and I'm like this is so cool.
Speaker 3:I just want to know about, uh, some of your students tell me about somebody that this has like been a big, big, big win for them in their, their journey oh yeah, um, man, it's hard to pick just one, because we have we have a number of students who, uh, it's just been so awesome to see, from the time that they committed and, uh, just some of the efforts that we we've made to pour into them, just the leaps and bounds, um, that they've grown through it, uh. But I'll probably pick one. It's one of the recent graduates. He just finished his year and a half into school.
Speaker 3:His name's Landon and was just kind of like really on the fence of like he was going into finance at the University of Nebraska and had raised his hand at some point like I'm thinking about ministry, and so we brought him on as an intern to kind of help flesh that out and give him a taste of what ministry could look like.
Speaker 3:And he just I don't want to necessarily celebrate, but he dropped out of Lincoln University of Nebraska-Lincoln and we were just able to bring him on as a part-time intern. He just enrolled in Bible college online and so he's been with us for a couple of weeks now this is week two and looking forward to vocational ministry and so just kind of helping them navigate those decisions of like, hey, I did this, but I don't feel like I'm being called to this, of like, hey, you know I did this, but I don't feel like I'm being called to this, and just kind of coming alongside and saying, hey, we're going to help you discern this call in your life and I am giving them opportunities to see if this is really what God is calling them to. And now we get to be a huge part of training him up, and I know he's going to go do amazing things, uh, in whatever church that he's going to be ministering at.
Speaker 1:So, um, we have a lot of stories like that of students who so wait a second though I want to talk about landon for a second um, because that's a really interesting one that you chose, because I don't know if I've got like the timeline right in my brain or not, but it sounds like there wouldn't have been like a move moment where it's like stand up, declaration, everybody clap, like this guy's going to do the thing right now, kind of is not his story. It's very much like existing for most of the time in like the back of his mind. How easy is it for a student like that to just keep moving with their finance degree? And if you guys never start the conversation, then it's never more than just like a thought in in the back of this kid's mind that he suppresses and pushes down because it's like oh well, I'm already on this path at unl and you know whatever. Like that's such a, that's such a cool thing. Yeah, I don't know, that's what I got that made me really happy.
Speaker 1:It is really cool, and what area is he interning in?
Speaker 3:He's interning with me in youth ministry, student ministry.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, oh man what an awesome thing.
Speaker 3:That's so awesome.
Speaker 1:All right, let's do another one more. This is my favorite part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one would probably be every Tuesday. So today is Tuesday. We have a student, he's a freshman and he's homeschooled, so he's got lots of flexibility. We pick him up every Tuesday, we grab lunch and we do Bible study and I feel like now that we've kind of walked alongside of like, uh, you know, we, we do an inductive bible study together where we talk about, like what's the context of the passage, we use the coma method, uh, observation, meaning and application, and I feel like he teaches me as much as as as I've taught him.
Speaker 3:And just to watch his growth, um, over the past year and now saying like I want to be, I feel, called to vocational ministry and I don't know what necessarily he's going to do. Maybe it's student ministry, maybe it's pastoral ministry. But this last semester we sat down with him and helped him prepare a message that he gave at youth group and and I was up there with him and and we just kind of did a back and forth, but he did most of the teaching and and it was just so awesome to see the response. I think kids get a little numb to hearing the same voice over and over, but, man, when they hear a peer get up and share or be in front of them. It brings a whole nother level and so just the feedback that everybody gave on it, from students who were like that was amazing. Thank you for sharing the insights.
Speaker 3:But just to see his growth and we've really tried this is like a big dream that we've got is is eventually to have an opportunity for juniors and seniors who feel the call the vocational ministry, that we could bring them on for a few hours a week in like a student internship just to kind of give them some opportunities to grow on that. And you know he's been a big influence on on just thinking and dreaming of that. So his name's Ephraim.
Speaker 1:Ephraim killing it, that's so awesome.
Speaker 1:I think that this is such a big deal though and, caitlin, I want to ask you to speak into this as well, because I emphasized this on our last episode that we did with Jason. This isn't stuff that we made up. This isn't like our programming team sitting down and being like what's a fun way that we can say this and make an impact, for whatever this is data that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who have made this decision gave us and told us, and Caitlin already mentioned one of the common threads having an adult, a caring adult, in a mentoring relationship. What's the other big one, caitlin?
Speaker 2:Serving, serving.
Speaker 1:Serving and practicing.
Speaker 2:You guys are doing it like you're doing the whole thing, Ah, it's so cool.
Speaker 1:Anyway, do you want to speak?
Speaker 3:to that at all.
Speaker 1:Caitlin, I don't know, I'm just kind of putting you on the spot.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was just thinking well, I was just thinking the same thing and I'm going to ask you another question about it, matt. But that's, yeah, that's been a huge, huge thing. That's come up over and over and, I think, consistently, where we see churches sending a lot of students into ministry, we're seeing that they were able to give students opportunities, meaningful opportunities, to practice serving and practice leading and whether that's giving the message or writing small group questions or speaking into what the program is going to look like for other juniors and seniors to get involved and to intern I mean those types of things for them to own the ministry and for them to own those experiences is is huge, and you know more than it's great to have your ministry kids make your Sam's run, but but it's more than that. It's like the meaningful, the meaningful moments of, of practicing. So that was my, you know.
Speaker 2:My next question, too, is just for those students who are at that point in your pipeline of serving what? What are some other ways that you are equipping them? Are they in other ministry areas, in the church? Are they doing things at school? You know, giving messages? What is that looking like?
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure. We wouldn't be able to do what we do as a church without our students serving and being engaged in those areas. We have so many that participate in kids ministry on Sunday mornings. We also have a midweek program for kids that we have a group that serves. In those special events, I mean, man, they come in full force VBS. I think we had, oh gosh, we had like 120 students around there that had served in VBS, served in bbs, um, and so just giving them opportunities in the green light, um, and encouraging, encouraging them to serve, um, and our, our middle schoolers actually really stepped to the plate on that, like that.
Speaker 3:Well, there are so many middle schoolers that serve, and, uh, and some of our high schoolers like, uh, we decided that we were going to celebrate. You know, our mission here is to live and love like Jesus. They hear that over and over and over again, from Sunday mornings to Sunday nights to midweek. It's just language that they hear over and over to live and love like Jesus. And so we started celebrating those, you know, in our parent communications, like here's a student who is living and loving like Jesus, and highlighting them where they're serving. Some of them had been, like they posted.
Speaker 3:We do an invite night once a month in student ministry and you know, one of our students got permission for the handout card that we had for it to put on their school's event board, and so you know, she sent a picture in and was like hey, look what I got to put on my event board. And so you know, she sent a picture in and was like hey, look what I got to put on my event board. And so you know, we want to celebrate and highlight those, uh, which, whatever you celebrate, you know that it's going to be replicated. And so if we can celebrate those students who are serving or who are living and loving like Jesus, not just at church, um, and through the ministry, that programming that happens, but also at school and in your community, if we can highlight those things like those are, those are things that, that that are like wildfire that just grow and grow and grow. So we definitely want to celebrate those things but also give them the opportunities to be able to do that to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:That's really cool, and so I want to. We're going to have to kind of wind down our time together here a little bit, but I want to ask you another question because I think I hope if CIY, if this calling that God has given CIY is authentic and I believe that it is and if churches are going to begin stepping up to the plate and helping their students next three to five to eight years who are going to be building things like what you already have in place at Calvary, which I think is cool. I think you guys are way ahead of the curve on some of this stuff. So I want to give people who are looking to do something like this in the future a leg up a little bit.
Speaker 1:What's been hard about this for you guys? Or like, is there something you look back on and you're like, oh yeah, wish we would have done that differently or didn't need to do that, or what you know, whatever it may be like, is there? Cause I know this isn't all just like smooth sailing and every single thing we do as a win and every meeting is fun and you know those kinds of things. So help me understand what the challenges have been for you guys at Calvary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say, a lot of it feels like we're building the airplane in the air and it's been it's been it's been kind of a process just to like brainstorm and figure out how are we going to best serve the students and not just the students, but you know, our young adults and others who are saying I want to go into vocational ministry. There's been times where we've just been at standstills and we're reaching out to churches across the U? S and trying to find, um, hey, what are you guys doing that's working, what's not working because, uh, you know, nobody wants to, nobody wants to mess up, and uh, and sometimes that just leads us to like a standstill, paralysis, where we don't yeah, we just don't do anything, and so, um, we've had moments where we've stalled a little bit just trying to figure out, like, how are we going to do this? And it's been nice because we've had so many pieces of our church not just our student ministry but from our eldership and senior pastor down that are helping drive this forward, and so we've needed that at times where it's like, hey, where are we at on this, like, where have we made a decision on on how the mark, the moment's going to look how are we going to? How are we going to, you know, follow up with them from the mark the moment things, and so just the process of like developing a plan has been has been kind of tricky at times and and some things have had to be adapted.
Speaker 3:Some things are like, hey, this isn't working, so, like our skills meetings that we do it was 30 minutes this last semester and and going through it it was like, hey, this isn't enough time, and so we're adapting and shifting it now, and so just trying to stay fluid through it. I was like, hey, this isn't enough time, and so we're adapting and shifting it now, and so just trying to stay fluid through it. But just trying to find who else is doing this has been a little hard. And then figuring out, like, is this going to work for us? Sometimes you just got to do it and see if it works, and if it doesn't, then you shift fire and you try something else, and so, um, for us that's probably been the biggest hangups is just, um, wanting to do something well, and sometimes that's led to a little bit of of just stalling in the process, of, of of getting kids through this pipeline that we've been thinking and dreaming up, so and it is.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's a very disciplined thing. So, just like I can imagine staying motivated through this for several iterations and just I don't know, like the train, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can just like trying to get the thing moving, and going is is hard work, but I'm glad you guys are doing it. Um Caitlin, what would your encouragement be, from the seat that you're in, to um Matt, to people like him who are are at the beginning of this, and also to those who are listening, who don't have something like this in place yet but are thinking, wow, this sounds really great, um, and I want to make this a priority, but I have a lot of hard work ahead of them or sure.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, like matt just said, I mean, I think just start, um, you know I, I think you can, you can adjust as you go and your advice at the beginning I think is huge to start talking about it to students. Start presenting that question just casually, just make it part of your language around next steps and application, coming out of a message and coming out of a weekly rhythm or out of a big event as well, and just presenting that as an option, as an opportunity and as a viable career path. I think you mentioned that you're asking your middle schoolers this same question and I think you know middle schoolers in school are getting, they're taking an exam that tells them what career path they should choose and they're beginning to be set on those courses and so the church should be in that conversation. So start, you know, in middle school and make this falling and career option realistic and viable.
Speaker 2:And the other thing I would say, you know we again just hitting a little bit on that research that we had done, really there were three pillars that stood out. We've already hit on two of them Relationships, repetition is what we're calling, that kind of serving and leading opportunity. Just reps, get the reps in, just start having them practice. And that third just being to resource students, and so, you know, really just getting growth opportunities in front of them.
Speaker 2:You know what you guys are calling these skills labs. You know opportunities to start practicing and, um, and learn more about God, about his church, about themselves and how he's, how he's knit them together and, and, may you know, maybe creating them to serve in certain ways. So, um, I I think just um, pull your, pull your students together, I would say, and have them start to put together, you know, practice right away. Have them start to put together a pipeline that Matt's kind of talking about around what next steps realistically look like. And then start talking, you know, in the same ways, to your leaders and have them equipped and ready to to follow up with these students so that they can follow through, so that they can take those next steps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my biggest takeaway from what you had to say, matt, was you do not have to have all your ducks in a row to start.
Speaker 1:you know, we still, we still don't have our ducks I don't even know where the ducks are, uh, but yeah, it's like you, don't like you. You can start taking that like right next step right now, and figure it out as you go, um, and you could end up with a beautiful, fruitful thing, like what you guys have ended up with. I'm going to ask you one more question, and then we got to cut you loose. I've always wanted to know this Do you like living in Nebraska?
Speaker 3:Oddly enough, I do, Do you really? Is that a real thing? People want to live there. Is that a real? Thing, People want to live there. Yeah, it's kind of strange because they call middle America flyover country and Nebraska their Nebraska Department of Tourism came up with this tourism slogan.
Speaker 1:There's a Nebraska Department of Tourism.
Speaker 3:Wait till you hear this. So their slogan, their slogan that they came up with which is, I think, still like the main Nebraska Department of Tourism slogan, is Nebraska it's not for everybody and it is not for everybody.
Speaker 4:and they even have a commercial.
Speaker 3:One of the commercial they have, like the migratory sand hill cranes that come through and they're the sky yeah, one of their uh, one of their commercials they have are like some say say that Nebraska is flyover country and these birds stop in the middle of the state for a couple of weeks and people come from all over to see these sandhill cranes. I don't care about the sandhill cranes, but they're like but it's not flyover country for hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes. It's like well, nobody cares about sandhill cranes, we're talking about humans. The humans aren't coming here.
Speaker 1:This is a very strange way to tell me that you enjoy living in Nebraska.
Speaker 3:We have a good zoo. The people are nice. We have a good zoo.
Speaker 1:Hey man, I like coming there for two days every year. We'll have some ice cream.
Speaker 3:We have the best ice cream in America here.
Speaker 2:I can confirm. I'll just throw this out there. Second sentence on Visit Nebraska website no one ever said we were trying to appeal to everyone, but they are still leaning in.
Speaker 1:That is the funniest thing I've ever heard so what do you think the odds are? They're the only person who's visited that website today strong.
Speaker 4:Michael, you had something to contribute on the topic of the zoo, there's a chance. There's a chance, brad, that we might stay in in uh in omaha on saturday after that superstar event is done and pending the weather very hard to make that not happen we can have a conversation.
Speaker 1:Okay, we can get off mike, we can talk about it. I will say best ice cream ever. I would love say best ice cream ever. I would love to get ice cream with you, matt. We'll have to do that. Um, there's also in omaha this place. It is like takeout, only you can't eat there and it's just pizza and wings. Do you know what I'm talking about? I forget what it's called pizza. Yeah, you can't eat there. You drive up and you get your food and you leave, and it's a wings place.
Speaker 3:And the people.
Speaker 1:No, it's actually cool. I'm trying to hype up Nebraska right now, I'm not kidding Best wings I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 3:I will say Omaha has major metros in the US. They have more restaurants per capita than any of the major metros. Actually, the food here is top notch.
Speaker 1:I won't give that the food is top notch. I bet Christy Biebermeyer texted it to me Uh uh. This is not. This is not good radio.
Speaker 3:This is not good at all um, hmm, I'll take you to this unique place called Chipotle while you're here.
Speaker 1:I love Chipotle I got dumped in a. Chipotle, once, that's a fun.
Speaker 3:That's some fun grad lore.
Speaker 1:By once. I mean less than a year ago. All right, everybody, we're going to go ahead and jump off. Hey, thanks for being here, man, it was really great talking to you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you're great man, appreciate all you guys are doing at Calvary. So excited to see your crew at Superstar Nebraska here very shortly and best wishes to you guys as you continue to kind of flesh out this vocational ministry pathway for people.
Speaker 3:Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah definitely. Meanwhile, we will be reading up on sandhill cranes I am uh super excited to see where this project goes. Uh, with matt and with calvary, I think they are doing a really good thing by saying hey I don't really know what's going on, but we're gonna.
Speaker 1:We're gonna do it. We're gonna start down this road because it's an important road to walk down and I hope you were inspired by him and by the work that they're doing there at Calvary to take whatever the next step is for you in creating a pathway for students who are called into vocational ministry. I'm going to read our blessing and then we'll get out of here. May God show you grace and bless you. May he make his face shine on you. May you experience the love of Christ, through whom God gives you fullness of life. May you be strengthened by his power. May Christ himself make his home in your heart, that you would be full of his love.
Speaker 1:Today's episode was produced by Michael Hester, lauren Brian and myself. Thank you a ton to Caitlin for hanging out with us today, and also thanks to Matt for hanging out as well. I feel like that was just a really, really fun conversation. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so that you don't miss anything Coming up. In a couple of weeks we are going to be talking to Dr James and Ginger Della Ripa. They have a ministry dedicated to supporting blended families. They are a blended family and you have blended families in your ministry, so I think it's really important that you get to hear from their expertise what they have to say, and they have some really cool resources that you can use as well. So that's in two weeks. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us on the community facebook group or by email at podcast at ciycom. We'll see you next time, thank you.