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
BTE 5.12 Phones on Trips vs. No Phones on Trips: Part 1 with Matt Tibbit and Caleb DeRoin
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What if a single boundary could transform your next youth trip? We sit down with Arkansas youth pastor Matt Tibbit, who has led students for 20 years without allowing phones at camp. His reasoning is simple and sharp: protect attention, protect safety, and give students a rare chance to belong without the pull of a screen. Matt walks us through the practical side—how his team handles parent communication using leader phones, why bright ID bracelets include staff numbers, and how a strict buddy system turns a big campus into a safer, smaller community.
The surprising part isn’t the policy. It’s the fruit. Van rides become instant mixers full of card games, jokes, and stories that set up small groups for depth. Free time shifts from solo scrolling to shared memories. Anxiety over losing a “lifeline” eases within days as students discover they can navigate with a paper schedule, ask a leader, or simply follow their group. Parents get on board quickly, often because they see noticeable change when their kids come home—more present, more joyful, and more connected.
We also dig into the bigger picture: how constant connectivity fuels distraction and comparison, why Gen Z and Gen Alpha are increasingly open to analog moments, and where phone discipleship best fits into a ministry calendar. Matt argues camp is for eternal work—scripture, repentance, calling, and unity—while the other 51 weeks are ideal for teaching wise tech habits. If you’ve wondered whether a phone-free week is possible, this conversation delivers both conviction and a clear blueprint you can adapt, from paper maps to nightly group movement rules.
Subscribe for part two, where we explore the other side: the case for allowing phones and coaching students to use them well. If this episode helped you think differently about trip policies, share it with a leader friend and leave a review so more youth workers can find it.
Meet Co-Host Caleb
SPEAKER_05Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event, a Youth Ministry podcast presented by Christ and Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. Our guest today is Matthew Tibbett, who, if you have ever had the chance to meet Matt, you know is just an uh a wonderful, delightful human being who I adore. Uh, he is the youth pastor at Prairie Grove Christian Church in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He has been on this podcast before, um, and he's great. And we're gonna have a great conversation. So be sure to stick around for that. Uh we're gonna talk about why Matt doesn't let his kids have phones on trips and how he overcomes some of the uh obstacles that that creates. Before we get into that conversation, I am joined by uh a person.
SPEAKER_02His name is Caleb. He forgets my name. We've worked together for almost a decade. I forget your name.
SPEAKER_05I was like, am I gonna give you a flowery introduction? Or I don't deserve a flowery introduction. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Do your best. Okay, here we go. 30 seconds? I need it. I've had a little week. Okay, here we go. Uh today's co-host of the podcast is Caleb DeRoyne. Caleb has been involved with CIY for many, many years, been around for about eight and a half on staff before that. Did a couple tours as a uh as an event staff with Mix, and you know, he's just a delight. He he brings up the mood of every room that he walks into. He is a huge part of the culture here at Christ in Youth. He's currently in the process of organizing a flag football game for our staff. And uh he's just always that guy. He's out here, he's having fun, he's making sure that everybody else is having fun, and he's great to be around. Not only that, super good at his job, loves junior hires, loves junior high pastors, loves the church, loves CIY, loves Jesus. It's Caleb DeRoy.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that was perfect. I needed that pick-me-up. Man, what a week it's been.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you pulled that off of Wikipedia.
SPEAKER_02Do I have a Wikipedia page?
SPEAKER_03That would be crazy if you did. Do you want to know the answer?
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_03There's no way I have one.
SPEAKER_05There's there's no way.
SPEAKER_02Uh Caleb, how's it going? It's going great, Brad. I am just real happy to be here. I got my sweet tea from a local barbecue restaurant that you guys can't see the label of. Woody's barbecue. Or we're just gonna say it. Um, we're not sponsored by no free association here yet.
SPEAKER_04Um I'm drinking a fridge sig.
SPEAKER_05Can we say that on the podcast? I just did. I like it. Uh that's been calling Diet Cokes fridge sigs. That's what they are. I mean, that that's how it feels to me. It's like when I get all nervous and my heart rate gets up, my neck starts itching, I'm like, I need a Diet Coke. Oh, I need a Diet Coke right now.
SPEAKER_02Even if it's just like one of the mini ones, I need it. Hey, update from the booth. Do I have a Wikipedia page? No. Neither does Brad. Good. Honestly, thank God.
SPEAKER_03What does CIY's Wikipedia page say? CIY has one for sure, right? Maybe not. I don't know. There's not one for Christ in youth. Good. I think that's a good thing. Well, it's a good thing. And I don't see one for CIY.
SPEAKER_02Any editable editable, edited, editable search engine is pro collie, that I that froze me. That's a hard word to say. Boy, editable editable.
SPEAKER_05It's hard to listen to, too.
SPEAKER_02I don't know that. Editable. Hey, editable. I gotta I got a good thing for you.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02So if you are if somebody gives you a document and you have to make changes and you tell them that you did that, what do you say? I edited the document. Nope. Don't say it like that. Edited. Edited it. I edited it. See, that was good. I think it's just me and edit. I hate that word. Edited it. I edited it. Edit edited it. Edited sorry, guys. It's not gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_03Thankfully, there's no one in this room that has a Wikipedia page. That's great. Yep. It's Jason.
SPEAKER_05Okay, we gotta get off of Wikipedia. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Um Welcome to this podcast where we talk about Wikipedia for 25 minutes.
Mix Program Updates
SPEAKER_05Where we talk about mix because we love mix. We love mix. We love mix. We're excited for mix. Uh it's 2026. Mix is happening in 2026. Yeah, just a few months from now. It's gonna be uh do you know the number? Uh Caleb is the guy on staff who always stands up in our monthly all-staff meeting and says X number of days until interns show up. I don't have till intern shop, but I do have May 1st. What's May 1st? 85 days. 85 days until May 1st. That gave me anxiety. Which I think was your goal.
SPEAKER_01A little bit. That's kind of what I do.
SPEAKER_02It's more of the shock value.
SPEAKER_05Time for a fridge cigarette. No, it's yeah, give me my fridge cig.
SPEAKER_02Golly, we are just loving the Jason Fridge?
SPEAKER_05No. Okay. All right, let's talk about Mix for Real. Um, how's it going over there in Mixworld?
SPEAKER_02Mixed World is rocking and rolling, man.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. What what's ex when you get out of bed in the morning, what are you like, can't wait to go do this at work today for Mix?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, I think personally, it's anytime I can talk or hang out with a youth pastor. That's my favorite part of my job. So anytime like I have we have some churches that we have some standing meetings with, I look forward to those every time because I get to just like hang out and have a conversation, which is really, really good.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_02Um right now program is rolling along. They are doing really they're doing a ton of stuff and we're gonna do some new things. We're gonna try some new things, which is really exciting. Um can we tease any or do we have to wait? I would wait. Okay, we're gonna wait. Let's wait just because what's the point in ruining the surprise?
SPEAKER_04I mean, is it gonna be a surprise? Everything's a surprise for youth pastors. Everything's a surprise.
Why One Speaker All Week
SPEAKER_02Okay. No, one of really and truly one of the biggest things that we are changing up this year um is just kind of how communicators work. Um the last number of years we've had several different communicators, and at some of our events this summer, we're gonna stick with one evening speaker throughout the whole week.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Which Mix already, in comparison to Move, had moved in that direction a little bit. Correct. Yeah. We Like you used to only have two evening speakers. Correct, right? Yep. You would do one on night two and one on nights three and four. That is correct. Now we're just doing two, three, four. Two three-four.
SPEAKER_02Yep. We uh we just think it's one of those things that um the relational equity that a speaker could potentially have uh after speaking three nights with this group and getting to know the culture of the event and getting to know some of the students at lunches or out at recreation, um could pay huge dividends, especially for for this generation who craves authenticity and relationship. Yeah. Let's make let's take a swing and let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_05We're gonna take a swing, we're gonna see what happens. Um I think that'll be fun. I think that'll be really cool. Uh and you know, the the there are also unique um aspects of mix though, like uh we've already had in place that play into that a little bit, like the band being event staff and being involved down a realm and like you know, those relationships being able to be fostered and having like a host and an MC and you know, all of these types of things. I'm the rudest person in the world. I'm the rudest person in the world. I'm sorry if you heard that notification on my computer.
SPEAKER_02It it distracted me. Especially because that name distracts me. Is that who we're talking to? No, it's not.
SPEAKER_05I I put the wrong Matt. Great. Uh, we're talking to Matt Tibbett.
SPEAKER_02So I had to redirect what I wanted to talk about.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, totally. Um what are we gonna talk to Matt Tibbet about?
SPEAKER_02We are talking about no phones.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. But do you have like a thing that you want to talk to him about?
SPEAKER_02I want to ask him all about his little farm life. Matt has a farm down in Arkansas. He's a farm boy.
SPEAKER_05I bought a quarter of a cow from him last year. Oh. And let me tell you.
SPEAKER_04A quarter of it?
SPEAKER_05A quarter of it.
SPEAKER_04Which quarter?
Farm Talk And Quarter Of Beef
SPEAKER_05Uh it's like the driver's side rear quarter panel. No, when you buy a quarter, they take half of the cow and they cut it up, and then every cut gets divided in half. So, like if you get eight filet mignons, four of them go to somebody who bought a quarter, and four of them go to somebody who bought a quarter.
SPEAKER_02Oh. So it's not like it literally, like I obviously don't know enough about cows or the butchering of that. I I thought you'd just pick your leg.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, I mean that would be awesome.
SPEAKER_02Front left, front right, back left, back right.
SPEAKER_05Uh, he can tell you more about it, I'm sure. But uh yeah, he's a sweet little farm boy and we love him. We love him so much. Um all right, Caleb, where are you gonna be this summer?
SPEAKER_02Currently, as it stands, I will be in New Mexico to kick the summer off. Then I go to Texas in Nacados, Texas.
SPEAKER_04Naca Nowhere.
SPEAKER_02Uh do they say that? They do, but Naca Nowhere rocks because right across the staff dorms, there is a Taco Bueno. Um, no one really knows or cares about what Taco Bueno is, but I do. And after that, I go out to Marion.
SPEAKER_05So if you've ever wanted to spend four days with middle schoolers and not get any sleep and also not have any regularity in your bowel movements, you can go to Taco Bueno.
SPEAKER_02Come to Texas with me. We'll have a great day.
SPEAKER_05Go to Texas with Caleb.
SPEAKER_02Um, then I go to Indiana. Marion, Indiana, Indiana Wesleyan University.
SPEAKER_05Iwo. Iwo. We have a new person on our team in the serve center. I'm not gonna say who it is. It's but her name rhymes with Smelly Haas. It's Kelly Moss, Lane's wife, and uh she kept the other day saying So do they have this at IWU? Do they have this at IWU? And I was like, Kelly, I respect what you're trying to do.
SPEAKER_02But I like it.
SPEAKER_05But it's Iwo.
SPEAKER_02I'm only calling it IWU from here on for the rest of the year. Iwo, Iwo, Iwo. Um, and then I end with two of our events that are just for single churches. So I'll go out to Ohio um and hang out with Crossroads from Cincinnati and then out to the Rocky Mountains to hang out with flat irons. Flat irons.
SPEAKER_05Irons. Irons is a weirdly spelled word, but I don't know how it should be spelled. Irons. Irons. I R it's spelled I-R-O-N-S, but I feel like it should be like I-U-R-N-S. Irons.
SPEAKER_02Irons.
SPEAKER_05Irons. Anyway. Um yeah. Well, I'm excited for you. I'm not doing any mixes this summer.
SPEAKER_02No, you're not, Brad. You are not doing any mixes this summer.
SPEAKER_05Which I'm not gonna lie to you makes me super sad. Um because I love mix and I love getting to hang out with our church as a mix.
SPEAKER_02I wish you would be there.
SPEAKER_05I uh maybe I'll just show up to one, honestly.
SPEAKER_02Well, I there's some pre-planning that goes into that. So if you could give me a heads up before you just show up. We've got a few months. Uh that would be ooh pretty great.
SPEAKER_05Uh, we got a few months. We got a few months. Oh, okay. All right. Uh we're gonna go talk to Matt Tibby here in just a minute before we do that. It is time for everybody's favorite segment of the podcast. Mic'ed up. Mike uh. I hope it's everybody's favorite. It's honestly my favorite because I don't have to think about what I'm gonna say.
Summer Site Lineup And Travel
SPEAKER_02That's what they're saying on Twitter.
SPEAKER_03Okay, we'll start thinking.
SPEAKER_05Um and and blue sky and true social. And true social. All of them.
SPEAKER_04Mike, you a big true social guy? Let's not.
SPEAKER_05Mic'ed up is not gonna be about true social. Please don't tune us up.
SPEAKER_03The only social media I really spend any time on is Instagram and Facebook Marketplace.
SPEAKER_05Nice. Um I have a mic'd up for you. Hold on.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_05Because Michael's favorite thing is to go to rent like we travel a lot, and anytime he's in a city, he'll just get on Facebook Marketplace. Yeah. To like be like, oh, what do the people in Nacadoshis, Texas, sell on Facebook Marketplace? What's the weirdest thing you've ever found on Facebook Marketplace? Used coffin?
SPEAKER_03Uh I have I have seen a used coffin. Shut up. On Facebook Marketplace. I just made that up. I can send that to producer Lauren so that she can um share the picture if she wants. That's crazy. Um so I actually I actually have a shared album.
SPEAKER_02Um Hey, what is can we what does a used coffin mean?
SPEAKER_05That it means that a dead body was buried in it and then it was exhumed, and now they're selling the coffin. I'm not a hundred percent sure. I'm also not a hundred percent sure, but my story is the one that I'm sticking with.
SPEAKER_04So the real question is what constitutes it as used?
SPEAKER_05Is it like is it pre-owned or is it Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like did they have like so Jason French has his coffin in his office office?
SPEAKER_05Famously.
SPEAKER_02Famously. Um is that considered a used coffin?
SPEAKER_05No, that's a pre-owned coffin. But also he made it.
SPEAKER_02Or does that what verb makes it use? Like if one person tries it out while alive, like I'm just gonna go in.
SPEAKER_05You don't try out coffins when that's what I'm wondering.
SPEAKER_02Because the outlandishness of it was buried and it no longer is buried is something that my brain can't hang on to.
SPEAKER_05Right. That's why Facebook Marketplace is truly the best place in the world. All right, Michael, what else you got?
Mic’ed Up: Marketplace Oddities
SPEAKER_03Um I I I have a shared album on my phone with a handful of select friends that is titled Marketplace Finds, and it is screenshots from Facebook Marketplace of just weird things that people have listed. Right. Um, and sometimes it's like a normal listing, but there are plenty of people who like they're trying to sell something, and the first image is of the listing is a selfie that they took. Amazing. Uh that's really that's really the thing that that got this all started. Selling themselves. The original Facebook Marketplace find um on this album, it just says free. Okay. And then beneath that, in the name of the listing, it says free in all kinds of things. Oh, free, free. And uh this is the image. Oh I will also share this with producer Lore.
SPEAKER_02What? Do you do you think that person is trying to teach people how to do like the faces and FaceTime?
SPEAKER_03I'm not sure. Um when most of the time, whenever I see something like this on marketplace, I'll take a quick glance at like the profile. Um and you gotta know if you can trust them. Yeah, especially if it's free. A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_05Uh what'd the profile tell you? I don't really remember. Okay, pick one more good one and then we're gonna do mic'ed up. Um geez. I know. I just have to cut you off sometimes, but here we are.
SPEAKER_03An adult size Elmo. No way. I got it. Quality made is not cheap.$400. Uh is not cheap. This is no.
SPEAKER_02That's not a costume, is it? That's aisle. Okay, okay. Here's another one. Yeah, it's a costume. I kind of like it if it wasn't. Yeah. If it was just stuffed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh I will have to make sure that I get these to producer Lauren. Um, anyway, the original thing I was going to talk about, we all like the outdoors to some extent. I love the outdoors. Um I went to Colorado last fall uh with my good buddy and friend Sam Kiefer, um uh on staff at New Beginnings um in Tampa, Florida. Friend of the pod. Friend of the pod. Um anyway, we while we were in Colorado, we decided to hike a mountain. As one does. As one does.
SPEAKER_02Because they're there.
SPEAKER_03Because they're there. Yeah. And you know, why not? Also, I I wish that I was closer to mountains on a regular basis. I'd be in much better shape, probably, hopefully. Probably.
SPEAKER_05You are the Ozark Mountains, they're right down there.
SPEAKER_03Um anyway, we packed some snacks because you gotta burn those calories. Yeah, you know, you gotta have calories to burn in the first place. Um we packed some snacks. Um and I felt like the most efficient slash indulgent snack that I could bring on a hiking trip was uncrustables. Yeah, okay. Um, but I want to know from you guys if you're gonna go have an outdoorsy day, whether you're cycling um or fly fishing or whatever the case may be, what are your snacks? Nerds gonna be clusters. Oh wow. That's crazy. I already knew easy.
SPEAKER_02Wow. A whole bag of them, family size.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I feel like especially for cycling.
SPEAKER_02I can eat a like a share-sized bag in two and a half hours of riding.
SPEAKER_03Did you take that for the old lead?
SPEAKER_02Uh I had them in my bag, and I was going down a hill and unzipped it, and a hundred of them popped out. And I was really sad. Probably why I didn't finish the Brad, do you just eat the fish straight out of the river?
SPEAKER_05No, I have. Well, yes, but like that's not a snack really. That takes some work. Um here's the deal. I'm not me when I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I've heard that.
SPEAKER_05So not just about you, I've just heard it in general. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, a Snickers is like the best candy bar for when you're out there. It has peanuts in it, so it's basically a health food.
Outdoor Snacks And Blood Sugar
SPEAKER_02And uh not for those that peanuts kill, though. Right. Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um that's a lot of people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think the like mid-hike Snickers bar might be my favorite meal. Meal. Okay. Yeah. Here's the thing too, is I have no let's the thing too is that I have diabetes. And so sometimes when you're really active, sometimes when you're really active, your blood sugar tanks, and so I need something with like sugar, but also that's gonna give me a little bit of susties. And that that's short for sustenance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sties is gross, though, right?
SPEAKER_05It's it's very gross. Yeah. Um and anyway, Snickers bar is just the thing. It's what I like. That's great. Smuckers have a Snickers bar and a fridge cig.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. The the thing is the thing is about uncrustibles is like once once I eat one, the rest are gonna be gone. Like, it's just so difficult for me not to not to just go ahead and eat the next one and then the next one. Of Snickers bars? No, no, no, of um of uncrustables. Um What's your record? I I don't know. Probably like maybe six in a day or something, which is like not that not actually that many. It's not that we're talking about a record.
SPEAKER_02We're talking like six in one hike.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02Hey man, no, no, no, no. It's like half a jar of peanut butter.
SPEAKER_03No, we bought we bought one box which had eight, and we split them between us as four. And uh as we were hiking up the mountain, we would take a break every once in a while. More than every once in a while. But um because it's just not a big thing.
SPEAKER_05Do you know what just makes me so mad about uncrustables?
SPEAKER_03Can I finish my story and then you can say? Yeah, but you've got to get there. Yeah, I'm getting there. Okay. Um, every time we would take a break, Sam would take an uncrustable out of his backpack and he would eat one. And I was always like, no, we gotta get to the top, and then I'm eating all of them. Because if I eat one of them now, I'm gonna eat all of them.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know? Uh and sure enough, Sam was making fun of me for it, but we got to the top of the mountain, found out we had self-service, texted our loved ones, said let them know that we were alive, and then I ate all of my uncrustables. Funny, I didn't get a text. Well, as in like my parents and his parents.
SPEAKER_02Not getting a text.
SPEAKER_05Not um I'm gonna tell you what makes me angry about uncrustables. Okay. What the best flavor of uncrustables is peanut butter and honey. And you can't get it anywhere. Producer Lauren was just talking about that. Why do they not have it anywhere? It's so good.
SPEAKER_04They're like good, but they're not the best.
SPEAKER_05They are the best. They are literally the best.
SPEAKER_02They're like good, but they're not the best.
SPEAKER_05Uh, where uh like are they your number one favorite? Oh, producer Lauren gets it. You said Target?
SPEAKER_03Huh?
SPEAKER_05Target. I never go to Target. I'm gonna start going now, though. That's for that's for sure. Okay. Um thank you, Michael. I'm how glad you had a wonderful time in Colorado eating on Crustables. Uh, I'm glad that Snickers exist. I'm glad that nerds gummy clusters exist.
SPEAKER_02Same.
SPEAKER_05I'm glad that Matt Tibbett exists. And we're gonna go talk to him right now.
SPEAKER_02Hoping the old kids.
SPEAKER_05Matt Tibbett, welcome back to be on the event. Back in the saddle. Here we go. It's happening. In a minute. Here's what I want to say. Um, Caleb, our good friend here, kindly agreed to do this, even though he has a meeting at 2 30.
SPEAKER_02I do.
SPEAKER_05So at some point he's gonna bounce. He's not gonna be here for the whole interview. So I want to let you have the floor. I want to let you like what do we want to talk about with Matt?
SPEAKER_02Any we can talk about anything.
SPEAKER_05Anything. This is like the get to know you phone conversation. Well, we'll talk about phones, we'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_02Matt, where do you live? What do you like to do?
Meet Matt: Ministry And Farm Life
SPEAKER_00I live in northwest Arkansas, a little bit easier. Community called Well, I work at a church in Prairie Grove, but I live south of that in the middle of nowhere. Near a little thing called Devil's Den. Um, what do I love to do? Well, I love student ministry. Uh been doing that in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. It's my 20th year. That's crazy. My heart has belonged to the students of Prairie Grove. Uh, outside of that and family, spending time with my girls. I mean, you guys know this, but I love bow hunting. I love bow hunting for white-tailed deer and wild turkey. Um, we farm a little bit. I I have a love-hate relationship with that, but it's in my blood. Um, and so yeah, last week's storm was no bueno. That was a lot of work and a lot of not fun. But uh, but yeah, so those are pretty much all the things farming, family, bow hunting.
SPEAKER_02Youth ministry. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I mean, what else do you need?
SPEAKER_02I have a question about farming.
SPEAKER_00So you're at okay.
SPEAKER_02I'm ready. And you're ready too. Farmer I'm ready. Brad told me he bought a quarter of a cow from you. Is that crazy?
SPEAKER_00He did, yeah. Okay, that is true.
SPEAKER_02So, in my in my brain, as somebody who doesn't farm, but whose wife has a ton of ducks and chickens. So, like we're like same same. I totally I don't know what a quarter of a cow means. My brain legitimately thought you picked a leg, and that's the quarter that you get. Brad was trying to tell me that that's not how that is.
SPEAKER_05I told him that I got the driver's side rear quarter panel.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not a leg. So imagine if you were looking at a cow from a helicopter, okay, but close, and you were to draw a line from its nose to its tail, yep, and you were to split it left and right, kind of like driver's side passenger.
SPEAKER_05Psalm asunder, as they would say in the old testament.
SPEAKER_00Uh, and so those would be the halves of a cow, and a lot of people do want to buy a half of beef, but that's a lot. I mean, that's a lot to eat in a year for a family of three or four. Um, yeah, it's a lot of meat. I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_05So when you buy a quarter, I I still have a lot.
The Policy: No Phones On Trips
SPEAKER_00Yeah. When you buy a quarter, you're essentially getting half of that half, but you're not getting like a front half of that half or a back half of that half. You're getting a mix of everything from front to back. So you're getting a little brisket, a little flank, a lot of ground, a lot of roast, a lot of steaks. Yeah. So that that is a quarter of beef.
SPEAKER_05Great. Yeah, you don't you're not supposed to I did learn that too. You're not supposed to say a quarter of a cow. It's a quarter of beef. Oh, I gotta say quarter of a cow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can say whatever you want. So long as you as long as you pay on time.
SPEAKER_05My question for you is Well, hey, that sounded like you were sliding me. Okay, great. I want this to be very clear on this podcast that I paid you in a timely manner. He did.
SPEAKER_00Everybody did. I it was just uh an offhand joking comment.
SPEAKER_02Um okay, so my question is do you have somebody who does the processing? Or Matt, do you do it yourself?
SPEAKER_00No, I don't do the processing. Uh I've used a couple different processors. I'm gonna use a different different one this year than last year just because they're closer. But yeah, you essentially pay them to process. They're USDA certified, their facility is USDA certified. Uh and so they they do everything according to the government standards. And and even though I mean I could I could legally, I think, process that cow and sell myself and sell the quarters, uh, I don't have the facilities to do that in the the cleanest way possible. You know what I mean? To make sure that I'm getting them beef that doesn't have any hair or dirt or dust or anything like that in. So yeah.
SPEAKER_05So you literally this is so more you literally drive into the parking lot of the processor with a live cow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a couple of them actually.
SPEAKER_05And you drive out of the parking lot of the processor with a box full of steaks.
SPEAKER_00No, you well, there's a lot of things.
SPEAKER_05I know there's day like there's weeks that go by, but like that's funny.
unknownWow.
Two Pillars: Distraction And Safety
SPEAKER_00So I usually ask them to to dry hang the meat. So they'll basically get it to its hanging weight, which is they're gonna remove the internal organs, they're gonna remove the head and the hide, and then I'll ask them to hang it in the cooler for the maximum amount of time so the beef can tenderize, uh, which I believe is 10 days or 14 days, excuse me, two weeks. So and then they'll process and then you go back and you pick up more meat than you could keep in your freezer at all. It's so much meat.
SPEAKER_02So it's so much meat. I think I started asking about the cow and then I fully regret now that I'm picturing what it's like. The helicopter top-down view really threw me. I'm not doing well with it.
SPEAKER_00You're welcome. Are you sad, Caleb, for the cow? Is that what it is? No, I eat beef. Like it's part of it, it's just gross.
SPEAKER_02It's part of it.
SPEAKER_05But like what were their names? What were the two from last year's names?
SPEAKER_02Nope, we don't need to do that. We don't need a name.
SPEAKER_05No, tell me what their names were.
SPEAKER_00Uh man, I honestly can't remember. I did name them something.
SPEAKER_05I think ham and burger or something.
SPEAKER_00No, it was like hamburger helper, and I can't remember the other one. We only butchered two last year. We're gonna do two again this year. I have a third steer that I wanted to butcher, but man, he has turned into a really, really good-looking potential bull. Uh, so he's not really a steer because he's not he's not a eunuch, so to speak, uh, to keep things voteful.
SPEAKER_05Can you can we dig into that a little bit more for a second? No, listen, we can do whatever we're doing.
SPEAKER_02I want to get this podcast pulled from the platform.
SPEAKER_05A steer is a bull that has been fixed. Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Now I would you like to know that process or or no?
SPEAKER_02Are you are you a rubber band guy? You do that one, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we do the banding, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, cool.
SPEAKER_00It is a rubber band? Yeah. Oh, I thought that was something from like the ancient times. Okay, we're done.
SPEAKER_05Okay, let's talk about phones.
SPEAKER_00Let's talk about phones. Dude, that was the smoothest transition I've ever heard of my life.
SPEAKER_05I've been working on my segues. Um thanks, man. Uh, let's let's talk about phones. Okay, um, phones. They're not going anywhere. They're here to stay. Uh, I've got one, you've got one. Every kid in the high school ministry has one. About half the kids in junior high ministry have one. Uh, it's it's a whole thing we got going on. Um, Matt, you have been in youth ministry for 20 years. 20 years. Right? You have seen two.
SPEAKER_00I did two in a different state before we came to Prairie Girl.
SPEAKER_05It it's yeah, it's you did it. So you've done 22 years of of student ministry. So you have really seen this whole thing like play out.
Building Community On The Van
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I remember I remember youth ministry when like Facebook first became a thing. I remember where I was when I first heard about it. Uh remember only have a.edu address to you had to be in college and you had to join a university's Facebook group or whatever. But yeah, I remember all that. Remember phones coming along. I remember seeing kids with phones for the first time, you know, which I had always had a cell phone in youth ministry because I got one when I kind of started college. But yeah, it's been interesting to go from, I mean, like to put it in perspective. I had one youth group girl way back in the day in the early 2000s who went over her 200 texts a month limit by like 2,000 texts because she was texting at night to her boyfriend. Yeah, and her parents didn't know. And this is like before nights and weekends kind of thing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, those things are like 30 cents a pop.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she racked up like a like an$1,800 phone bill with her mom and dad. They were ready to murder. And that is a world that like kids these days can't even comprehend. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I got in trouble long just for blowing up the the phone. Oh, yeah. Oh man.
SPEAKER_00And so I I've seen I've seen just uh just a lot of progress with phones with families and students and and all that for sure.
SPEAKER_05Okay, you're a no phones on trips guy. You're in million percent. Yep. Uh so when do you take them?
SPEAKER_00Uh they they are not allowed to bring them at all.
SPEAKER_05So they they show up to Prairie Grove phone.
SPEAKER_00Phone.
SPEAKER_05Okay. So it's not like you can have them on the bus and then we take, I guess just okay no. Um why?
Parent Buy-In And Student Anxiety
SPEAKER_00Okay, so number one, I the little bit of the why is I've never allowed them. And and really, so I've never had to go through that process of trying to remove that capability. So that's uh I've talked to a lot of dudes, again, talked to Chuck from Wilderness this year uh recently about it. Uh, I've never had to go through that process. And so really I just never allowed it because I was just kind of against it when it wasn't really a big issue to not let them bring phones. And now I think it would be a big issue, and parents have a lot of issues with it, but uh it's two reasons, and this is what I always explain to parents, and and I always tell them first like, hey, our goal, we're not trying to cut you off from your kid. We want your kid to be able to communicate with you as much as you want or they want to make you and them feel safe, but they have to do so through our D Group leaders' phones or my phone. Um, and I tell them the main two reasons are is a huge distraction. Um, that that week is so pivotal for our ministry. You guys spend an entire year prepping for that week. We spend so much time and resources getting those kids there. And God can and will do more that week than we could ever imagine. And I just don't want their immaturity and lack of a developed frontal lobe and a cell phone to distract from that. And it really can be a distraction. I have seen my adults struggle with it. Like there was a year we were at Lee and Aaron Pels who's up on stage leading worship at the same time that the Arkansas Razorbacks were losing the World Series of baseball. And I went back to go to the bathroom and I come back and I see like four or five phones with a Razorback game pulled up. That's my adults, you know? And so it's it's a huge distraction. And I think everybody knows that. I mean, if I would challenge anyone that questions that when you're at move next year, like during the sermon, go up in the back and just look around. I mean, people cannot sit there for 30 minutes for a speaker without pulling that thing out and checking and looking at it. It's just a huge distraction for what God's doing during a super huge pivotal week, like the most important spiritual week of the year on our calendar. But the other reason, and this is where it gets kind of down, kind of down to the nitty-gritty. Oh, let me back up. When I say that it's a distraction, I don't mean that it's just a distraction from what happens in the big room. I think it's a major distraction from a lot of opportunity for them to build community. And if they had their phone, they would be checking out from that opportunity on the van to play games, to play cards, to do some of the games that we've made up, to participate in the van-to-van lip sync challenge that our adults do every year, not the drivers, the navigators, the spare adults. Um, there's just a lot of opportunity for community that they are being distracted from. Because if they had their phones on the van, they'd just be back there watching shows, listen to music, and they'd be completely disconnected. When they get out of session in small group and it's during free time, what's the first thing they're gonna do? They're gonna get alone, they're gonna get their phone out, keep all their streaks going, check stuff out, all that. So it's not just a distraction from the room, it's a distraction from a lot of God community opportunities and that that I don't want them to miss out on. And by the time our kids get there, and I know that students, when they hear no, no phones on the vans, and we drive 12 hours to Lee usually, they think that is hell. That is absolutely it's not. It's the most fun ever. We smell each other's farts, we share snacks, we laugh more than you could possibly imagine. And we do high low or happies and crappies at youth group time that night, that first night. And a lot of times their highs are from the van ride. You move that time so-and-so sharded, and and we had to wait until we hit the gas station for him to go, you know, make a change.
SPEAKER_05Do you remember a Matt Tippett podcast without bad?
Logistics Without Apps
SPEAKER_00And that is a true story, okay? But I've seen best friends meet each other on van rides and they stay homies and BFFs till they graduate. So to me, it's a distraction from a lot of stuff. The room from community building, from really engaging with the church and the youth group and what God's trying to do. And then the other one is safety. Um, I don't want to be responsible for making sure that kids don't do really stupid things with their phones that week because we take a decent sized group. Uh, and you know, I'm trying to get in bed at 1 a.m. and they're staying up till 2, 2:30, and so-and-so is going to go take a shower, and somebody takes that phone into the bathroom and snaps a pick of them thinking it's gonna be funny, shares it with a youth group, and now we have child pornography that was produced at a CIY event, church can't, you know, conference, and it's being passed around. And that has happened. I've heard of that. Um, and I just I don't want to be responsible for that because I think the only reason that that doesn't happen a lot more at school and at sporting stuff is opportunity. And there's a lot of chill time in the afternoon and in the evenings and late at night for opportunity for some super sketchy stuff to go down. Um, I've even heard a story and had this happen as an intern where kids collaborate with kids from other groups to get together and do nefarious things they shouldn't be doing. But when you don't have phones, it gets a lot harder to kind of orchestrate that. And so yeah, I know I've talked a lot answering your question, but those are kind of really the two reasons is just distraction and safety. Distraction and safety. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02That makes a ton of sense. I mean, it's uh it's a tool when used right. But I mean, you you talked about their frontal lobe is not there yet. And so the tool can be super good. And if you use it for good, it can be super good, but it also the cons outweigh the pros. And so that makes a ton of sense. That makes a ton of sense. How do you so with that those two reasons? How do you have the conversation with parents? Because hear me. Um I uh my son's only four, he doesn't have a phone yet, obviously. But I can tell you when he's ready to go to CIY and he's not wanting like if he doesn't want me there, um I'll have some issues. I'm just like, dang it, I need to be able to get a I need to know what's going on. But yeah, how do you have that conversation?
SPEAKER_00What's funny is uh if I told you the number of times I've had that conversation with a parent over the last 10 years, like how many times do you think parents have come to me and had that convo with me in the last 10 moves? Yeah, throw out a number. 200. 200. And I mean, and we take a I would say a medium-sized group, you know, it takes us like eight to ten vans to get everybody there. And and so just to give you a perspective, I I think I've probably had that combo with the parent face to face less than 10 times.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
Buddy System And Safety Bracelets
SPEAKER_00Um, and the reason why is number one, it's always been that way, but number two, I don't even have to because you know, parents, man, they don't go straight to the youth minister, they go to other parents. Yeah. And so my parents have who have seen their own children go and benefit from this, and my kids are like evangelistic about it. Like they'll invite friends, yeah, but you can't bring your phone. Oh, what? And they're going, no, it's the best week ever. You're gonna love it. Like my kids look forward to it. They look forward to having to buy their stupid Spider-Man watch at Walmart because they don't have a watch because they use their phone, and they get excited about talking about their watch and what it does and learning how to set an alarm. I mean, they literally evangelize to other students about it's gonna be the best, you're gonna love it. I know it sounds terrible, but it's gonna be one of your favorite things about the week. But my parents hear this and they talk to other parents about it. And literally, we put it in our our like email/slash, we send a snail mail copy of an email just to cover our bases. Uh, but we put it in there, some of the reasoning, and we tell them, like, we want you to be able to get a hold of your kid anytime you want. You want your kid to call you two, three times a day, to check in, text you, zero questions asked. They get to go to me or their their D group leader and go, hey, I'd like to call my mom. Okay. And done. Like, we're not trying to keep you from your kid. Um, but my parents will literally tell other parents, like, you it's great, you don't need to worry about it. It's gonna be the best thing ever, you know. And when I say 10, I'm being generous, I really think it's like three or four in 10. Yeah, it's very few, very few, very few.
Teaching Phones Later, Not At Camp
SPEAKER_05So I I uh you said something uh interesting about them uh really uh cherishing the experience of of not having their phones. And I'm wondering if these conversations with students at least are getting uh easier over time, because um here's why I would ask that. Um Gen Alpha are more allergic to their phones than any generation since uh I don't know the freaking boomers, I guess. But like they uh they'll attack but like they so here's my like recent example is uh Alamo Draft House, which is one of my favorite places to go and watch a movie, um because they have comfy chairs that recline and you can eat while you're whatever. And they have like an ordering system where you have to write down what you want on a piece of paper and then you push push a button and somebody comes and gets it and takes it and brings it back, whatever. So it's a very analog experience, and Alamo is very much like no phones. And uh people love going to movies there because they're like, Oh, this is great. I went to a movie a Regal the other day, and some guy answered a FaceTime call next to me in the middle of the movie. In the middle of the movie, I leaned over and I said, Bro, uh put it away. Um which I never do, like that's not me. But okay, so anyway, Alamo Draft House, Alamo Draft House has decided that they are now gonna do like mobile ordering instead of the analog ordering, and people are revolting. I love it. They're like, no, do not do that. Like this takes away from one of the only things that we love. Paper is like so back, baby. Like kids want to take notes in journals, like they so I which is like bizarre to me because we like I am a millennial, I saw the the the integration of the smartphone into like everyday life, and everything was cool. It's like, oh, look at what I can do with my phone. But these generations are now like not impressed by that, right? And they don't like the so is the student side getting easier for that reason, or no.
SPEAKER_00I I don't think that they would say that it's getting easier, and I don't know necessarily if it's getting easier. I I think and and I'm agreeing with you, it sounds like I'm not, but I am. I think that they're more they're more open to the idea. I guess that doesn't make it they're more open to the idea that it could be good. Like I think that this new generation of students are are more open than ever to like it could be a good thing to not have this for you know a week. It could be really good for me. Um and I I think the students now more than ever are looking for authenticity and something that's real and they're looking for real connection, you know. And uh, and I just I feel that like I don't think any of our new kids that have never been on one of our trips that are being told they're not gonna have a phone doesn't go through anxiety and worry about that because that that's a scary thing for them. It's it's the it to them, it's an access to safety, it's an access to mom and dad, it's an access to peace, it's an access to resources and everything. And they really view it as the hub for everything that they need. And that is gonna induce some anxiety and worry when you ask them to give that away and then to drive 12 hours to a different state and and go on this eight, nine-day trip with us. But I think that the moment they do it and they go through a couple days of it, they are more ready than ever to just not even worry about it anymore and just really engage because I think they're looking for authentic relationships and real, real things, real interactions, real community, you know?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So uh CIY, um the I there's no opinion behind the statement that I'm about to say. It's just a fact. CIY has integrated uh technology more and more over time into uh programming a little bit more so, like how we the logistics behind how we run our events. Um if you want a schedule, it's on your phone. If you want to look at the seating chart, it's on your phone. Convos, that doesn't apply as much to students, but for leaders, like that's on your phone. Um we did Selaw on the phones for a while and have stopped doing that. Um but do your students how do you navigate the logistics of a week with them because they would be used to going to that place for information, and that is where we put the information. So how do they get the information?
Mental Health, Social Media, And Limits
SPEAKER_00So it it's a hair, a hair more work, and when I say a hair, it's way easier than the olden days when we had to print like 14 packets of lessons, you know, for Dgroup conversation to our adults. But essentially we get a campus map ahead of time and a schedule with all the electives and time things ahead of time, and we print uh like eight and a half by eleven cardstock, but we do it a half, two per sheet. We basically print them a map and a schedule and give it to them. Now, um we all know students. I mean, eight hundred and thirty nine percent of them lose that, right? But what I see happen is they actually Lean on the paper less and they lean into community more. Because like we used to go back a hundred years, if I need to know how to fix a tractor, I need information on how to pull a calf, or I needed info on how to tune a bow or how to how to hunt or how to be an outdoorsman, I did not go to a device. I did not go to technology. I went to another human. And humans passed on that in information and that that wealth of knowledge. And so what I see on their trips is not really them carrying their, I mean, they carry their Bibles or pens or notebooks and then they carry their schedules, but they lose it or they don't pay attention to it. They lean into each other. And so they're like, well, and we tell them, like, hey, if you don't really know where to go or what to do, like find someone your age and gender that's in your small group and just follow them. And so instead of seeing a bunch of individual kids that are hanging out in the rooms at their phones, because I've seen it in other youth group dorms, you know, walking down the hallway, see that kid in there on his, you know, on his bed, kicked back, watching something. Instead of that kid being isolated, watching shows, catching up on social media or text messages, and then getting up by himself and following a schedule and going to dinner, we see kids going in pods and pockets and groups and all of that. Um, we also enforce, we have a buddy system the whole week, so they can never go anywhere by themselves. Um, and we give them these big hideous bracelets that they hate that are really bright and colorful all of our adults, because all of our adults don't know all of our kids, and all of our kids don't know all of our adults. So uh those bracelets are a signifier that that's one of our kids and they're not in the buddy system, or are is it a boy and a girl that, you know, are isolated or whatever. So they have to do the buddy system all week, again, pushing them into community. And then at night, uh after session, when it's dark, they're not allowed to stay in the buddy system. They have to go with their small group uh just for safety reasons. We're in a college campus, there's through traffic, there's other people here that aren't with CIY. And so we kind of just push them into community and push them into interacting together, doing things together. And so they kind of just lean on each other. Um, you just made me think, though, of another one. One of the things that we do with those bracelets is this is actually a parent idea. A mom was a little bit nervous and she was like, Well, this is one of the literally the four conversations I can think of where a parent sought me out one-on-one to ask questions. And she's like, Well, what about what is he gonna do if he needs if he gets hurt, if he hurts his ankle playing basketball, if he falls and he needs stitches? How is he gonna get a hold of you? And I was like, Man, Jennifer, I don't know, I've never thought about that. You know, I just always thought that they'd tell someone else and that someone would run to find an adult. And so what we did is uh, because kids don't remember phone numbers, like Brad, you probably remember your home phone growing up. Michael, you look relatively young. I don't even know if you're you ever had a home phone. Oh, yeah. Uh but 918-696-3730. I mean we've got to be a few years.
SPEAKER_05Did you ever did you ever have a 606 number, Michael?
SPEAKER_03No, I don't know what a 606 number is.
SPEAKER_05That was like the old school Kentucky area code. Oh, and then it was a five nine. But you have 502 because you're Louable. Yeah. Anyway.
SPEAKER_00Well, so what we did in response to that is we we actually print my cell phone number and my associate student minister, Michaela's cell phone number. It used to be mine and my previous associate student minister, but we always put our staff phone numbers inside the bracelet. And so if a kid gets hurt or needs to get a hold of this, needs medicine, needs to go to the clinic or whatever, they flip the bracelet inside out, ask an adult or another kid, hey, can I borrow your phone? And they call us and we get our nurse there because we always take a nurse uh as soon as we can. Uh, we've had to use that twice. So two times that's worked where a kid was jacking around on a basketball goal, cut his knee, needed stitches. He used a lifeguard's phone to call me with the number on the bracelet, and we took them and got them stitched up. And then the other time a girl needed uh, she was having kind of an asthma attack and needed her inhaler and didn't have it. So yeah, I mean, there's just little things that we do to keep it safe, to keep them going through the week smoothly. But man, they they here's the other thing too, they figure it out. They figure it out. I think we just take for granted that they're pretty capable and and they're capable of figuring things out on their own and navigating on their own, and you know, they don't always need to have the answer right in front of them. But but yeah.
Generations And Tech Norms
SPEAKER_05So the biggest um the biggest pushback that I could see somebody having to deal with with this is or no no no no no that's not what I'm saying. The biggest uh argument that I feel like you can see on the other side of this coin is um phones are a thing. Your kids have phones. I'm going to take this as an opportunity to help them put up guardrails and show them, teach them what it looks like to use a phone responsibly while they are at Move or Mix or whatever. Um what not I'm not asking you to like discredit that argument, but like what do you think about that?
Correlation vs Causation Game
SPEAKER_00Oh well, I'll be nice, but I'm totally gonna discredit that argument. Okay because because and I've heard that before. I've had combos with other youth ministers, and actually I remember when when CIY first started kind of utilizing technology, there was a year where we were at Lee and they had us on the last night, like all like I don't remember if we downloaded an app or went to a website, it turned our phones into like color screens during the warship. You might have been in like seventh grade when this happened, Brad. I don't know. Um, and then there was like 120 seats down on the floor to the right. There was just like this black hole, and I've never been more proud of my life, you know, kind of a thing. But there were conversations coming out of that night where people were like, dude, why don't you use this as an opportunity to teach them? And here's my response is a little bit twofold. Is number one, that week, teaching them how to use cell phones is not even on the stove. It's not even second or third burner, it's like 2000th burner because I think that there are much more important things that week that we really need to take the opportunity to teach those kids. And I know cell phones are part of their lives, but I mean, I'm talking, you know, conflict resolution and community building and gospel and accepting Christ and repentance. And I mean, Ephesians this year, I'm so amped up. Like there are so many more important things that are eternal that I want them to learn that week. And cell phones isn't even one of those. You know what I mean? Um, and and so here's kind of my other side of that coin is yes, I do think that the church needs to be the entity helping parents and students learn how to use this tool because it is a great tool. It is an amazing tool. I mean, I I I love mine. I don't know what I do without it. I I use it for farming, I use it for hunting, I use it for ministry. It is an amazing tool. But I think that week is not the week to really teach them how to how to navigate cell phones well. You got to spend all year long prepping for that week. We pray, we spend so many resources and time and all of that so that God can show up and do big things that week. That's not the week that we need to navigate issues and navigate teaching them cell phones. For me, I'd rather do that the other 51 weeks of the year when we're back at youth group and there's not so much at stake. You know what I mean? Like let's have a four-week series on you know how to handle technology in a godly way back home. But when it comes to this week that has been prepped and prayed over and resourced for a year plus, and God is going to do some big things. I'm literally here in youth ministry and not in and out of jail and paying a lot of child support because of CIY, because it came to Christ in an event. Let's not use that super crucial event to teach them about cell phone usage when I don't even think we as adults really have it figured out. Let's use that week to let God show up in big spiritual ways with eternal things, and then let's use our time back home. Let's win them over to the gospel and the word and get them to want to want to know what we have to think about that, and then let's get home a month or weeks later and let's let's navigate it back there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And your kids, uh you said they appreciate this by the end of the week. They're like ready to go, they're on fire. Um do you you also said something about parents evangelizing this methodology, like talking to other parents and telling them um that it is a huge benefit. I understand uh why a student would say, Hey, I I didn't want to do this either, but actually it's awesome. Um, because they are uh disconnecting, unplugging from that so that they can connect and plug in uh to analog relationships, you know. Um what what do the what value do the parents see in it?
SPEAKER_00Um I I think it's really so much that they their kids come home and tell them it was awesome not having my phone. I think it's more I love my kid, they can do no wrong, and they're telling me this was a good thing, and I'm good with it. But also I think that they see how much change, like life change and heart change that their kid goes through during that week. And they just know that like them not having their phone probably enabled some of that and set some of that up to happen. And so I think that's really what it is. It's not so much that they've been there and they understand, but yet again, I mean, we do have a lot of adult volunteers that are parents. Yeah. And and you know, I've got little Billy and his mom, Amanda over here, you know, uh is a softball mom or a baseball mom with Billy and his friends. And so if Billy's friends or other youth group kids are gonna come to move and they're sitting in the bleachers and we're two months out and they can't bring their phones, well, they're gonna ask her before they ask me. But she's been one of my volunteers who's gone and she's gonna tell them, like, no, it's the best. Your kid's gonna love it. And so I think they just see the value because they see CIY do so much good change, God use it to do so much good change in their kids' heart, and then their kid comes home and tells them, like, it was great. Love not having my phone, it was awesome, you know?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Um, I get it because I too would love to not have my phone for a week. Yeah. You know, I mean, I say that and then I would probably freak out a little bit, but there is a like animalistic part of me that's like, what if technology just wasn't a thing for a little while?
Takeaways And Next Episode Tease
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you, I I'll tell you, you know, and I know you got you get this because of ministry and CIY and and doing life with high school kids, and you understand this. I mean, I don't think that we as humans, this is my if you want to get on my personal philosophy on cell phones, uh, I don't think that we as humans were ever intended to be this socially connected. And and I think that's the reason why anxiety statistics, uh, suicide depression statistics, it's a lot of the social media stuff, and I'm not even gonna dive off into the you know correlative studies that have been done in the US and Europe between like the amount of screen time a kid spends and the increase of anxiety and depression. I'm not even gonna dive off into that. All I'm gonna say is as a race, I was never meant to know all of the things that are going on in the world that are horrible like I know now. I don't think that we're ever meant to know as many people as we know and be expected to keep tabs on as many people as we keep tabs on. Because if you go back 200 years and farmer Tibbett's down his dirt road with his his wife, his two kids, and his cows, I probably will never, never travel more than 30 miles away from my home in my life. And I will know my neighbors within a mile or two because we'll help each other harvest, we'll help each other in hard times. The women are going to help each other with, you know, putting putting up the harvest or pulling, you know, uh uh being a doula to help them, you know, have their baby or whatever. But I mean, I would know maybe a couple dozen people. But right now, like I mean, the hundreds of Facebook friends and Instagram friends and and people I'm connected to on TikTok and all the things that we're aware of, I just think it's not good for us as humans. And so when you say you would love to do away with that, I think there's part of you, a primitive, like innate part of you, that longs to kind of be free from that because it is a tool, but it's also a really oppressive tool. It's a tool that just doesn't sit in your tool bag. It's a tool that wants to kind of take over your mind and your heart if you let it, you know, and it's it's dangerous. So I I view it really as being a lot like not to get into like super crazy political stuff, but like there are a lot of tools in our life that are really dangerous, like like weapons, handguns, whatever. You know, police use handguns to keep peace, but other people could use that to to cause harm and violence. And it's like I view cell phones like that. That they're not this, they're not like a like a like a hammer or a screwdriver. They're a really dangerous tool. They're really charged and they can do a lot of good, but man, they also can do a lot of bad.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, this we talked about this. My mental health is abysmal, it's terrible. Uh I uh I here's my like my anecdotal evidence is I deleted all of the social media apps off my phone and basically immediately saw improvement.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're removing, I mean, again, this is jumping into some studies, but I I'll I've done some parenting seminars at our church through the years, and I ironically enough, I don't do them with my student ministry parents. Some of them come, but I try to catch elementary parents before they give their kids a phone. And I just quote statistics to them about students, but you know, it's kind of the same with adults. I mean, we haven't figured this out either. But there is a correlation between the amount of time you spend aware of the social scene and the amount of time you spend with a screen in front of you and the the likelihood that you're gonna struggle with things like ADHD, that you're gonna struggle with things like anxiety, depression. I mean, it it's it's connected. I mean, it's not direct. It's not like, well, Bradley, if you spend four hours on your phone, you're gonna hate yourself. It's not how it works, but it's more likely. Yeah, it's correlated. Whereas there's a book called The Last Child in the Woods, and it's a it's a book that was kind of like sponsored by the Boy Scouts, and it's promoting kids being in the outdoors. But if you read some of the studies in there, they talk about every hour that a kid spends outside in their in their formative years, every hour that they spend outside, uh creative thinking, pretending, using their imagination, getting dirty, climbing trees, the likelihood that they have ADHD falls to the floor. The likelihood that they have anxiety and depression and suicidal thoughts falls to the floor. And I just think there's there's a part of us that longs for creation. In the same way that we long for community, real community with people, a part of us longs for creation. And and so when you say no to social media, you're probably more aware of what's going on around you, the community around you, the world around you, but you're also cutting out FOMO, fear of missing out. You're cutting out being aware of all the people that Bradley thinks are killing it way better than Bradley is, you know, and you're just you're able to just hone in, I think, on your own path and your own growth and what you're doing. And it's I'm not surprised. I don't think anyone would be surprised that mentally you're in a better state, you know? Yeah. Um, totally. And and I say that too, and I think that this is pertinent, and I feel like God has called me to talk about this, but you know, my struggle. I mean, I I struggle with anxiety. I struggle with anxiety every day and morning and night. Never struggled with it in my life until about a year and a half ago.
SPEAKER_05And so I'm not saying that until you hung out with me at wilderness.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no. No, I'm not gonna dive off into the randomness of my anxiety. It's not really trauma-based, it's just life-based. But um, I only say that to say I'm not saying that social media and cell phones, that cutting that out will help you as someone who doesn't know. You know, I'm somebody that struggles with it, you know, with anxiety and and just being really anxious about stuff and how things are gonna go. And and I just know that the more time I am thinking about everyone else and what they're going through and what maybe they're expecting me to do there, which they're probably not, they're not even thinking of me. You know, my anxiety struggles a little bit. So so yeah, I'm not surprised. Yeah, not surprised.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I'm not either. Um I'm not either, you know. And I I I expected to miss it. I expected to be like an addiction that I was gonna have to like shake, but it hasn't, it's just total freedom. Like it's just it's it's no downside. Um I have missed two uh social gatherings because uh they invites only went out on uh Facebook. But other than that, you know, I'm feeling pretty good. Um all right. I want to do two things really quick. Okay, really quick. We're gonna finish up. Um what generation are you actually?
SPEAKER_00Okay, I really don't know generations really well. I think I'm a millennial. I was born in 81. I think so too. You're like I'm an older millennial, is what everyone tells me. Like I yeah, I I'm not like the younger millennial.
SPEAKER_05I'm not gonna be like, I think we're on like the ends of that. Where it's like generationally uh and and they've started measuring the length of generations based on like technology that's available to people and when it becomes available to them. And we are the generation that like came of age with cell phones, you know, right. And we learn how to use them. And so for us, uh cell phones were always cool, they were always fun, uh, they were always um something that was just like impressive, and we couldn't believe that we had the ability to do the things that we had the ability to do. They were novel. Um and uh so like we have, like you said, integrated every single aspect of our lives into our phones. Take notes on my phone, you farm on your phone. Um, I check, you know, every piece of information I could ever need in order to have a good day of fishing is on my phone, you know, um, all that kind of stuff. Uh Pikel. What generation are you in?
SPEAKER_03I argue that I'm a millennial. I was born in 1995. Okay. 1995 Jurassic Park theme interrupting me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um anyway, I was hoping you could provide a different perspective, but uh maybe not. Barely.
SPEAKER_03Barely? I mean, I like what you were describing is very similar to what my experience was. It's just that I was in I was in like the later years of elementary and early middle school when I was started to see more and more cell phones. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, okay. I my comment there, just the only thought I have with what you said is I I find it ironic because you are right, and I've I've just not really thought a lot about it. They really do kind of like decide the the beginning and the end of a new generation based upon the technology that was available. And like that should that right there should tell you how deeply they that psychologists and educated people that are way smarter than me like think about technology and how it influences us. Like, we're not, you know, I mean, it's just interesting because I was listening to a podcast the other day. They were talking about, well, this generation saw the invention of the automobile and the radio and the television. It's like, I mean, we mark our time in generations by technology. And that that alone should tell you what our greatest struggle or maybe our greatest success would be, you know? So it's interesting.
SPEAKER_05Okay, can we end on a fun note? We can we can end on whatever note you want, Brad. We're gonna end on a fun note. You've talked a lot about statistics and you use the word correlation a lot. Oh gosh. And um we've all heard like correlation does not equal causation. Just because they're correlated doesn't mean they cause one another. Um, have you ever looked up like weird correlations? Have you ever done this?
SPEAKER_00No, I I have not, but I've heard some and I I think I know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'm gonna throw some out and then I need you to make it make sense. Okay. Okay. Um here's the here's the first one I'm gonna do. Uh the number of associate degrees awarded in dental assistance uh is correlated to the number of wins for the Baltimore Orioles.
SPEAKER_00Make it make sense.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just invent a crazy story that makes that make sense.
SPEAKER_00Well, okay, so when were the Baltimore Orioles really successful in racking up wins?
SPEAKER_05I mean the 90s when Cal Ripkin Jr. was there, probably.
SPEAKER_00And maybe that's the time period that they started pushing education in college, you know, because I remember being a kid, seventh grade, they're like, you have to know what you're gonna want to do with the rest of your life and make a good ACT score so you can get into college and get your three-bedroom, two-bath. And so I wonder if it's a generational thing where like when the Orioles are doing really good, it was during a time period where people were like, Well, yeah, I probably should get some education, but I don't want to go four years. I'm just gonna do two. You can make a lot of money as a dental hygienist, hygienist or whatever. And who doesn't like going to the dentist and getting their teeth cleaned? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05I mean, I did that today, Matt. I literally did that today. Yeah. Okay, um, here's another fun one. Uh the no, let's not do that one. Okay. Uh the number of movies Nicolas Cage appears in a in a given year is correlated to the number of votes that the Libertarian Party presidential candidate receives in Georgia.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Are they higher? Are the votes higher when Nicolas Cage puts out a lot of movies?
SPEAKER_05They're correlated. So when the number of Nicolas Cage movies is high, the votes for the libertarian candidate in the presidential election is high. When it's low, it's low.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think Nicolas Cage plays in a lot of movies where you're just kind of like, yeah, man, kicks butt. I want to be like that guy, like all the American Revolution movies. I might yeah, yeah, Con Air, you know, where he's he's on this airplane with a bunch of con men and prison people. Maybe people watch that and are like, yeah, stick it to the man. I don't want to, you know, listen to them. I'm not voting two-party system. I'm going libertarian. I have no idea. There you go. But yeah, that's my best guess.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna throw one more out at you. I need to find a good one here. Um okay. The number of movies that Don Cheadle appeared in, so similar to, but we're looking at Don Cheadle now, not Nicolas Cage. And points allowed by the Los Angeles Chargers.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let me say this first. I I don't, I'm not sure I know who Don Cheadle is. I think I do, but dude, I'm not a big movie person. You know this. I live in the middle of nowhere. I'm like a really boring backwoods redneck, okay? But he is the guy, wasn't he in uh Ocean's 11? He was a dude with the electromagnetic magnetic pulse thing back to my thoughts.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so Don Cheadle, number of Don Cheadle movies correlated with Los Angeles Rams points. Dude, I don't know. No idea.
SPEAKER_03I think it's just that he's incredibly demoralizing to them. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05He's in Los Angeles Chargers really Don Cheadle. And that's what it is. It affects them.
SPEAKER_00Um maybe they're really inspired by Don Cheadle. You never know. Maybe.
SPEAKER_05Uh well, that would be inversely correlated.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. What Peichel said. Why you gotta use big words? I don't even know if I can spell inverse.
SPEAKER_05Because when when he makes fewer movies, they score fewer points. When he makes more movies, they score.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you said you said points allowed by. I thought that means other teams scoring on them. Is that what I said? That's probably what I said.
SPEAKER_05You're always right, all right. Matt, this has been fun. Uh thanks to him for being here, man. I really appreciate your wisdom and insight on every issue, especially this one. So uh appreciate you being here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would the last thing I would say is if anybody is interested in wanting to potentially pull the plug and try it for trips and they want to ask someone, uh, I've talked with a lot of people about it and had had some people have some great success with it. You know, like I said, I was emailing and talking with one of our wilderness guys from this past year throughout the the semester because he was going to try to move that direction. Yeah. And uh and I would say too, if you're interested in it, it doesn't have to be a full pull of the plug. I know a lot of people that have had success with letting them have it on the vans and then taking them away when they get there and giving it to them for like an hour a day. You know, you don't have to go full full bore like we do. We're just we've just never allowed them. So we just have stuck with that.
SPEAKER_05That does make it easier, too, is that you're not making a change. You know, yeah that that props to your past self for always making the decisions in here. I don't know. Appreciate you. Appreciate you having me on.
SPEAKER_00Take care, buddy. Yes, Michael, thank you. See you now.
SPEAKER_05All right, Caleb. Uh you're the first person ever to get to put two people on the board. Whoa! Last time, I believe you gave us a picture of a Walty Dog.
SPEAKER_02Where is he at?
SPEAKER_05Right here.
SPEAKER_02There he is.
SPEAKER_04Walter.
SPEAKER_02Here's your little pen. Who's next? Up next is one and only Michelle Cruz, friend of the podcast. Friend of the pod.
SPEAKER_04Um there's I don't know. We'll just set her right there. Uh this is like a blank. That's great. Yeah. Stick it. Oh. Right in her forehead. Right in her forehead.
SPEAKER_02Mish is in Nevada, and she is a longtime friend of the pod, a friend of CIY, an all-around good person. Also gets married at the end of May. Oh, fun.
SPEAKER_05I knew she was engaged, but didn't know when, so that's fun. Marriage, honeymoon, camp. That's the way you gotta do it. The only way that a youth pastor can possibly navigate marriage.
SPEAKER_02A longtime friend, Meesh is amazing. Uh, a wonderful youth pastor loves her students so much. Um and it's just it's been really cool to watch her journey. Um hanging out with CIY years ago as a college student in Houston for a long time, now out in Nevada, it's awesome. She's great. We love Meesh! We love Meesh.
SPEAKER_05I love Meesh. Um, thank you, Michelle, for uh the work that you do and always being an encouraging uh person to us here at Christ in Youth. And I I just hope Sparks Nevada is treating you well these days. Also, uh thanks Caleb for being here. Thanks to Matt Tibbett, who is always just a delight uh for being here. Today's episode was produced by Michael Hester, Lauren Bryan, and me. We're gonna be back in two weeks to finish up this conversation. We'll be talking about the pros of uh letting your students have their phones when you're on trips and helping them to navigate life with constant availability to technology. So that'll be great. Um, but you know, in the meantime, you can reach out to us on the TIY community Facebook group or by email at podcast at ti.com. We will see you next time.