Episode Transcript
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Faith and gold must be hidden inthe start of concern. Here's the host
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of faith and gold, the voiceof the Minnesota Vikings, Paul Allen Hey
there. Faith in Goal thirty sevenfocuses on the future of Christianity from a
young adults perspective. Youth ministry,consistency, and submission to a reality.
Living for eternity and heaven is farmore important than the urges and desires of
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what the world presents on a dailybasis. Climbing God's ladder while navigating a
world full of distraction, temptation,and evil. That that's very, very
important. And in fact, thelate Prince Rogers Nelson wrote a song called
the Ladder, and the lyrics includedquote everybody's looking for the ladder. Everybody's
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looking for salvation of the soul.The steps you take are no easy road,
but the reward is great for thosewho want to go end quote amen
to all that, Prince, Andwhile we pray and go to church and
study the Bible and wholeheartedly believe inGod and all that went into Jesus's ministry,
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while recognizing the Holy Spirit lives inus and guides us. What about
the what's next plan? The youthof America, the youth of the world.
A lady named Linda Creed wrote asong called the Greatest Love of All,
which singer George Benson made popular innineteen seventy seven. Then the late
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Great Whitney Houston took to another leveldecades later. Part of the song goes
like this, I believe the childrenare our future. Teach them well and
let them lead the way. Showthem all the beauty they possess inside.
Give them a sense of pride tomake it easier. Let the children's laughter
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remind us how we used to be. That's life for Josiah and Micah Kenneally,
the founders of the Bloomington based YoungAdults Today, a nonprofit ministry aimed
at reaching the youth of today,sharing the importance of the Gospel of Jesus
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Christ and it being the only routeto salvation and heaven, and the wonderful
life lessons God taught us via theBible thousands of years ago, lessons that
still shine today. Those teachings includeto love one another, turning the other
cheek and conflict, being vulnerable enoughto say I'm sorry during conflict, and
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that pride indeed is the root ofall evil. The kneels live for Christ.
They thrive to open the eyes ofyoung adults when it comes to our
works meaning little in terms of gettingto heaven. That's very important to know
and learn. Keep praying, goingto church, giving of your time and
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money, attending Bible studies, etc. But do understand the Bible teaches our
works and check the box. Effortswill not lead us to heaven. Only
a belief in Jesus Christ and understandingawe and respect for the ultimate in sacrifice
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and suffering delivered by Him will getus there. Repentance of sin in prayer.
It's what He did, not whatwe do. Becoming a disciple of
Jesus Christ is the most beautiful andrewarding thing that ever has happened in my
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life. And this edition of Faithin Goal teaches us to cast the gays
the way of the future, ourchildren and young adults being the focus.
In fact, in Psalm one five, verse four, God had it written,
one generation commends your works to another. They tell of your mighty acts.
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Let's learn more about that. It'sFaith in Goal thirty seven and it
starts now goal. Why is youthministry so important to you and your wife
Mica Oh, my gosh, Pa. I think that for us, when
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we were eighteen to thirty, thatwas such a time where our faith in
Jesus became our own. So itstarts with us, each of us,
for Micah, for myself, andwe define young adults as age is eighteen
to thirty. I think that forme that describes rush hour traffic, the
four years of college of a university, moment that impact the next forty years
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and beyond. And why young adults. I think first of all, Jesus
chose young adults as his original disciples. I think that the wave always starts
in the student section. If youthink of a game or the school nation,
it's going to be the students,the young people that just have an
energy, a zeal for life,a passion revivals as you study history,
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they spark on college campuses and spreadthroughout the country. And I see these
two next things. Ninety six percentof people say yes to Jesus before their
thirtieth birthday. Paired with only fourpercent of gen z Is biblically literate or
able to understand a biblical worldview,the stakes are sky high for the faith
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in the next generation. Do yousense young adults of today in general are
drifting in any way from the Bibleand the good news of the Gospel.
For sure, I think that withoutvision, people perish, and Proverbs teaches
us that, and I think ofeven Romans how it's described that how can
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people know without somebody to teach them? And how can they hear without the
word of God? And so Ithink that what young adults sometimes are,
they're drowning in information, overwhelmed bythe amount of data information, but really
starving for truth for wisdom. Andthat's the crossroads of where we see today.
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And once again we mentioned it earlier, but the Young Adults dot today
is the website. Young Adults dottoday is the website to learn more about
this, this young adults ministry andwhat challenges do you and Mica face with
this ministry? Oh man, Ithink the top three challenges or pain points.
First of all, start with time. I just sometimes it's hard to
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know what to say yes to,what to say no to, what's our
best and highest use of our owntime. Similarly, team we're equipping really
an army of young adults volunteers,leaders, but team building. And then
the last one has been financial resources. But pa, God is faithful,
He's opening up doors. It's amazingto see how God provides. And really
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the when a young adult shares withus their dream, that dream becomes our
dream. When they share with usa burden, that burden becomes our burden.
When they share with us a problem, that problem becomes our problem.
Where the people of faith, andit's a powerful community. But I just
think that young adults have mental healthcrisis, suicide being the second leading cause
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of death among fifteen to four twentyfour year olds. It is crazy to
see some of the things that youngadults are up against and yet were people
of hope. The Gospel is thegreatest news ever. The fact that Jesus,
while we were still sinners, diedfor us. That never gets old.
That's the greatest new news ever.And I think that that's me,
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that's me being a sinner. ButGod sent his son Jesus to pay a
debt he didn't owe, because Iowed a debt I couldn't pay. I
mean, this is the greatest actof love. And I try to remind
myself of that daily. And that'llpreach as as they say at church,
certainly occasionally and you know, forthose who are new listeners or those of
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you who have listened to Faith andgo through the first thirty six episodes,
and you know, you constantly hearme or other saying the gospel, the
Gospel, the gospel. Well,I mean, if you don't know,
the Gospels of Jesus Christ are inthe New Testament, and they were written
by Matthew, Mark, Luke,and John and they chronicle the travels and
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travails and sacrifice and resurrection of JesusChrist. Now, it's very important when
learning to read the Bible and unpackit to know the difference of the genres.
You have the gospels, which inessence are people reporting on an event
that they saw. Now, likesay the Vikings game against the lah Chargers,
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you get a hundred people together toreport, you know, how that
game transpired. You're going to getsome saying they fumble too much. Others
will say Cousins wasn't good enough.Others will say the defense got leaky.
Well, that's the same scenario inthe reporting of these gospels, is that
you will get different vantage points ofJesus's walk to the cross and what went
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into it, and the Crucifixion andthe Resurrection. You'll get different accounts and
different takes, and really that's howGod wanted it, and it really really
makes it compelling and more mysterious tosome, and it really is a beautiful
thing. And you know, thenyou'll have epistles written by the apostle Paul.
You'll have the apocalyptic genre, whichwould be the Book of Revelation or
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Daniel or Ezekiel. You'll have wisdompieces like proverbs and to a certain extent,
psalms songs like psalms and so on. So you can learn about that
online. But that that part's veryimportant when you hear the Gospel, which
is the most important part of theBible. That's what we are talking about.
And Josiah is a pastor, authorand speaker. Another website he's part
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of is Josiah Kenneely dot com JosiahKenneely dot com and there you can learn
about the book Ten Steps to Startinga Successful Young Adults Ministry. What what
are some of the most pertinent steps? Oh man, I think that I
just look at the role that communicatingwith God, talking to God about our
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friends before we talk to our friendsabout God. Just the opportunity that we
have to connect with God through prayer. I think that prayer is inviting God
into our circumstances wherever we find ourselvesat work or in life. And for
so many churches or college campuses orcommunities that really have maybe passionate Christ followers,
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pastors or parents, it could bea young adult who wants to see
their generation reached with the Gospel.When you invite the Holy Spirit to lead
and to guide and direct, Ithink it all starts with prayer. I
think next is you want to findpeople who can shoulder the load with you.
It's the Church of Jesus isn't builton the talents of a few,
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but the sacrifice of many. Ithink of us Banks State, and how
is there opening opening game. You'vegot twenty some guys on the field that
need a break, sixty some thousandpeople in the stands that needs some exercise.
And that's what Ephesians is all about, equipping the saints for the work
of the ministry. So anytime wedo ministry, this is church right now.
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This is ministry right now. Becauseso when you say equipping them for
church, then that would be thePentecost. You're getting the spirit. They
are accepting a martyrdom in that theyknow we're going to go out all throughout
the ancient Near East and we're goingto share why we believe the gospel of
that man and that spirit and thatdivine figure is the most important thing you
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can ever know in your life.And you know what, We're going to
die because of it. Yep.And they still went out and did it.
That's what you're talking about, spoton, spot on it. And
I think that prayer empowers us withboldness. The Holy Spirit, the same
spirit that rose Christ from the graveis given to us and what you just
talked about, and then we're empowered. Whether it's at Starbucks or Cabellas,
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or the UFM campus, or ameeting at our workplace, our neighborhood,
our dorm, wherever you go,there's people there. And Jesus last words,
that great commission, that commandment isn'ta recommendation or a suggestion. This
is an assignment that we get topartake the suffering with God and in the
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sharing of the good News. Andthat's why it's so important and impactful and
powerful that we get to equip peopleto do that in places that maybe you,
and I would never go Josiah.Have you ever noticed the average age
at many a church is quite high? So how does one get those set
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in their ways to put their phonesand schedules and routines to the side,
to think about others before themselves?Oh my gosh, you know, I
think it starts with me. Itstarts with us. It starts with so
many times we think in terms ofa program, will somebody out to start
a program, or we need tolaunch a ministry, And that very well
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may be the case, But Ithink, could it start with a cup
of coffee? Could it start witha mentoring? I think that four ways
that we encourage anyone to grow relationallyand generationally would be The first is friendship,
the second would be discipleship, thirdbeing mentorship, and lastly being leadership.
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But I think so many times wewant to shortcut that in a launch
a program or to launch a ministry, which are not bad things, but
I think we overestimate maybe the quicknessof that, and we underestimate the power
of a cup of water in thename of Jesus. The opportunity to go
to a vikings game with a friendor a tribe or a group of people
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and to build community, to buildconnection. This study, Harvard University did
a study and they found that ifyou are fifty five or older and you
are a man, the statistic thestatistical likelihood that you'd make and meet another
friend the rest of your life iszero. What's that mean? It means
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that hopefully you've made some friends sayyou would never or meet another friend.
And see, I bucked that trendbecause I'm fifty seven. Didn't start reading
the Bible until I was fifty two. The calling didn't take place until I
was fifty two, and as adisciple of Jesus Christ, which is the
most rewarding facet of my life,I now am making more friends than I
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ever have. And they're the rightfriends, and they're becoming the best friends.
So I mean it can go bothways, right, And I mean
what you're asking, like you man, like you, and I'd be a
friend. So we just became friendsmore recently, and that would be defining
the odds. But I want toreach fifty five or however long God has
me on earth, I might meetthe best friend I ever had tomorrow or
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in a week or two or nextyear. And I think that we have
to be open because relationships cost ussomething time convenience. It isn't just sit
back and relax. It's okay,your needs become my needs. We get
to do life together and connect andgrow. But I think that to answer
your question of like, how dowe do it? I think it's one
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person at a time, right,And the prayer part praying to God's will,
if it's in your will, showthis and guide this, and if
you don't, I'm gonna love youten times more tomorrow and then pray the
same thing again tomorrow. When Isay religion is the righteousness of oneself and
Christianity, the righteousness solely based inthe Gospel of Jesus Christ, how does
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that hit you and with what mindsetin terms of shaping young adults? Man,
My hope is that everyone would hearthat is that I can never earn.
I can never God could never dosomething that would make God love me
more, and I could never dosomething that would make him love me less.
And that's something that I pray thatevery listener would grab a hold of
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for their own life. Is thatI mean for me? Pa, I
remember it was at the Metrodome nineteenninety six. I was five, Billy
Graham was seventy five. Wow whenyou said what you just said? Wow
here on Faith and Goal, likeit took me back to that moment the
Metrodome, Billy Graham Youth and andKids outreach like a next gen outreach.
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That's where I remember Billy's voice,that booming, amazing voice. He said,
God has a plan for your life. And there isn't a person listening
to this episode or segment who escapesthe fact that God loves them, that
He has a plan and a purposefor them in their generation. And the
fact that I get fired up,the fact that God invites me into his
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story. Yeah, it's amazing.Are you familiar with the name Ben Assling?
No, he covers the vikings forthe Star Tribune. Well, his
effectual calling or his moment becoming onewith the Holy Spirit and changing his life.
Was that that same Billy Graham revivalor Billy Graham crusade that you just
reference. That's why I went,wow, man, I've not heard that
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twice on Faith and Cold And Ilove Billy Graham. I mean, we're
about to go to Charlotte to playthe Carolina Panthers, and I was legitimately
sad when I researched the Billy GrahamMuseum and learned that it closed like basically
right when we land now. Imean, I can go there some other
time, or the Museum of theBible in Washington, DC, which is
something I want to do. ButBilly Graham, Billy Graham is just so
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deeply rooted in my heart. Imean, for my money, the greatest
speaker outside of Jesus in the historyof the world. And here's why,
because if you think about the fortyfifty sixty thousand to whom he was preaching,
he had no teleprompter, his headwas not down in his and the
Spirit guided him to the right word, the right crescendo, the right emotion
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every single time, and tens ofthousands would come up to learn more about
Christ or become vulnerable and give theirhearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And man, I just when yousay Billy Graham that, I just absolutely
love him. May God rest hissoul now. When the Apostle Paul was
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teaching and preaching to the Church ofPhilippi, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
he wrote, quote, whatever youhave learned or received or heard from me
or seen in me, put intopractice, and the God of Peace will
be with you. End quote.Now that's in the New Testament, the
Book of Philippians, Chapter four,verse nine. Do you find that passage
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key to your youth ministry? Inthat people are fearful of change generally speaking,
and how their images will be portrayedaid by others. But God teaches
he will guide. Might not beon our schedule, but it's there.
Does that play into specifically young adultswho with social media and just being young
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adults, I mean they're super superimage conscious. Oh my gosh. I
think of my own life, myown walk. There was a season,
Pa, I think I held lifea little bit too tightly and white knuckled
some things, perfectionism or whatever.And with that came a mental health challenge
of tension, headaches, debilitating headaches. But in a moment of surrender,
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God totally healed me from those.And I wonder sometimes if we're worried about
everything because we're praying about nothing insteadof what that same passage invites us to
do, which is worry about nothingbecause we can pray about everything. Yeah,
and that for me, Pa,that's a daily struggle like because something
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happens and then it's not a struggle, it's an honor. It is.
I mean, like running this chapel. You came to it at Canterbury Park
at in Shokopy. You know,I used to look at it like,
holy cow, all my jobs aregoing. This is exhausting organizing this thing
on Tuesday. But then it quicklyhit me it's not. This is an
honor. It's an honor to bepart of this, and there is struggle
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in it, and you live tiredto a certain extent, But nevertheless I
eliminated exhausting and struggle and just replacedit with honor. Because it's a like
five years ago, I had anyidea of you're running in a chapel,
or you had any idea at onepoint in your life that you'd be here
at KFA and Radio recording a faithand call podcast. You know, it
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may stress your day with the waythings are lined up, because I know
you and Mike are super busy withyoung adults. But it's an honor to
crack this microphone and talk about this. It really is. I mean,
oh my gosh, and to thepoint of suffering or struggle, the struggle
is real sometimes, but Paul,he considered it. What an honor to
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be an ambassador in chains. Hesaid, Hey, don't be sorry,
don't feel sorry for me. Yeah, this is an honor to suffer for
the Lord. The retreats and conferencesthat you and Michael organize or attend.
And when I keep referencing Micah ifyou missed it earlier, Michael Kneally is
Josiah's wife and with young adults dottoday, I've just learned over the last
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year and change. The wonderful workthey do with those from like ages eighteen
to thirty low thirties, and retreatsand conferences they organize or attend are involved.
What do you learn in terms ofcultivating a future of Christians doing as
the Bible implores us to do,share the gospel far and wide because people's
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salvation may depend on it. Oh, my gosh, I was brought by
my family. My parents brought meto that Billy Graham event and that's where
my eyes were open to the messageof Jesus and received the Gospel. And
it was a It shifted my lifeand both on earth and an eternity,
and so my heart and my prayerand the posture of young adults today is
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a ministry we lead like we justsimply we can't want it for somebody more
than they want it for themselves.But what we can do is we can
create opportunities where the gospel is preached. We can create opportunities for godly community
to happen. And it was likea burden when we felt led by the
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Holy Spirit to start this ministry.It was like that moment. I don't
know if you've ever had this pawhere you're like, somebody should do something
about it. And I kind oflooked at my wife, Mike, can
I go okay, just us huh, Like yeah, okay, God must
be calling us to do something becausethis burden, this calling, it's like
a pebble in our shoe. Wecan't shake it. And we've tried to
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do other things, but we justhave to. And I mean to flip
it to you. You've been tothe weekend and you've seen hundreds of young
adults. You spoke there up inAlexandria. It was one of the more
that Yeah, it was one ofthe more powerful days that I've experienced in
quite some time, because the glowof God was coming off these young adults.
And when I walked up on thatstage to speak with hundreds of young
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adults there and I looked into thecrowd for the first time, all I
could say was, yeah, it'sme. It's the one you hear on
the radio. It's the one youhear yell and he's loose. But it
means nothing without this. And tosee their reaction, well, I mean
that is Holy Spirit guided and soinspirational on so many levels. If again,
I'm not of the religious variety,I don't check boxes. We don't
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do things being like Okay, Idrove to Alexandria, spoke to hundreds of
young adults, shared the gospel,So that's another box I can check to
get me to heaven. Well,no, that's where God had me,
and that's how the Holy Spirit guidedme. And the glow of God was
coming off these kids. I mean, that's a metaphor glow of God,
but you could just see it inthe smile. So to take part in
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that weekend at at what was thename of the place, it was phenomenal.
I've never been like it's phenomenal.So that's why I asked you about
these retreats and conferences because I've onlyexperienced one, but I've seen pictures and
videos from others, and it's justbeautiful how the young adults embrace it.
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And guess what, The Holy Spiritis not going to grab every single one
of them when they leave, butif he grabs one, ten, one
hundred or whatever, lives are changed. And to be a conduit to that,
to be part of that really isone of the most beautiful things anybody
can do in the world. Lastly, how can we help, be it
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with young adults dot today or prayingGod's will guide those listening to less of
a focus on I and more ofa concerted effort to live the thy How
can we help? Oh my gosh, you know, I first of all
agree with that, and I thinkthat we is greater than me. God
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didn't call us to life alone,but he gives us community, He gives
us one another. And similarly,He does have a will, He does
have a purpose. His purposes andwill is that none would perish. And
so I think praying for young adults, I mean, man, if every
listener PA would pray and just pauseeven while they're driving or working out and
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pray for maybe it's a prodigal maybeit's somebody who they know who needs the
love of God in their life,and maybe they're in a really tough decade
or season of life. And ifwe could stand in the gap and serve
young adults love them, I couldn'tbelieve this. Two thirds of eighteen to
thirty year olds don't know a caringadult in their life. So if we
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could be those type of people thatlove people that especially if you see someone
that looks like a college student,looks like a young adult, praying for
them, encouraging them, telling tokeep going. God has a plan for
their life. And then I mean, I think that we're always open to
We have a prayer team, wehave a group of people who support the
ministry, and it's again built onnot our talents, it's the will of
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God at the intersection of the sacrificeof many Amen and young adults dot today.
I mean, this is a ministry. This is a nonprofit ministry where
when you go to the website youcan learn more about Josiah and or Micah
or through Josiah Kneely dot com,and you can learn about the podcasting and
there also are ways to give andthat never hurts And I can look at
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Josiah's face here and be like,he's not going to say it, so
I'm going to say it. Ibelieve in Young Adults DOT Today. I
deeply believe in Josiah and Micah andwhat they are doing with the youth of
America and subsequently the world. AndI've taken part in it and I've seen
it as we just mentioned, sohelping and financially helping so they can grow
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the ministry. That opportunity is theretoo at Young Adults DOT Today. God,
bless you, my man, andthank you. Pay you fire me
up, thanks for believing in us, Thanks for the invitation of this podcast.
And if I can share just onedream that I have, do it.
One dream pay is that God.I read the Book of Ecclesiasties.
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It was kind of a dorm dream, read it in one sitting, and
I realized that life is meaningless withoutGod. But then God is the giver
of meaning to life. And Ijust asked God, like, what would
you want to do with my lifeand my future? And that was a
moment where I saw a black andwhite vision of tens of thousands of young
adults on their knees lifting their handsto Heaven. And I've just recently seen
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the movie Jesus Revolution, and ifyou haven't seen it, I encourage you
to see it. But Jonathan Roomydid a good job. Oh my gosh.
I guess that's what I'm standing inthe gap for reading the bell for
is believing the young adults would knowJesus in our work today, Young adults
DOT today best Josiah and Neely andmost of all, we thank all of
you. We thank thank you forlistening to Faith and Golf, and for
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producer Eric Nordquist. I'm Paul Allen. Keep those palms to the sky.
Come, Holy Spirit, Come,Holy Spirit.
Faith and gold must be hidden inthe start of concern. Here's the host
(00:30):
of faith and gold, the voiceof the Minnesota Vikings, Paul Allen Hey
there. Faith in Goal thirty sevenfocuses on the future of Christianity from a
young adults perspective. Youth ministry,consistency, and submission to a reality.
Living for eternity and heaven is farmore important than the urges and desires of
(00:56):
what the world presents on a dailybasis. Climbing God's ladder while navigating a
world full of distraction, temptation,and evil. That that's very, very
important. And in fact, thelate Prince Rogers Nelson wrote a song called
the Ladder, and the lyrics includedquote everybody's looking for the ladder. Everybody's
(01:19):
looking for salvation of the soul.The steps you take are no easy road,
but the reward is great for thosewho want to go end quote amen
to all that, Prince, Andwhile we pray and go to church and
study the Bible and wholeheartedly believe inGod and all that went into Jesus's ministry,
(01:42):
while recognizing the Holy Spirit lives inus and guides us. What about
the what's next plan? The youthof America, the youth of the world.
A lady named Linda Creed wrote asong called the Greatest Love of All,
which singer George Benson made popular innineteen seventy seven. Then the late
(02:05):
Great Whitney Houston took to another leveldecades later. Part of the song goes
like this, I believe the childrenare our future. Teach them well and
let them lead the way. Showthem all the beauty they possess inside.
Give them a sense of pride tomake it easier. Let the children's laughter
(02:27):
remind us how we used to be. That's life for Josiah and Micah Kenneally,
the founders of the Bloomington based YoungAdults Today, a nonprofit ministry aimed
at reaching the youth of today,sharing the importance of the Gospel of Jesus
(02:50):
Christ and it being the only routeto salvation and heaven, and the wonderful
life lessons God taught us via theBible thousands of years ago, lessons that
still shine today. Those teachings includeto love one another, turning the other
cheek and conflict, being vulnerable enoughto say I'm sorry during conflict, and
(03:19):
that pride indeed is the root ofall evil. The kneels live for Christ.
They thrive to open the eyes ofyoung adults when it comes to our
works meaning little in terms of gettingto heaven. That's very important to know
and learn. Keep praying, goingto church, giving of your time and
(03:39):
money, attending Bible studies, etc. But do understand the Bible teaches our
works and check the box. Effortswill not lead us to heaven. Only
a belief in Jesus Christ and understandingawe and respect for the ultimate in sacrifice
(04:04):
and suffering delivered by Him will getus there. Repentance of sin in prayer.
It's what He did, not whatwe do. Becoming a disciple of
Jesus Christ is the most beautiful andrewarding thing that ever has happened in my
(04:26):
life. And this edition of Faithin Goal teaches us to cast the gays
the way of the future, ourchildren and young adults being the focus.
In fact, in Psalm one five, verse four, God had it written,
one generation commends your works to another. They tell of your mighty acts.
(04:50):
Let's learn more about that. It'sFaith in Goal thirty seven and it
starts now goal. Why is youthministry so important to you and your wife
Mica Oh, my gosh, Pa. I think that for us, when
(05:10):
we were eighteen to thirty, thatwas such a time where our faith in
Jesus became our own. So itstarts with us, each of us,
for Micah, for myself, andwe define young adults as age is eighteen
to thirty. I think that forme that describes rush hour traffic, the
four years of college of a university, moment that impact the next forty years
(05:30):
and beyond. And why young adults. I think first of all, Jesus
chose young adults as his original disciples. I think that the wave always starts
in the student section. If youthink of a game or the school nation,
it's going to be the students,the young people that just have an
energy, a zeal for life,a passion revivals as you study history,
(05:53):
they spark on college campuses and spreadthroughout the country. And I see these
two next things. Ninety six percentof people say yes to Jesus before their
thirtieth birthday. Paired with only fourpercent of gen z Is biblically literate or
able to understand a biblical worldview,the stakes are sky high for the faith
(06:14):
in the next generation. Do yousense young adults of today in general are
drifting in any way from the Bibleand the good news of the Gospel.
For sure, I think that withoutvision, people perish, and Proverbs teaches
us that, and I think ofeven Romans how it's described that how can
(06:36):
people know without somebody to teach them? And how can they hear without the
word of God? And so Ithink that what young adults sometimes are,
they're drowning in information, overwhelmed bythe amount of data information, but really
starving for truth for wisdom. Andthat's the crossroads of where we see today.
(06:58):
And once again we mentioned it earlier, but the Young Adults dot today
is the website. Young Adults dottoday is the website to learn more about
this, this young adults ministry andwhat challenges do you and Mica face with
this ministry? Oh man, Ithink the top three challenges or pain points.
First of all, start with time. I just sometimes it's hard to
(07:23):
know what to say yes to,what to say no to, what's our
best and highest use of our owntime. Similarly, team we're equipping really
an army of young adults volunteers,leaders, but team building. And then
the last one has been financial resources. But pa, God is faithful,
He's opening up doors. It's amazingto see how God provides. And really
(07:46):
the when a young adult shares withus their dream, that dream becomes our
dream. When they share with usa burden, that burden becomes our burden.
When they share with us a problem, that problem becomes our problem.
Where the people of faith, andit's a powerful community. But I just
think that young adults have mental healthcrisis, suicide being the second leading cause
(08:09):
of death among fifteen to four twentyfour year olds. It is crazy to
see some of the things that youngadults are up against and yet were people
of hope. The Gospel is thegreatest news ever. The fact that Jesus,
while we were still sinners, diedfor us. That never gets old.
That's the greatest new news ever.And I think that that's me,
(08:33):
that's me being a sinner. ButGod sent his son Jesus to pay a
debt he didn't owe, because Iowed a debt I couldn't pay. I
mean, this is the greatest actof love. And I try to remind
myself of that daily. And that'llpreach as as they say at church,
certainly occasionally and you know, forthose who are new listeners or those of
(08:54):
you who have listened to Faith andgo through the first thirty six episodes,
and you know, you constantly hearme or other saying the gospel, the
Gospel, the gospel. Well,I mean, if you don't know,
the Gospels of Jesus Christ are inthe New Testament, and they were written
by Matthew, Mark, Luke,and John and they chronicle the travels and
(09:16):
travails and sacrifice and resurrection of JesusChrist. Now, it's very important when
learning to read the Bible and unpackit to know the difference of the genres.
You have the gospels, which inessence are people reporting on an event
that they saw. Now, likesay the Vikings game against the lah Chargers,
(09:39):
you get a hundred people together toreport, you know, how that
game transpired. You're going to getsome saying they fumble too much. Others
will say Cousins wasn't good enough.Others will say the defense got leaky.
Well, that's the same scenario inthe reporting of these gospels, is that
you will get different vantage points ofJesus's walk to the cross and what went
(10:01):
into it, and the Crucifixion andthe Resurrection. You'll get different accounts and
different takes, and really that's howGod wanted it, and it really really
makes it compelling and more mysterious tosome, and it really is a beautiful
thing. And you know, thenyou'll have epistles written by the apostle Paul.
You'll have the apocalyptic genre, whichwould be the Book of Revelation or
(10:24):
Daniel or Ezekiel. You'll have wisdompieces like proverbs and to a certain extent,
psalms songs like psalms and so on. So you can learn about that
online. But that that part's veryimportant when you hear the Gospel, which
is the most important part of theBible. That's what we are talking about.
And Josiah is a pastor, authorand speaker. Another website he's part
(10:48):
of is Josiah Kenneely dot com JosiahKenneely dot com and there you can learn
about the book Ten Steps to Startinga Successful Young Adults Ministry. What what
are some of the most pertinent steps? Oh man, I think that I
just look at the role that communicatingwith God, talking to God about our
(11:09):
friends before we talk to our friendsabout God. Just the opportunity that we
have to connect with God through prayer. I think that prayer is inviting God
into our circumstances wherever we find ourselvesat work or in life. And for
so many churches or college campuses orcommunities that really have maybe passionate Christ followers,
(11:33):
pastors or parents, it could bea young adult who wants to see
their generation reached with the Gospel.When you invite the Holy Spirit to lead
and to guide and direct, Ithink it all starts with prayer. I
think next is you want to findpeople who can shoulder the load with you.
It's the Church of Jesus isn't builton the talents of a few,
(11:56):
but the sacrifice of many. Ithink of us Banks State, and how
is there opening opening game. You'vegot twenty some guys on the field that
need a break, sixty some thousandpeople in the stands that needs some exercise.
And that's what Ephesians is all about, equipping the saints for the work
of the ministry. So anytime wedo ministry, this is church right now.
(12:18):
This is ministry right now. Becauseso when you say equipping them for
church, then that would be thePentecost. You're getting the spirit. They
are accepting a martyrdom in that theyknow we're going to go out all throughout
the ancient Near East and we're goingto share why we believe the gospel of
that man and that spirit and thatdivine figure is the most important thing you
(12:41):
can ever know in your life.And you know what, We're going to
die because of it. Yep.And they still went out and did it.
That's what you're talking about, spoton, spot on it. And
I think that prayer empowers us withboldness. The Holy Spirit, the same
spirit that rose Christ from the graveis given to us and what you just
talked about, and then we're empowered. Whether it's at Starbucks or Cabellas,
(13:03):
or the UFM campus, or ameeting at our workplace, our neighborhood,
our dorm, wherever you go,there's people there. And Jesus last words,
that great commission, that commandment isn'ta recommendation or a suggestion. This
is an assignment that we get topartake the suffering with God and in the
(13:24):
sharing of the good News. Andthat's why it's so important and impactful and
powerful that we get to equip peopleto do that in places that maybe you,
and I would never go Josiah.Have you ever noticed the average age
at many a church is quite high? So how does one get those set
(13:46):
in their ways to put their phonesand schedules and routines to the side,
to think about others before themselves?Oh my gosh, you know, I
think it starts with me. Itstarts with us. It starts with so
many times we think in terms ofa program, will somebody out to start
a program, or we need tolaunch a ministry, And that very well
(14:09):
may be the case, But Ithink, could it start with a cup
of coffee? Could it start witha mentoring? I think that four ways
that we encourage anyone to grow relationallyand generationally would be The first is friendship,
the second would be discipleship, thirdbeing mentorship, and lastly being leadership.
(14:30):
But I think so many times wewant to shortcut that in a launch
a program or to launch a ministry, which are not bad things, but
I think we overestimate maybe the quicknessof that, and we underestimate the power
of a cup of water in thename of Jesus. The opportunity to go
to a vikings game with a friendor a tribe or a group of people
(14:50):
and to build community, to buildconnection. This study, Harvard University did
a study and they found that ifyou are fifty five or older and you
are a man, the statistic thestatistical likelihood that you'd make and meet another
friend the rest of your life iszero. What's that mean? It means
(15:13):
that hopefully you've made some friends sayyou would never or meet another friend.
And see, I bucked that trendbecause I'm fifty seven. Didn't start reading
the Bible until I was fifty two. The calling didn't take place until I
was fifty two, and as adisciple of Jesus Christ, which is the
most rewarding facet of my life,I now am making more friends than I
(15:35):
ever have. And they're the rightfriends, and they're becoming the best friends.
So I mean it can go bothways, right, And I mean
what you're asking, like you man, like you, and I'd be a
friend. So we just became friendsmore recently, and that would be defining
the odds. But I want toreach fifty five or however long God has
me on earth, I might meetthe best friend I ever had tomorrow or
(15:58):
in a week or two or nextyear. And I think that we have
to be open because relationships cost ussomething time convenience. It isn't just sit
back and relax. It's okay,your needs become my needs. We get
to do life together and connect andgrow. But I think that to answer
your question of like, how dowe do it? I think it's one
(16:21):
person at a time, right,And the prayer part praying to God's will,
if it's in your will, showthis and guide this, and if
you don't, I'm gonna love youten times more tomorrow and then pray the
same thing again tomorrow. When Isay religion is the righteousness of oneself and
Christianity, the righteousness solely based inthe Gospel of Jesus Christ, how does
(16:48):
that hit you and with what mindsetin terms of shaping young adults? Man,
My hope is that everyone would hearthat is that I can never earn.
I can never God could never dosomething that would make God love me
more, and I could never dosomething that would make him love me less.
And that's something that I pray thatevery listener would grab a hold of
(17:11):
for their own life. Is thatI mean for me? Pa, I
remember it was at the Metrodome nineteenninety six. I was five, Billy
Graham was seventy five. Wow whenyou said what you just said? Wow
here on Faith and Goal, likeit took me back to that moment the
Metrodome, Billy Graham Youth and andKids outreach like a next gen outreach.
(17:32):
That's where I remember Billy's voice,that booming, amazing voice. He said,
God has a plan for your life. And there isn't a person listening
to this episode or segment who escapesthe fact that God loves them, that
He has a plan and a purposefor them in their generation. And the
fact that I get fired up,the fact that God invites me into his
(17:55):
story. Yeah, it's amazing.Are you familiar with the name Ben Assling?
No, he covers the vikings forthe Star Tribune. Well, his
effectual calling or his moment becoming onewith the Holy Spirit and changing his life.
Was that that same Billy Graham revivalor Billy Graham crusade that you just
reference. That's why I went,wow, man, I've not heard that
(18:18):
twice on Faith and Cold And Ilove Billy Graham. I mean, we're
about to go to Charlotte to playthe Carolina Panthers, and I was legitimately
sad when I researched the Billy GrahamMuseum and learned that it closed like basically
right when we land now. Imean, I can go there some other
time, or the Museum of theBible in Washington, DC, which is
something I want to do. ButBilly Graham, Billy Graham is just so
(18:41):
deeply rooted in my heart. Imean, for my money, the greatest
speaker outside of Jesus in the historyof the world. And here's why,
because if you think about the fortyfifty sixty thousand to whom he was preaching,
he had no teleprompter, his headwas not down in his and the
Spirit guided him to the right word, the right crescendo, the right emotion
(19:06):
every single time, and tens ofthousands would come up to learn more about
Christ or become vulnerable and give theirhearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And man, I just when yousay Billy Graham that, I just absolutely
love him. May God rest hissoul now. When the Apostle Paul was
(19:26):
teaching and preaching to the Church ofPhilippi, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
he wrote, quote, whatever youhave learned or received or heard from me
or seen in me, put intopractice, and the God of Peace will
be with you. End quote.Now that's in the New Testament, the
Book of Philippians, Chapter four,verse nine. Do you find that passage
(19:48):
key to your youth ministry? Inthat people are fearful of change generally speaking,
and how their images will be portrayedaid by others. But God teaches
he will guide. Might not beon our schedule, but it's there.
Does that play into specifically young adultswho with social media and just being young
(20:12):
adults, I mean they're super superimage conscious. Oh my gosh. I
think of my own life, myown walk. There was a season,
Pa, I think I held lifea little bit too tightly and white knuckled
some things, perfectionism or whatever.And with that came a mental health challenge
of tension, headaches, debilitating headaches. But in a moment of surrender,
(20:34):
God totally healed me from those.And I wonder sometimes if we're worried about
everything because we're praying about nothing insteadof what that same passage invites us to
do, which is worry about nothingbecause we can pray about everything. Yeah,
and that for me, Pa,that's a daily struggle like because something
(20:55):
happens and then it's not a struggle, it's an honor. It is.
I mean, like running this chapel. You came to it at Canterbury Park
at in Shokopy. You know,I used to look at it like,
holy cow, all my jobs aregoing. This is exhausting organizing this thing
on Tuesday. But then it quicklyhit me it's not. This is an
honor. It's an honor to bepart of this, and there is struggle
(21:17):
in it, and you live tiredto a certain extent, But nevertheless I
eliminated exhausting and struggle and just replacedit with honor. Because it's a like
five years ago, I had anyidea of you're running in a chapel,
or you had any idea at onepoint in your life that you'd be here
at KFA and Radio recording a faithand call podcast. You know, it
(21:37):
may stress your day with the waythings are lined up, because I know
you and Mike are super busy withyoung adults. But it's an honor to
crack this microphone and talk about this. It really is. I mean,
oh my gosh, and to thepoint of suffering or struggle, the struggle
is real sometimes, but Paul,he considered it. What an honor to
(22:02):
be an ambassador in chains. Hesaid, Hey, don't be sorry,
don't feel sorry for me. Yeah, this is an honor to suffer for
the Lord. The retreats and conferencesthat you and Michael organize or attend.
And when I keep referencing Micah ifyou missed it earlier, Michael Kneally is
Josiah's wife and with young adults dottoday, I've just learned over the last
(22:26):
year and change. The wonderful workthey do with those from like ages eighteen
to thirty low thirties, and retreatsand conferences they organize or attend are involved.
What do you learn in terms ofcultivating a future of Christians doing as
the Bible implores us to do,share the gospel far and wide because people's
(22:47):
salvation may depend on it. Oh, my gosh, I was brought by
my family. My parents brought meto that Billy Graham event and that's where
my eyes were open to the messageof Jesus and received the Gospel. And
it was a It shifted my lifeand both on earth and an eternity,
and so my heart and my prayerand the posture of young adults today is
(23:10):
a ministry we lead like we justsimply we can't want it for somebody more
than they want it for themselves.But what we can do is we can
create opportunities where the gospel is preached. We can create opportunities for godly community
to happen. And it was likea burden when we felt led by the
(23:30):
Holy Spirit to start this ministry.It was like that moment. I don't
know if you've ever had this pawhere you're like, somebody should do something
about it. And I kind oflooked at my wife, Mike, can
I go okay, just us huh, Like yeah, okay, God must
be calling us to do something becausethis burden, this calling, it's like
a pebble in our shoe. Wecan't shake it. And we've tried to
(23:52):
do other things, but we justhave to. And I mean to flip
it to you. You've been tothe weekend and you've seen hundreds of young
adults. You spoke there up inAlexandria. It was one of the more
that Yeah, it was one ofthe more powerful days that I've experienced in
quite some time, because the glowof God was coming off these young adults.
And when I walked up on thatstage to speak with hundreds of young
(24:14):
adults there and I looked into thecrowd for the first time, all I
could say was, yeah, it'sme. It's the one you hear on
the radio. It's the one youhear yell and he's loose. But it
means nothing without this. And tosee their reaction, well, I mean
that is Holy Spirit guided and soinspirational on so many levels. If again,
I'm not of the religious variety,I don't check boxes. We don't
(24:40):
do things being like Okay, Idrove to Alexandria, spoke to hundreds of
young adults, shared the gospel,So that's another box I can check to
get me to heaven. Well,no, that's where God had me,
and that's how the Holy Spirit guidedme. And the glow of God was
coming off these kids. I mean, that's a metaphor glow of God,
but you could just see it inthe smile. So to take part in
(25:02):
that weekend at at what was thename of the place, it was phenomenal.
I've never been like it's phenomenal.So that's why I asked you about
these retreats and conferences because I've onlyexperienced one, but I've seen pictures and
videos from others, and it's justbeautiful how the young adults embrace it.
(25:22):
And guess what, The Holy Spiritis not going to grab every single one
of them when they leave, butif he grabs one, ten, one
hundred or whatever, lives are changed. And to be a conduit to that,
to be part of that really isone of the most beautiful things anybody
can do in the world. Lastly, how can we help, be it
(25:44):
with young adults dot today or prayingGod's will guide those listening to less of
a focus on I and more ofa concerted effort to live the thy How
can we help? Oh my gosh, you know, I first of all
agree with that, and I thinkthat we is greater than me. God
(26:04):
didn't call us to life alone,but he gives us community, He gives
us one another. And similarly,He does have a will, He does
have a purpose. His purposes andwill is that none would perish. And
so I think praying for young adults, I mean, man, if every
listener PA would pray and just pauseeven while they're driving or working out and
(26:27):
pray for maybe it's a prodigal maybeit's somebody who they know who needs the
love of God in their life,and maybe they're in a really tough decade
or season of life. And ifwe could stand in the gap and serve
young adults love them, I couldn'tbelieve this. Two thirds of eighteen to
thirty year olds don't know a caringadult in their life. So if we
(26:52):
could be those type of people thatlove people that especially if you see someone
that looks like a college student,looks like a young adult, praying for
them, encouraging them, telling tokeep going. God has a plan for
their life. And then I mean, I think that we're always open to
We have a prayer team, wehave a group of people who support the
ministry, and it's again built onnot our talents, it's the will of
(27:18):
God at the intersection of the sacrificeof many Amen and young adults dot today.
I mean, this is a ministry. This is a nonprofit ministry where
when you go to the website youcan learn more about Josiah and or Micah
or through Josiah Kneely dot com,and you can learn about the podcasting and
there also are ways to give andthat never hurts And I can look at
(27:42):
Josiah's face here and be like,he's not going to say it, so
I'm going to say it. Ibelieve in Young Adults DOT Today. I
deeply believe in Josiah and Micah andwhat they are doing with the youth of
America and subsequently the world. AndI've taken part in it and I've seen
it as we just mentioned, sohelping and financially helping so they can grow
(28:03):
the ministry. That opportunity is theretoo at Young Adults DOT Today. God,
bless you, my man, andthank you. Pay you fire me
up, thanks for believing in us, Thanks for the invitation of this podcast.
And if I can share just onedream that I have, do it.
One dream pay is that God.I read the Book of Ecclesiasties.
(28:25):
It was kind of a dorm dream, read it in one sitting, and
I realized that life is meaningless withoutGod. But then God is the giver
of meaning to life. And Ijust asked God, like, what would
you want to do with my lifeand my future? And that was a
moment where I saw a black andwhite vision of tens of thousands of young
adults on their knees lifting their handsto Heaven. And I've just recently seen
(28:47):
the movie Jesus Revolution, and ifyou haven't seen it, I encourage you
to see it. But Jonathan Roomydid a good job. Oh my gosh.
I guess that's what I'm standing inthe gap for reading the bell for
is believing the young adults would knowJesus in our work today, Young adults
DOT today best Josiah and Neely andmost of all, we thank all of
you. We thank thank you forlistening to Faith and Golf, and for
(29:11):
producer Eric Nordquist. I'm Paul Allen. Keep those palms to the sky.
Come, Holy Spirit, Come,Holy Spirit.
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