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Want teens to feel seen, speak up, and stick around? We dig into the power of student-only spaces with Family Ministries pastor Tito Lozano and uncover how comfort, agency, and relationship-driven environments lead to deeper faith and smoother integration into the wider church. Tito walks us through a simple but game-changing redesign—turning a stage into a lounge with couches and beanbags—and how that shift invited vulnerability and richer small group conversations. We also unpack student ownership: room decor, anonymous feedback surveys, and a voice in series planning that sparks buy-in and makes “our youth group” feel truly theirs.
We don’t stop at the youth room door. Tito shares a balanced rhythm for integration—one Sunday a month in “big church”—that familiarizes teens with the lead pastor, corporate worship, and adult liturgy without sacrificing the age-intentional midweek environment. We tackle serving pathways that don’t bury the same students behind tech every week, and we highlight the irreplaceable role of adult leaders who show up at games, concerts, and fourth-meal hangouts. Those everyday moments become the bridge from adolescent faith to adult discipleship.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Hi, I'm Brad Warren.
This is Beyond the Event YouthMinistry Podcast presented by
Christ and Youth, where we helpyou maintain momentum between
the mountaintops.
Uh today's guest is Tito Lozano.
He is the Family Ministriespastor at Lakeshore Christian
Church in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Tito and I are going to bekicking off our conversation
(00:24):
about uh the intentionality ofstudent-only spaces.
As opposed to getting studentsinvolved in big church, air
quotes there for sure.
Um we're gonna have a greatconversation.
Before we dig into that, though,it's story time.
Just a reminder that if you havea story you think would make my
(00:46):
callous little heart feelanything, uh humor, joy, um, you
can email that to podcast atCIY.com.
I'll read it on the air aswritten.
Today's story comes from ShaleyBradshaw at Lake Ridge Christian
Church in Paris, Illinois.
She says, Here is a story of away God moved within our group
at Move.
During our week at Move, Ibrought a group of students who
(01:08):
have been with me since thebeginning of my ministry.
They were freshmen when Istarted and are now entering
their senior year.
I always knew one was planningto go into ministry as we had
talked about colleges and whatthe future looks like as someone
going into ministry.
When we were asked to pray overthe batons and pick up how many
we felt God putting on ourheart, I was thinking of this
(01:29):
one student, and she was on mymind during that time.
My leaders and I spent timepraying over this baton and were
excited for the evening session.
Little did we know that God wasgoing to wreck our plans in the
best way possible.
As I stood up to wait for ourstudents, I had one come up that
surprised me.
Then two, three, four, five, sixcame up.
(01:53):
The moment I walked over andasked for five more batons, I
was in utter shock.
I knew that God was going tomove within our group this week,
but never on this scale.
That evening I got to hear ourstudents tell their friends
about the decision they made andthe passion for serving Jesus.
The last day comes around, and Ihave another student come and
ask if I had any more batons.
So I asked CIY staff and gave itto the student.
(02:16):
This was my fourth year bringingstudents to move.
And when I was a student atMove, I also made the decision
to go into ministry.
So this literal passing of thebaton was one of the coolest
things I have seen God do withinour group.
Thank you, CIY, for alwaysproviding opportunities for
students to see Jesus andexperience what being his
disciple looks like.
(02:37):
Thank you, Shaley Bradshaw.
Logan Sperry is here with metoday.
He's on our church relationsteam.
That's a good story.
This is a great story.
Oh my gosh.
Thank you, Shaley, for sharing.
Thank you for sharing sharingShaley.
You got through it.
I really I really didn't know ifI was going to.
You got through it.
I got through it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
You know what I really liked?
I well, I just like hearingabout all these cities in the
state of Illinois that are likeFrench named cities where you
pronounce the S.
SPEAKER_02 (03:08):
I'm sorry.
Shaley Bradshaw from LakeridgeChristian Church in Petty.
SPEAKER_01 (03:12):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Illinois.
Did you know there's also like aLouisville, Illinois?
Yeah.
Spelled the same way asLouisville, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_02 (03:19):
Well, we can't talk because we have a Versailles,
Kentucky.
I know, I know.
SPEAKER_01 (03:26):
So but Louisville's Louisville does it right.
SPEAKER_02 (03:28):
Louisville does it right, I guess.
So anyway, that's that that's agood story.
Logan, uh you you felt the callto go into ministry and a move,
right?
SPEAKER_03 (03:38):
I did, yeah, actually.
Um I went all five years that Icould to move uh as a high
school student.
My fur my first event was uhactually a believe.
Oh shout out believe.
Like, oh my gosh, hey, if youwant no, I'm just kidding.
I'm gonna start so if you wantbelieve back, send an email to
podcast and see why to go.
(04:00):
No, I'm just kidding.
Sorry, I shouldn't say that.
There are I want to there areactually people who I still talk
about.
There are still people I talk towho are like, hey, believe.
But uh my first event actuallywas a believe, and then I went
to move all five years that Icould, and uh made the decision
to get baptized um at a move,um, and and and actually follow
(04:24):
Jesus with my life, and thenmade the decision to go into
ministry at a move, and thencame back the year after and had
to remake that decision to gointo ministry because the first
time I was like, ah, really wasthat was that really the Holy
Spirit?
And then the second time it waslike, yeah, that's really the
Holy Spirit making uh that callin my life.
(04:46):
So yeah, um, I did, and thenrest is history.
SPEAKER_02 (04:49):
It's cool to get to get back to an organization that
like changed.
I mean, I have the same storywhere it's like this place
changed my life, and now I getto work here.
Yeah, it's the best thing in theworld, anyway.
Yep.
Um Logan, you work with a lot ofour new churches on our church
relations team.
You love them really well.
Most of the people I feel likewho listen to this podcast
(05:11):
probably fall more into the likewe've been around CIY for a
while kind of thing.
So I wanted to ask you thisquestion because I feel like
maybe there are times you knowwhen I I I experienced this when
I lived in Colorado for a littlewhile, where it's like I live
right next to the RockyMountains and it they rock.
(05:32):
They're so cool.
Uh no opponent to that.
Um Brad Brad claims threestates.
SPEAKER_03 (05:36):
He's like, I'm from Florida, Kentucky, and Colorado.
SPEAKER_02 (05:39):
That's well, we can we can do any of them, really,
because like truly and he callsit Florado from Florado who's
running this right now.
What is going on?
SPEAKER_03 (05:50):
I personally like having producer Michael be more
a part of what's happening here.
He's antagonizing me.
He's not, he's not, you know.
You know what the interestingthing is, you don't claim
Missouri and you've lived herefor eight years.
Why is that?
SPEAKER_04 (06:06):
Would you like to answer that question for me?
SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
Oof.
SPEAKER_02 (06:13):
I cla I claim Missouri.
SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
Anyway, next to the Rocky Mountains, they rock.
SPEAKER_02 (06:16):
What I was saying is the Rocky Mountains are
beautiful, but you live inColorado for a while and you
kind of like forget that they'rethere, you know?
So I I want to know you have newchurches coming in, and you have
these churches that have beenaround a while that they kind of
know how CIY goes, they know howMove goes or Mix goes or
Superstar goes and an engagedtrip goes.
When these new churches come in,what is it that they're like
(06:40):
pleasantly surprised by thatmaybe those of us who have been
around CIY for a long time,myself included, might be taking
for granted.
You know?
SPEAKER_03 (06:49):
Yeah, totally.
I you know, um and I say thistoo as somebody who obviously
works for CIY and has gone to acountless number of events now
now at this point over theyears.
Yeah.
Um like, okay, for instance,Superstart, for example, every
(07:12):
year.
I don't know why.
I never know why this gets me.
But I always like there's if youif you've ever attended one of
our superstart events, or ifnot, I'll explain to you.
There's always like a moment inone of the sessions where
something goes wrong.
And I'm air quoting that forthose of you on video.
For those of you not on video,I'm air quoting that super hard.
There's some something that goeswrong.
(07:33):
It really it's a part of it's apart of it.
It's a part of the whole thing.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:37):
It's like something has to break so that we can all
work together to fix it.
To fix it.
SPEAKER_03 (07:40):
And we learn a biblical truth from this, right?
And we share or we share thegospel because of it, and or
talk about what it means to be akingdom worker.
And it always without fail, I'mlike, oh no, the button stopped
working.
Like it it I'm like, it'sbroken.
What do we and I one time in St.
Louis got up out of my seat.
I hadn't seen, hadn't seen anevent yet.
Got up out of my seat and waslike, what do we do?
(08:02):
Well, Patrick was like, hey,buddy.
You've been here like, I don'tknow, 40 times.
Well what do you think?
SPEAKER_02 (08:10):
Youth pastors will do this too, because it's like
when we were at Indiana twoyears ago when we were talking
about unscripted, the wheel ofemotions breaks.
Like that's the big thing.
And Ann Wilson came like runningback to front of house, the the
next gen pastor at TradersPoint, and was like, what can we
do to help get this solved?
SPEAKER_03 (08:31):
No, no, no.
We're good, we're it's gonna beit'll be fine.
We're gonna solve it.
We're on it.
So that is to demonstrate apoint of like uh I would say
like the intentionality thatthose on our content team take
to creating an age-intentionalevent.
I feel like I me personally, Italk to a lot of people who
(08:52):
maybe this is their first timegoing to an a truly
age-intentional event.
That's a big part of what we do.
Move is clearly high school, mixis clearly middle school, uh,
superstar is clearly preteen,and so it's like, oh, like
actually seeing the content playout in that way, and it's like,
yeah, oh yeah, you really didgear that for my middle school
student.
Or you really did gear that formy preteen student.
(09:13):
That and I think the the focusof students being kingdom
workers is like, I love that youguys do that.
Like, that's what I always feellike I hear from new people is
like, I love that my studentsget to see themselves
represented on stage through avideo or maybe actu an actual
moment, an on-stage moment, orwhatever that may be in any
(09:34):
given year, and that we reallylike double down on.
We want students to seethemselves doing real life
kingdom work so that they'relike, oh, that is a real thing
that I can do in my daily life.
And so I feel like those things,maybe if you've been around a
while, you're like used to that.
Yeah, you're like, yeah,students do this.
And for some others, it's like,I I love that my students get to
(09:56):
see that.
That's cool.
SPEAKER_02 (09:57):
Yeah, I love that.
Um, well, we are we're we'rewe're we're gonna go talk to
Tito in a second.
We have a new segment on thepodcast, it's called Miked Up,
where Michael, producer Michael,gets to talk about anything that
he wants.
I love this.
And we get to we're gonna put iton.
SPEAKER_03 (10:15):
I have been saying for years we just need more.
SPEAKER_02 (10:18):
Give the man.
Give the man some time.
Let him cook.
Give him room to breathe.
Okay, so before we talk to Tito,let's do Mic'ed Up.
SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
Uh Brad did let me cook this week.
Um, I cooked dinner for oursmall group.
It didn't turn out the way Idid.
Wait, hold on, what'd you make?
Um I I I and this isn't it.
This is about this is about toturn into a whole thing.
Yeah, it's gonna turn into awhole thing.
This isn't this isn't even whatI actually intended on talking
about.
There's a different thing that Ido want to say this.
Yeah, I'll wait out.
You said let him cook and I justyou know but I I made um I I
(10:51):
made what I called counterfeitcarbonara.
Whoa.
My family has a tradition everyChristmas we eat this thing that
we call spaghetti and eggs.
It's like scrambled eggs withspaghetti noodles, essentially.
But like there's an actualItalian dish called Carbonara.
Yeah, like the pasta sauce ismade from eggs.
Yeah.
And so I did something that wasa little bit more of a
gussied-up version of whatspaghetti and eggs is.
(11:13):
It ended up not being nearly astasty as it is when I make it
myself.
I liked it, yeah.
It was edible.
It just wasn't, I wasdisappointed.
SPEAKER_02 (11:21):
But I don't know, like I don't know what the I
don't know what I enjoyed mymeal, but for somebody who's
like had it before, you know,it's like, oh yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_03 (11:31):
Before we get, I want you to get to what you
really want to talk about,Michael.
I do have to say, spaghetti andeggs is is a wild thing to just
hear about hey, yeah.
My family just eats spaghettiand eggs.
I'd be like, hey, I have a lotof questions.
Most people's reaction is thator gross.
SPEAKER_01 (11:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:47):
But I said at one point, hey, this kind of has
like pad thai vibes.
Like it had the wide noodles andlike the thingy.
Yeah.
And uh Pikel said, You'rebesmirching my Italian food.
And I was like, Well, it's noteven Italian.
So Italian American.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (12:06):
Love it.
Yeah.
Um, okay, hey, I would love tomake a couple of album
recommendations.
Oh, okay.
Album recommendations.
These are worship albums, okay,because it's a question podcast.
Oh, okay.
So not in the life of ashowbird.
But but a couple episodes ago,um, I talked about how um how
much I think oceans deserve somemore respect, and Brad and I
argued about it for a littlebit.
(12:27):
Like the Song Oceans?
The Song Oceans.
Yeah, sorry, not the seven C's.
Love it.
But Oceans by Hillsong United.
Yeah, this guy.
Yeah.
Hillsong United.
Everyone but you, Brad.
SPEAKER_02 (12:36):
That's how it's gone so far.
SPEAKER_03 (12:37):
You didn't like you know were you like at the time?
SPEAKER_02 (12:40):
No, at the time I loved it.
Yeah.
But I just thought you've turnedon it.
We murdered it.
We just beat it to a pulp.
It's no, it's no longer bangerstatus for me because it's just
like we don't need to do it all.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
If you want to hear a more fleshed out version of
this conversation, you can go toseason five, episode one,
listen, listen to it there.
Anyway, um, two albums I wouldlove to recommend because in
talking about oceans and likesongs that deserve a comeback,
in my opinion.
There's an album that was sentto me earlier this year.
Apparently, it came out on mybirthday.
SPEAKER_02 (13:10):
Oh, Michael.
SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
Um this album is called Foundations by an artist
called Worship Circle, which isreally more of like a collective
artist or whatever.
Okay.
Um and it's it's a bunch of likeworship leaders that all like
you've probably like heard ofthem if you pay very much
attention to most mostly likethe bigger churches that put out
albums.
This album is made up of um moresort of contemporized, if I can
(13:38):
say that, if that makes sense,um stripped down versions of
classic contemporary worshipmusic.
Okay.
Let me read a few of the songsthat you'll find in this album.
SPEAKER_02 (13:49):
I'm gonna be singing here in a minute.
SPEAKER_01 (13:51):
The first the first open the opening track is Open
the Eyes of My Heart.
Yes.
Yeah, good one.
Featuring Paul Below.
I think that's how you say hisname.
Um the second one we're comingout swinging, okay?
Yeah.
After open the eyes of my heart,we go to step by step inside.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Uh We Fall Down is a little bitlater.
(14:13):
Um then Your Grace is enough.
SPEAKER_03 (14:16):
Yeah after that.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
Hey, in case you're listening and you didn't know,
it is his grace is enough.
It is enough, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:22):
And Chris Tomlin still goes hard in the paint.
SPEAKER_01 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, just like just like howLegolas takes one small bite of
the limbus spread and it'senough to fill the stomach of a
of a fully grown man.
His grace is enough.
Yeah, no, I got that.
That was Lord of the Rings.
Marvelous Light.
I know featuring Charlie Hall.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah, can you believe it?
Anyway, um, go check out.
I'm gonna be so honest, I don'tknow who Charlie Hall is, but
(14:46):
I'm pretty sure he's that guythat that sang Marvelous Light
the first time, I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, I believe you.
Um anyway, we did that one whenI was in high school.
Go listen, go listen toFoundations by Worship Circle.
It's a live album.
It's a great time.
When I've been down in thedumps, and I've been down in
some dumps, it's a good it's agood album to listen to.
(15:08):
Do you want to talk about that?
No, I'm just saying, like, likeit's like it's been a good one
to listen to, you know.
Good.
Um the second album.
SPEAKER_02 (15:15):
Mike'd up.
Mike's gonna tell us about hisdumps.
The dumps that I'm doing.
Okay.
Hey, hey.
SPEAKER_01 (15:21):
Uh wow.
Spaghetti and eggs, everybody.
SPEAKER_04 (15:25):
Dump number one.
SPEAKER_01 (15:26):
Joplin, Missouri.
Um, that's not true.
I love living in Joplin.
I'm this is actually my home.
He's from here.
SPEAKER_03 (15:33):
When people are like, so like, yeah, you're in
Joplin, and I'm like, yeah, I'mfrom Joplin.
SPEAKER_01 (15:37):
Like, I'm a person here.
SPEAKER_03 (15:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:39):
I live here.
Yeah, you're a Joplinite.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (15:41):
As is producer Lauren.
17 years.
As is producer Lauren.
Web City High School.
Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (15:48):
It's a joke.
I'm not trying to actually dumpon Joplin.
Anyway, the second album, okay.
This one is called This Is MyMeditation by an artist called
Middlebrook Music.
There's a little bit of biashere.
Okay.
Because I have a brother thatwas part of this album.
It also came out earlier thisyear.
My brother Steven.
(16:08):
He's on staff at a church inKnoxville, Tennessee.
Fellowship Christian.
SPEAKER_02 (16:12):
Fellowship Knoxville, shout out.
SPEAKER_01 (16:13):
Mm-hmm.
Shout out.
The road that that church is onis Middlebrook.
Something.
I don't know, Middlebrooksomething.
Clever, I like it.
Um so they released an albumearlier this year.
Um, and I quite enjoy it.
Every song is written from likea like specific scripture.
Um I'm here for that.
And there there's been plenty oftimes where like I'll be like,
(16:35):
you know, in my own likepersonal devotional time reading
in the Psalms or something, andI'll read a line and I'll be
like, that is in that one song.
SPEAKER_02 (16:43):
That's where that's where David got it.
SPEAKER_01 (16:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Seriously, David, a bigMetalbrook fan.
Um anyway, there's just there'sa few songs on here that are
that are big highlights for me.
Um the biggest highlight writtenby Stephen Hester.
Sufficient.
Shout out.
Go listen to it.
Sufficient?
Sufficient.
SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
Written by Stephen Hester, incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (17:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (17:08):
Um, I will be listening to those albums,
Michael, and maybe next uh timeor an episode in the future I
can report back to you.
SPEAKER_01 (17:16):
Not the next one because there won't be enough
time.
SPEAKER_02 (17:17):
No, there will not.
SPEAKER_01 (17:19):
Thank you for that, producer Michael.
I'll I will also say one morelittle tag on top of that.
There are instrumental versionsif you listen to the deluxe
album.
There are instrumental versionsof the songs.
I like to listen to those fromtime to time when I'm doing my
own little quiet times.
So, you know.
That if you're looking for newworship music, check those out.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
Honestly, I am I am.
SPEAKER_03 (17:40):
Yeah, are you just are you an instrumental guy,
Brad?
SPEAKER_02 (17:42):
I I am an instrumental music guy.
Okay.
I told Michael yesterday thatsitting in a dark room and
listening to the interstellarscore is my favorite movie.
Like I don't even need themovie.
SPEAKER_03 (17:57):
It's just burned in your brain like Matthew
McConaughey hitting on the likewindow.
Yeah.
It's just like I don't even Idon't even need to watch the
movie.
I just know.
Like it's just there.
Okay.
Uh hey, thank you for the musicrecommendations.
For for for all of you peopleout there, go go revisit JHB,
some Jordan Howerton band.
Oh.
In case.
(18:17):
Just like give it a listen.
I was listening to it the otherday.
Still hits.
Shout out, shout out JordanHowerton.
Shout out Jordan Howerton band.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (18:24):
Uh still great worship music.
Do you want to sing us one ofthe songs?
SPEAKER_03 (18:28):
Move, man.
SPEAKER_02 (18:30):
No, I can't do it.
He's being silly, but Loganactually has a beautiful voice.
Fun fact, everybody.
All right.
On that note, uh, let's go talkto Tito.
Tito Lozano, all the way fromSmyrna.
Am I saying that right?
Uh Antioch.
Antioch.
(18:50):
Yeah.
You're not you guys aren't inSmyrna?
SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
No, we're in.
We do have a campus in Smyrna.
SPEAKER_02 (18:55):
You have a campus in Smyrna?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:57):
Yeah, but we're located in Antioch, which is
just like 30 minutes down theroad.
SPEAKER_02 (18:59):
So I d but still I want to know if I'm saying it
right.
Smy Smyrna Yeah, Smyrna.
Yes, sir.
Smyrna.
Smyrna.
Okay, anyway.
How you doing today?
I'm doing great.
How about you guys?
Yeah.
Good.
Is your fall off to a greatstart at Lakeshore Christian
Church?
It is.
SPEAKER_00 (19:17):
Busy, but uh fun and and really good, actually.
SPEAKER_02 (19:20):
Yeah.
What does your guys like uhlaunch into fall programming
look like?
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Um we started off with just like a family night.
Um, invite all the families,kind of get them a vision of
what what the plan is for theschool year, give some food,
because that's how you getanybody to show up to anything
is food.
Um so yeah, so just that, andthen we kick off with our you
know, with the lesson, with theseries and stuff like that.
But we normally kick it off witha good old family night and have
everybody invite their friends,eat some good food, and set the
(19:46):
tone and the vision for uh theupcoming school year.
SPEAKER_02 (19:49):
So, what did you do for dinner for your fall
cook-off?
I'm just curious.
I always hear what people likecook for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
So for the first one, we just did pizza, just
because it was simple.
Okay, great.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But classic.
I have it lined up.
So like this month we're doingtacos and nachos.
Um, next month, October is gonnabe a chili cook-off, I think,
between both campuses, ourSmyrna campus and Enia campus.
We'll have just a big old chilicook-off and do some prizes,
have some fun with it.
Still setting that one up.
(20:21):
November is my favorite big oldThanksgiving meal.
And then in December, we just douh PJs and breakfast kind of
thing.
SPEAKER_02 (20:27):
So heck yeah.
So the the church that Logan andI and Michael um go to, and
producer Lauren off camera, umthey do wow, we all go to CCO in
here.
That's crazy.
Uh they do dinner everyWednesday night before uh youth
group, and they have about fivethings that they rotate between.
(20:47):
And when I tell you that likethe amount of excitement that I
have to go to youth group on anygiven night depends on what they
are serving.
SPEAKER_03 (20:58):
Yeah, what's your least favorite?
SPEAKER_02 (20:59):
So my least favorite, this is controversial.
My least favorite is thetaquitos.
SPEAKER_03 (21:03):
Oh no, that's not controversial.
SPEAKER_01 (21:05):
The Wednesday night teeth.
SPEAKER_03 (21:06):
That's not controversial?
SPEAKER_01 (21:07):
No, that's not controversial for all of you out
there.
SPEAKER_03 (21:08):
Hey, for Tyler Bate, if you're listening.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
This just played the Lauren Bryan.
They changed him.
SPEAKER_02 (21:14):
Oh, great.
Well, then I may have to reviseall the power things, but my
favorite is the chickensandwich.
That's your favorite.
No, no, I love the I love thechicken sandwich.
SPEAKER_03 (21:23):
I like here's the deal.
Tacos and nachos, Tito, that'swhat I want.
Well, we don't do that.
No, I'm saying that.
SPEAKER_02 (21:28):
But that's what I'm saying is we like are always on
a rotation.
SPEAKER_03 (21:31):
So and I'm telling you that Tito's got it figured
out.
SPEAKER_02 (21:33):
He's got it figured out, man.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
Do you guys just cater it or is it family
participation kind of how do youguys do that?
There's like a volunteer teamthat yeah, makes it all.
SPEAKER_02 (21:42):
Yeah.
Cool, cool.
Yeah.
So pulled pork rocks.
Anyway, that's not what any ofus came here to talk about.
SPEAKER_01 (21:48):
The taquitos are the Sunday taquitos now.
SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
The so okay.
Yeah.
But don't go to church on thatSunday.
I have a feeling that thelisteners are getting very bored
with the taquito talk, but it isself-indulgent and it's great.
Um well, Tito, no, the taquitoswere different on Sunday than
they were on Wednesdays, but nowthey're the same.
Okay.
Um, let's talk about somethingbetter.
(22:11):
It's re it matters a lot to us.
You know what's better thantaquitos?
Jesus.
SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
You're getting so good at your transition.
SPEAKER_02 (22:19):
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Um, so Tito, we tossed out aquestion to you, said, hey,
which which do you feel like ismore important for um the place
your ministry is at right now?
Are we more in more focused oncreating intentional
student-only spaces?
Or are we more focused onintegrating students into the I
(22:43):
keep saying big church.
That's why I say the same thing.
Which is so funny that that likestuck.
unknown (22:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (22:49):
Like I don't even know what to call it anymore.
But everybody like knows whatyou're talking about.
I know.
So I might as well I'm leaningin.
Okay.
So um Yeah, so I'm I'm curious.
We'll just start theconversation in the easiest
place to start it, which is whydid you say what you said?
Why are why are you like, heckyeah, I'm super passionate about
intentional student only spaces.
SPEAKER_00 (23:09):
Yeah, I picked um intentional student space only,
or not only, but because it'sjust it's a welcoming, it's just
a welcoming place.
Um, and it's something that I'vebeen working on recently.
We've had the room.
I've been the youth pastor herefor seven years, and we've
always had um two specificstudent rooms.
One is kind of like our open gymarea.
Play basketball, kick the balls,don't worry if we put a hole in
the wall, something like that.
(23:29):
And then we have our youth roomwhere I do the lesson, we used
to have a worship band.
Um, and both areas have beengreat.
And both areas are places thatthe students feel familiar with
and can kind of set up their ownway so they just feel more
comfortable.
Um but here's recently our youthroom when I do my lessons, I've
kind of set it up as a um thestage, as a lounge.
So I got couches, bean bags,TVs, um, kind of, and then let
(23:53):
them decorate it.
Like one of the funniest thingsI did was I had them clean the
whole room, but I told them ifthey clean it, they can decorate
it the way they want to.
So they were like super happy toclean.
Um, as long as they get todecorate, and honestly, it's a
win for me because I don't knowhow to decorate anything.
My wife doesn't let me touchanything at home.
Um yeah, so so they get to comehere, they get to be like, okay,
this is not only a space where Ifeel comfortable and feel like I
(24:14):
can invite my friends, but it'ssomething that I feel like is
personable to me because they'vehad touches into it into setting
things up and personalpersonalizing it the way they
want to do it.
SPEAKER_02 (24:25):
So the uh the ownership piece I think is like
kind of a big deal that Ihonestly hadn't really thought
about is like if you have astudent-only space, you can give
students a bit more ownershipabout not only the physical, we
can talk more about the physicalspace, but more like what
happens there, you know, like uhstudent student-centric
programming.
(24:46):
Um have you had like do you havekind of a uh a core group of
students who you feel like havebeen able to hit their stride
like within that space and belike, have you seen, I guess
what I'm asking is have you seensome like leadership kind of
naturally rise to the top sinceyou have all these kids kind of
(25:06):
meeting in one place all thetime together?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Yeah, definitely.
I know specifically when we umbreak off into small groups, my
um female adult leaders have letme know that they actually go on
stage now, sit on the couch,kind of get on the beanbags, and
they feel like the students openup more.
They just feel a little bit morecomfortable, a little bit more
relaxed.
It's not like uh, hey, we're allin a circle on a chair, share
your you know, darkest secrets.
It's hey, we're all here, we'reall chilling, and they just
(25:30):
naturally open up.
On Sunday mornings, I've noticedit where even sometimes, if it's
not a lot of us um here on aSunday morning, a lot of them
will be like, Can we do thelesson on stage um where the
couches are?
And I'm like, Yeah, sure.
So they I could tell that theythey want they want it um and
they just feel more comfortable.
It feels less um organized,which um organized isn't bad,
(25:50):
but sometimes it's you get someof those best conversations um
when that little organization isum not there as much.
SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
When yeah, when you're able to lay your guard
down a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_04 (26:00):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:01):
So um so I wanna I wanna talk about a couple of the
pieces of of pushback, I guess,that I would feel like somebody
would have to this and have somepretty extensive conversations
about them because I know theseare things that you care about,
(26:22):
and so I want to like make surethat we flesh this out a little
bit.
Um the first is I think a lot ofpeople want to push students
into like adult ministry spaces,big church, so to speak, um in
order to uh have them createlike a spiritual connection with
(26:44):
their families.
And two would be I want to givestudents a chance to serve,
which I can do easier by likestripping away some of the
student ministry programming andpushing them to get involved in
what happens here on a Sundaymorning or a Wednesday night.
Um so yeah, I don't know wherewe want to start with that, if
(27:07):
one of those kind of jumps outto you or the other, but those
are things that I kind of wantto hit on because those are the
kind of the, you know, thatthat's the counterargument to
all of this, and I want to justtalk through that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
No, I I agree with both with both those things.
Um so we actually go into bigchurch the last Sunday of every
month.
Um, because I do agree that umeven though this is super
important to have their ownspecific room, I do think it's
you know, it's still my part tointroduce them to big church.
I know we keep using thatlanguage, but because once, you
(27:36):
know, once they graduate fromhigh school, they don't this,
you know, they don't have thisanymore.
So we try to get them familiarwith being in there.
But we've tried both thingswhere it's just like, hey, we're
not gonna have, you know, for awhole month we didn't have a
youth group, and we just threwthem in there and it almost got
forced.
Um they didn't they didn'treally like it.
They were already coming inthere with bad attitudes because
it's like, why don't we have ayouth group?
Uh so then when we strip it downto one one Sunday a month, I
(27:58):
feel like they already knewwhat's coming, they're like
mentally prepared, they're finewith it.
Um, you know, there's alwaysgonna be some kids that are
trying to sneak into the youthroom and have to open it up, and
there's somebody just chillingin here and have to kick them
back out.
But um, it it is important tointroduce them to go in there,
though.
Like, um, whether it's forfamily time or just even to get
familiar with listening to youknow the head pastor.
I feel like if they go here,they should definitely be
(28:18):
familiar with who the headpastor is, his sermons, all
those things.
Um, so it is important on thatend.
And then the volunteering partis I also try to have them
volunteer at least one onceevery other month.
Um, try to get them plugged intoTempu, to the childcare.
Because I'm the middle schooland high school are the only
ones that go into um big churchfor the last Sunday of the
(28:39):
month.
Other than that, it's the fifthSunday for our church.
So on the fifth Sunday everymonth, which only falls like
three or four times a year, um,all our kid programs are shut
down, and everybody like thewhole thing is like everybody go
sit in there with your familyand stuff like that.
And then um, shoot, did I answerboth of them right there?
Or did Yeah, no, you didn't.
(29:00):
I just sounded like you weregonna use something else, but
just to add to the volunteerpart, um, as much as I love to
volunteer, I do try to spread itout, spread it out because um
one time we had students thatwere volunteering all the time,
and I realized that the specificstudents that were doing that,
um, they didn't invite theirfriends as much or they didn't
come with other people becauseum it was kind of hard for them
to uh invite people when theywere running the tech booth or
(29:22):
when they were doing stuff likethat.
So I did notice that if theychose to volunteer every single
time instead of switching it upa little bit.
SPEAKER_03 (29:29):
Um Tito, I'm curious now, like as you I've heard you
talking, how how do you run likeprogramming through the year?
So it sounds, I mean, it soundslike you have Sunday morning
programming for students.
Um what what else does yourprogramming kind of look like
throughout the year?
SPEAKER_00 (29:46):
So we have our typical Sunday morning, um,
which is junior or high schoolstudents first service at nine,
and then our middle schoolstudents at second service
during 11 o'clock.
And then Wednesday night is bothmiddle school and high school
together, but we do split alloff for small groups and stuff
like that.
Then we we split off betweenhigh school girls, high school
guys.
SPEAKER_03 (30:06):
So is your Wednesday night programming are students
the only ones like coming tochurch that night or does your
or does the like the adultprogramming and things like
that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:17):
No, it's just our our students on Wednesdays.
SPEAKER_03 (30:20):
Got it.
So you've got so you've got likethat student only space
Wednesday night where it's like,hey, this is our thing.
Like this is youth group.
And then on Sunday morningsyou're talking through like,
hey, we can plug you in a fewSundays to to volunteer to go to
big church and not just have I'mguessing so Wednesday night too
is like classic youth group.
(30:40):
Yeah, that's right.
And then Sunday morning is likeBible study focused type of
thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
So a lot of churches I do kind of want to talk about
the physical space a little bitmore because I feel like a lot
of churches that are the size ofLakeshore are not often able to
like have the flexibility withtheir space that you guys have
had and are not often able tolike set aside a spot and be
(31:09):
like yo this is junior high andhigh school this is a place that
they have an ownership of thisis a place where they can feel
comfortable.
Was that something I'm I justwant to know if that was
something that you likeinherited at Lake Shore.
And I know you grew up at atLakeshore too, right?
So maybe you remember a timewhen this wasn't true, but like
is that something that youinherited or is that something
(31:30):
that you had to like fight for alittle bit and be yeah
definitely inherited um we'vebeen blessed with that.
SPEAKER_00 (31:36):
You know the room the room would be used for some
other stuff once in a while orsomething like that.
But it never to where itinterferes with the way we can
set things up or um with meusing my space.
But luckily it's always beenlike that.
We've inherited it.
So and they've been pretty goodwith um letting me kind of do
what I want in here and you knowget let the students do things
and so as long as we don't burnthe building down.
(31:58):
Yeah there you go.
SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
Tito I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit is
there a way that you wouldencourage somebody who doesn't
have like a dedicated youthgroup space hey here's maybe a
way that you can because I feellike one of the benefits just
hearing you talk is you talkedabout like hey we're gonna clean
this room but then you get todecorate this room all your own
but they they feel a sense ofownership and I think that
(32:19):
there's there's just somethingto like your church home where
when you are there like when youreally feel a part of your
church like you're like this isan extent this is an extension
of my home.
Like I know the people here.
I want to take care of it.
I'm a part yeah and I want totake care of it.
I want to like I care or I havebuy-in like you mentioned
ownership I care about thisthing.
How would you encourage somebodywho'd like maybe they don't have
(32:41):
a dedicated youth space to likestill cultivate that a little
bit within the their students attheir church?
Yeah so trying to so like ifthey don't have a room like what
can they do instead of that orif you're yeah how would you how
would you help them still feellike they you know are a part of
the ownership in in the space intheir church.
SPEAKER_00 (33:03):
I think just I mean just letting them have even if
you don't have your own room Ifeel like when they have input
um whether it's what you knowone thing that I did to set up
this school year really well isat the end of last uh school
year I kind of did like a surveyof like what are some things you
want to learn, what are somethings you want to add what are
some things you want to takeaway um and they really enjoyed
that.
So I kind of gave them theirtime to do that.
No pressure was like you don'thave to put your name on if you
(33:25):
like this Wednesday night sucks.
I don't like the speaker whichis me like do do whatever you
want just I want to be able tobe here for you.
So I think when you do stufflike that, even if you don't
have a specific room if you feellike you're giving them um a
voice um where they feel likethey can add um something to the
youth group they really theyreally enjoy that.
SPEAKER_02 (33:44):
Yeah it's a good show is uh has there ever been
anything on there that likesurprised you that ended up
being like a really really goodidea it's like someone asked for
this and I was like oh dang Igotta actually do that.
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (33:56):
So I've recently just started doing it like the
last two years.
Nothing crazy it has been greatthough like it's it's definitely
set up this school year umreally well.
But yeah surprisingly especiallywith some of the students I have
nothing crazy or nothing evennegative like nothing even too
negative.
Even when they were being alittle negative they're like no
we still like it but this couldbe better or this and that.
SPEAKER_03 (34:16):
So that's fine it's been it's like they're at you
gave them agency and they'regiving you like actual good
feedback.
Yeah it yeah it's like so it's Iinterested you with this and you
came through.
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (34:27):
But also like sometimes it's not even like I'm
thinking about every year ourboss Jason French president of
this organization sits down withevery single employee here and
it's like just ask him hey howis working here you know and he
wants to hear from all of usabout that.
(34:47):
And I very rarely go in theremaybe never have gone in there
with anything like a major thatI'm like this has to change
right now or I'm gonna comeunglued.
You know what I mean?
But you go in there and you'relike hey it would be nice if
whatever this kind of thing orwhatever.
But it's not even it's not eventhat like I'm kind of
(35:10):
manipulating myself a little bithere but it's not even that he's
like taking my feedback andimplementing it.
It's just that like hey thepresident of this organization
is making time to hear what Ihave to say.
Like there's something justdifferent about the psychology
of that that I think is alsoreally important for students
(35:30):
where it's like they don't wantto go to another place where
they like walk into a classroomand it's set up exactly how the
teacher wants it to be set upand they go home and they have
to keep their room clean andwhatever and can't paint the
walls the color that they wantto paint the walls because
they're painting you know thosekinds of things but like just
saying like hey you can havesome input in this whether or
(35:52):
not the input is actually eventhat you know earth shattering
is still just like a really goodthing I feel like I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (36:02):
Yeah.
And like you said, you knowwe're not always gonna do what
they what they ask but it doeshelp to listen.
And then when you do somethingthat they maybe put on the list
I mean that's super impactful.
They're like oh I I gave thatsuggestion.
Like they listen it's not justanother oh just write something
down it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03 (36:18):
Yeah but yeah I I I love it because it's like
whether you have a space whetheryou don't if you one of the
things to at least consider islike if you give your students
agency you give them ownershipof whatever it is we are doing
as a church meeting at this timeor this time in this space or
this space if I if I can offerthat then they feel a part of it
(36:39):
and that is a win.
SPEAKER_02 (36:41):
Well and that can help really cut down on some of
the like consumerism that yousee with like youth ministry too
where it's like I go to thischurch because they put on a
program that I really like.
I go to this church because Ienjoy being here on a Wednesday
night.
And it it becomes less aboutlike what they're offering you
(37:02):
and just more about hey what amI contributing to this place?
What am I how am I making thisinto a place not only that I
would want to be but that Iwould feel comfortable you know
inviting my my friends and myfamily to um it's just a really
cool thing.
Uh I feel I sidetracked myselfand I've got to think of the
question that I was going to askmy brain hurts.
(37:26):
I'm gonna be so honest with youguys I have a massive headache
today.
Okay.
Let's uh talk really quick justabout um kind of your dreams for
this uh I I know um you'retalking about how like the
physical space I kind of want toset that aside for a second I
feel like we've had a chance toto talk about that quite a bit
(37:48):
but um talk more about kind ofthe the spiritual space that you
uh create for students and umyou value like intentional
programming obviously you haveprogramming that is just for
middle school you haveprogramming that is just for
high school even the programmingthat you have that is for middle
school and high school togetheryou're splitting up into the uh
(38:08):
small groups that are basedbased on age and uh and gender
and whatever else so um I justwant to know like how when you
look down the road it's like howdo I want to continue to lean
into this idea that I'm creatingspaces that are intentionally
like for these students.
SPEAKER_00 (38:28):
Yeah along with those you know space like the
intentional part when um firstthing I think about when you we
keep talking about like theintentional program, intentional
spaces whatever it is um is theadult leaders I bring with me.
That's kind of been my big umgoal that I have is because you
know one way I like to ministeris I think about how I was
impacted when I was in middleschool and high school.
(38:48):
And a big way of that was notonly my youth pastor but the
adult leaders that I had aroundme.
They just poured so much into mylife outside of a Wednesday and
Sunday.
So I try to do that.
If I can encourage my um adultleaders to go to a volleyball
game, to go to a soccer game, togo to all these things and make
it to where my ministry isbeyond the building beyond the
physical space and beyond aWednesday night and a Sunday
(39:09):
morning then you know that's awin.
They remember those moments.
I love my youth pastor but Ican't tell you a single sermon
that he did um when I was inmiddle school and high school
but I can tell you the count youknow countless stories and
memories um where they werethere for me where they were
born into me where they pickedme up because I didn't have a
ride to school or what thousandsof stories that I can share.
And they still stick with me tothis day.
(39:31):
So I'm trying to do that for ourstudents as well.
And that you know I can't dothat by myself.
So it's awesome to have thosegreat volunteers and adult
leaders with me to to be able tohelp me out in that end.
SPEAKER_02 (39:42):
Well yeah and and like all of those places that
you're asking them to go arealso places that are like
intentionally created for them.
It's like we're going to yourhigh school soccer game or we're
going to this show choir concertor whatever.
Show choir is such a big dealhere it's crazy.
(40:06):
So Lauren were you in show choirproducer Lauren not in show
choir fun fact.
But anyway like yeah thosespaces are intentionally
designed for students and Ithink not only um like that's an
interesting aspect of this iswe're not only inviting students
into a space that we've createdintentionally for them but also
the places that they kind ofnaturally find themselves that
(40:29):
we are willing to go into whichit's like what other reason
would there be for a 35 year oldman to go to a Web City high
school soccer game?
Not any great ones probably butthe fact that I like love these
kids and I'm willing to to goand do that or whatever.
SPEAKER_03 (40:44):
So yeah that's really neat man.
Yeah Tito I like that I mean youhit on something that or you
said this and it made me thinkwhere you're like the things
that I remember when I was astudent were not any of the
sermons that my youth pastorpreached but you know all these
other asides right it's likepicking me up those things.
And I was like just for a minuteit was like do I remember and I
(41:06):
was like no shot no shot do Iremember anything that my you I
mean may maybe one sermon Icould pick out you know of a
hundred or so but the thingsthat I do remember are like the
conversations at what we used tocall like fourth meal after
youth group.
And it's I feel like one of thethings you're t like touching on
is and you've you kind of saidthis earlier it's like not the
(41:28):
organization is bad but like weneed a little bit of unstructure
and that's kind of what theywant.
They want the comfortability tojust like let their hair down
and it's like sometimes in thoseunstructured moments where it's
like we're just getting a mealwe're doing that is like the
most intentional student spacethere can be when I'm meeting
them where they're at at theirgame, at their school having
(41:50):
having a small group over like Ifeel like you know those
volunteers that just like plugin and just jump right into like
I'm just a part of your lifelike I'll be at your things you
know really make a lot ofheadway in relationships I feel
like with students because it'slike I'm gonna enter into your
space that is maybe disorganizedand unstructured and not just
(42:12):
youth group.
So I I I like how much you'vehit on that aspect of like
sometimes this is just what itlooks like for us in our
ministry.
SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
Yeah I think um I think it is kind of an
interesting thing to think aboutlike when we talk about
integrating students into like abig church I drive myself crazy
every time I say it.
(42:44):
But integrating students kind ofinto that adult programming I
think what we're saying is heywe want you to know what it is
like to be a part of thiscongregation as a whole so that
when you get to the next phaseof life this is something that
feels familiar to you.
But within that there is a lotof structure like what we're
asking them to do is like heyyou're gonna go volunteer in
(43:06):
this kindergarten room andyou're gonna do this lesson plan
with this teacher and this kindof thing and then you're gonna
go to this service and it goesexactly like this and then you
know like there is a lot of ofrigidity to that that I don't
think is bad but I am intriguedby this idea that it's just like
hey when we have our own spacewe don't have to play by all
(43:32):
those rules we can just kind ofto use Logan's expression let
our hair down and and and diveinto this so um I'm I'm
wondering though you talk aboutonce a month we're doing this
we're inviting them into to bigchurch what has it been like for
you you've been here seven yearsnow what have you noticed with
(43:53):
your students coming out of yourprogram and kind of the ethos
the culture of the program thatyou have there and moving on to
that next phase of life movingon to trade school work to
college maybe they stay inAntioch maybe they go somewhere
else I don't know but like whatwhat how have you seen this kind
of like help prepare studentsfor whatever's next yeah I was
(44:16):
actually about that recently umit's gone it's gone okay it's
gone it's gone decent I've seena lot of students that when they
come back from college they aregoing into Sunday service
they're not trying to you know Iused to have at first some kids
are trying to linger back.
SPEAKER_00 (44:29):
I'm like no you are you're too old like go in there.
But now I feel like and that wasbefore we were going into the
services and stuff like that.
Now they are pretty familiarwith it.
They go in there and um onething that I do wish um is just
seeing more um you know just forthem to join life groups or
something like that afterwards.
And then I know this is probablyswitching the gear just um but
(44:50):
just the you know sometimes itdoes seem then it's like oh you
know I'm back into college I'llgo in here I'll listen to the
pastor for an hour um and thengo back to my to my day-to-day
life um so I've seen that's whyI say it's like 50-50.
It's like I'm glad that they arefamiliar with it and they're
comfortable with going goinginto Sunday service.
But what else can they joinafter that?
(45:12):
You know how can I get them intoa life group?
How can I get them moreconnected with people in the
congregation other than just youknow sitting down listening to
the pastor and going back homeor going back to college and
stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (45:22):
Some of that answered I can can we can we
answer some of those questionsthat you just asked there like
how how do you do that?
How do because like the flipside of this argument I think a
lot of that is like built inlike you're you're showing them
when they're in high school thisis what it looks like to
volunteer this is what it lookslike to go to service this is
(45:42):
how you would get plugged into asmall group so you're saying
like well we still want to makesure that all those things
happen how do we help studentswho have left our program make
that happen so I'm gonna turnthat question back on you if
that's okay and be like okay howhave you done that you know yeah
I think um once so how we saythat question one more time.
(46:04):
Yeah at the end of your the lastthing you said you were just
like kind of listing off thislist of questions like how do I
help students get plugged into asmall group how do I help
students get involved servinghow do I help them want to go to
to to big church like how so Iwant to answer those questions
(46:25):
is basically what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00 (46:26):
So oh yeah I got you so yeah just um just getting
them connected with just morepeople I guess it it really does
come down to connection becausesometimes we try to solve one
issue with like something else.
So sometimes we just like okayhow do we get kids to continue
going to um big church afterthey graduate and then our
answer sometimes is just makethem go and they'll get familiar
(46:49):
with it.
And you know but it's we have todo more than that.
We have to it all comes downjust like a Wednesday night and
Sunday morning program it allcomes down to connections.
So how can we you know get themconnected with people um just
that's my job.
That's my job that's my adultleader's job.
And one way of doing it is youknow what I bring up now is like
hey I'm telling you to to takeyou know your small group um
(47:13):
serious and I'm gonna show youhow and then I tell them about
my life group.
I tell them how I go to acertain life group on you know
every Thursday and how my lifegroup helps me out when I'm
down, if I'm sick, you know, ifI need prayers.
So I just try to you know showthem that I'm living the life
that I'm telling them to um todo.
So just leading by example Iguess long story short just
leading by example um also ifI'm seeing like a fellow student
(47:36):
that graduated he's coming inSunday but I don't see anything
else that's my job as well to gotalk to him.
Go be like hey are you you knowplugged in somewhere?
Sometimes we can just be like ohyou know they got it or I'm not
their youth pastor anymore and Iwant to smother them and it's
like no no no you're you knowthey're always going to be my
students um and it's alwaysgoing to be my responsibility
and other people in the churchto guide them to be like hey
join my join join my life uh mylife group join my Bible study
(47:59):
all these different things.
So being intentional again andjust not waiting for them to ask
but for me to go up to them andjust start that conversation.
SPEAKER_02 (48:08):
Yeah I think that's such an important reminder kind
of as we wrap up a little bithere that you know the
relationship aspect no matterwhere you fall on this spectrum
the relational piece isnon-negotiable and it's like I
think those relationships haveto develop no matter which side
(48:29):
of it you're on.
But the fact that you're sayinglike you have to be willing to I
don't know I think for a youthpastor it would be easy to be
like okay this kid graduated nowthey're no longer my
responsibility especially inbigger churches where it's like
a little bit more um systematicum at times um but saying like
(48:50):
no if if we're gonna have ageintentional programming for
junior high and high schoolstudents then when they get to
the next phase I have to do thework of like helping them figure
out what that next phase lookslike.
So I think that's a really coolthing.
Logan are we leaving anything onthe table before I wrap up here
(49:13):
you got anything in your brainthat you gotta get out if not
it's okay.
Hmm I just I w you know Ithought I'd give you one last
chance.
SPEAKER_03 (49:23):
Uh yeah I got one more thing I was thinking about
this was right so as a parentI've I've you know one of the
the big thing we're discussingis f is fighting that like line
of how do I get you know I wantmy daughter to be a part of the
programming that is going onspecifically for her at our
church.
(49:44):
However I don't want her to missout on like our collective
church gathering that I do feellike is important and I want and
I want her to like uh you know Ithink one of the things we can
get worried about at times islike that we haven't prepared a
student to like get to bigchurch you know we keep saying
(50:07):
it I'm just gonna say it youknow that we haven't that we
haven't prepared a student toget to big church right it's so
I'm like okay I feel like I'mI'm a live in the gray person on
a on a lot of different thingsand so like this is it feels
like it lives lives in the graylike how do we strike the
balance of they go to theirstuff because that's important
but they're also a part of bigchurch because that's important.
(50:27):
Yeah.
But like how, Tito do you talkto parents um about that like
about that line of you know it'simportant for them to be here
but it's also important for themto maybe be a part of big
church.
How do you address that withparents?
SPEAKER_00 (50:43):
Yeah um it's I love that we have two services um
sometimes the parents uh don'tlike this part but um just
saying hey you know firstservice come to you know if you
had a high school student comeyou know drop your kid off um
try to plug them into a studythat's going on as well Sunday
morning it's like hey theparents you can stay here um
with this Bible study that'sgoing on Sunday morning while
(51:04):
your student joins me and thensecond service as a family you
guys can go into um big churchtogether um because I've had
that happen before where they'vewanted to stay or um you know
they want to do that together.
They want to go in theretogether but they do want our
their students to be in thereand we've opened that up some of
them are like I'm not saying twoservices just you got me for one
hour and you better do the mostbut some but some do enjoy that
(51:27):
some do um especially when theyfeel like it and a lot of it
really does come down to thekid.
If you get that kid if you canshow like if I can get a kid to
come in here and see thatthere's gonna be other kids um
and set it up and they startsaying hey mom hey dad I want I
really want to go in there a lotof the times you know the parent
will make that sacrifice to touh allow their children to come
(51:47):
into the youth only um space butthen also stay for second
service or first however they doit um and go in as a family as
well so that's that's reallygreat you know it's one of those
things where it's like forparents it's like you you can
only give them tools you knowyou can't make a parent use
(52:13):
them.
SPEAKER_02 (52:13):
But it's not like you've created an environment
where you like actually trulycan have the best of both worlds
which is great.
SPEAKER_00 (52:19):
Yeah and just like you you said that purpose like I
that's all I can do.
It's like at the end of the dayif the parent really doesn't
want their kid to come in thereit's you know there's not much I
can do.
But I my job is to at least givethem the sort the resources to
have that.
And if not to like I'll try tosend out emails too it's like if
the student can't join becauseyou know the school year starts
people playing sports I try toat least give a breakdown of
(52:39):
like hey this is going to be thetopic we're going through here's
all the verses we're gonna gothrough here's this just to make
sure the parents have that so ifthey want to go over that with
the students um they can andthey'll they won't just be lost
that they're out two weeks andcome in for the third week of a
series uh so I try my best to toto give those resources to the
parents uh but that's all I cando.
SPEAKER_02 (52:58):
Yeah that's awesome man well uh Tito really
appreciate you being with usagain had you on uh had you on a
couple years ago it's fun tohave you back um thanks for
thanks for sharing with us manreally appreciate you no man
thank you for uh for having meso it's fun um love you guys
love everything you guys do anduh it's exciting so we we love
(53:20):
you Tito take away good to seeyou Tito you as well see you
guys before we go hold on I'mgathering supplies sorry this is
not good radio before we go it'stime to give Logan a chance to
hype up one of his favoriteyouth pastors by adding them to
(53:43):
our sweet little cork board hereso Logan I'm gonna give you this
pin and you can yeah it'll dosome damage um and you can you
can add your buddy I don't knowif it's a guy or a girl here and
tell us why you chose them.
SPEAKER_03 (53:58):
Okay I'm gonna add truly my good friend Alec Russo
I'm gonna pin him right up hereto the top nice good pinning I
didn't do the assignment was toprint a small picture.
SPEAKER_02 (54:15):
Eight and a half by eleven is smaller than other
pictures.
SPEAKER_03 (54:20):
Sure smaller than the poster I didn't yeah you
know it's taken up quite a bitof the corkboard but that's
okay.
SPEAKER_02 (54:26):
He's got he's got some good holy jeans on in this
picture.
SPEAKER_03 (54:28):
Yeah I picked it twice Alec's gonna he's gonna
roast me later because I pickeda picture from like 2019 and
he's gonna be like that was solong ago how dare you but I
loved the hand up like hand uppreaching photo.
So that there's a little insightinto why I picked the photo.
Uh Alec my good friend uh didjunior high ministry for uh a
while uh in the in the valleybut is now at a church plant uh
(54:52):
in Phoenix in the Valley umcalled Echoes Church um and so
they they uh he started thereI'm trying to think it was um
earlier this year um where hestarted full time so he's he is
over students junior high endhigh school there primarily
works with the high schoolstudents though and has a junior
high counterpart but is overboth um and just is living
(55:15):
church plant life and so whichis hard yeah which is hard but
um is is doing a killer jobloving on loving on students
there in the valley um at a at anew place and so wanted to shout
him out um alec is a a greatyouth pastor because he just has
such a welcoming personality uhmakes like every makes everybody
(55:36):
feel like their friend Idefinitely feel like I'm his
friend hope he would call me thesame um so we're gonna find the
relationship on the podcast uhare we friends Alec uh I think
we are no um alec uh I want toshout out he thinks he's good at
golf he's okay he's doing he'sdoing okay yeah he's doing his
best he's doing his best yeah some too Alec um but uh love that
(55:57):
guy love what he's doing inPhoenix at Echo's church so
we're gonna shout him out goodman shout out to Alec appreciate
you and the work that you weredoing in the Valley also special
thanks to Logan and to Tito forjoining me today.
SPEAKER_02 (56:12):
Today's episode was produced by Michael Hester,
Lauren Bryan and myself twoweeks from now we're gonna
finish this conversation we'regonna talk about big church
we're gonna talk about in in inintegrating I got through it
integrating students into adultspaces with our good friend
Jordan Francis.
He's great if you don't want tomiss that be sure to subscribe
(56:34):
wherever you listen to podcastswe'll see you next time
Hi, I'm Brad Warren.
This is Beyond the Event YouthMinistry Podcast presented by
Christ and Youth, where we helpyou maintain momentum between
the mountaintops.
Uh today's guest is Tito Lozano.
He is the Family Ministriespastor at Lakeshore Christian
Church in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Tito and I are going to bekicking off our conversation
(00:24):
about uh the intentionality ofstudent-only spaces.
As opposed to getting studentsinvolved in big church, air
quotes there for sure.
Um we're gonna have a greatconversation.
Before we dig into that, though,it's story time.
Just a reminder that if you havea story you think would make my
(00:46):
callous little heart feelanything, uh humor, joy, um, you
can email that to podcast atCIY.com.
I'll read it on the air aswritten.
Today's story comes from ShaleyBradshaw at Lake Ridge Christian
Church in Paris, Illinois.
She says, Here is a story of away God moved within our group
at Move.
During our week at Move, Ibrought a group of students who
(01:08):
have been with me since thebeginning of my ministry.
They were freshmen when Istarted and are now entering
their senior year.
I always knew one was planningto go into ministry as we had
talked about colleges and whatthe future looks like as someone
going into ministry.
When we were asked to pray overthe batons and pick up how many
we felt God putting on ourheart, I was thinking of this
(01:29):
one student, and she was on mymind during that time.
My leaders and I spent timepraying over this baton and were
excited for the evening session.
Little did we know that God wasgoing to wreck our plans in the
best way possible.
As I stood up to wait for ourstudents, I had one come up that
surprised me.
Then two, three, four, five, sixcame up.
(01:53):
The moment I walked over andasked for five more batons, I
was in utter shock.
I knew that God was going tomove within our group this week,
but never on this scale.
That evening I got to hear ourstudents tell their friends
about the decision they made andthe passion for serving Jesus.
The last day comes around, and Ihave another student come and
ask if I had any more batons.
So I asked CIY staff and gave itto the student.
(02:16):
This was my fourth year bringingstudents to move.
And when I was a student atMove, I also made the decision
to go into ministry.
So this literal passing of thebaton was one of the coolest
things I have seen God do withinour group.
Thank you, CIY, for alwaysproviding opportunities for
students to see Jesus andexperience what being his
disciple looks like.
(02:37):
Thank you, Shaley Bradshaw.
Logan Sperry is here with metoday.
He's on our church relationsteam.
That's a good story.
This is a great story.
Oh my gosh.
Thank you, Shaley, for sharing.
Thank you for sharing sharingShaley.
You got through it.
I really I really didn't know ifI was going to.
You got through it.
I got through it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
You know what I really liked?
I well, I just like hearingabout all these cities in the
state of Illinois that are likeFrench named cities where you
pronounce the S.
SPEAKER_02 (03:08):
I'm sorry.
Shaley Bradshaw from LakeridgeChristian Church in Petty.
SPEAKER_01 (03:12):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Illinois.
Did you know there's also like aLouisville, Illinois?
Yeah.
Spelled the same way asLouisville, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_02 (03:19):
Well, we can't talk because we have a Versailles,
Kentucky.
I know, I know.
SPEAKER_01 (03:26):
So but Louisville's Louisville does it right.
SPEAKER_02 (03:28):
Louisville does it right, I guess.
So anyway, that's that that's agood story.
Logan, uh you you felt the callto go into ministry and a move,
right?
SPEAKER_03 (03:38):
I did, yeah, actually.
Um I went all five years that Icould to move uh as a high
school student.
My fur my first event was uhactually a believe.
Oh shout out believe.
Like, oh my gosh, hey, if youwant no, I'm just kidding.
I'm gonna start so if you wantbelieve back, send an email to
podcast and see why to go.
(04:00):
No, I'm just kidding.
Sorry, I shouldn't say that.
There are I want to there areactually people who I still talk
about.
There are still people I talk towho are like, hey, believe.
But uh my first event actuallywas a believe, and then I went
to move all five years that Icould, and uh made the decision
to get baptized um at a move,um, and and and actually follow
(04:24):
Jesus with my life, and thenmade the decision to go into
ministry at a move, and thencame back the year after and had
to remake that decision to gointo ministry because the first
time I was like, ah, really wasthat was that really the Holy
Spirit?
And then the second time it waslike, yeah, that's really the
Holy Spirit making uh that callin my life.
(04:46):
So yeah, um, I did, and thenrest is history.
SPEAKER_02 (04:49):
It's cool to get to get back to an organization that
like changed.
I mean, I have the same storywhere it's like this place
changed my life, and now I getto work here.
Yeah, it's the best thing in theworld, anyway.
Yep.
Um Logan, you work with a lot ofour new churches on our church
relations team.
You love them really well.
Most of the people I feel likewho listen to this podcast
(05:11):
probably fall more into the likewe've been around CIY for a
while kind of thing.
So I wanted to ask you thisquestion because I feel like
maybe there are times you knowwhen I I I experienced this when
I lived in Colorado for a littlewhile, where it's like I live
right next to the RockyMountains and it they rock.
(05:32):
They're so cool.
Uh no opponent to that.
Um Brad Brad claims threestates.
SPEAKER_03 (05:36):
He's like, I'm from Florida, Kentucky, and Colorado.
SPEAKER_02 (05:39):
That's well, we can we can do any of them, really,
because like truly and he callsit Florado from Florado who's
running this right now.
What is going on?
SPEAKER_03 (05:50):
I personally like having producer Michael be more
a part of what's happening here.
He's antagonizing me.
He's not, he's not, you know.
You know what the interestingthing is, you don't claim
Missouri and you've lived herefor eight years.
Why is that?
SPEAKER_04 (06:06):
Would you like to answer that question for me?
SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
Oof.
SPEAKER_02 (06:13):
I cla I claim Missouri.
SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
Anyway, next to the Rocky Mountains, they rock.
SPEAKER_02 (06:16):
What I was saying is the Rocky Mountains are
beautiful, but you live inColorado for a while and you
kind of like forget that they'rethere, you know?
So I I want to know you have newchurches coming in, and you have
these churches that have beenaround a while that they kind of
know how CIY goes, they know howMove goes or Mix goes or
Superstar goes and an engagedtrip goes.
When these new churches come in,what is it that they're like
(06:40):
pleasantly surprised by thatmaybe those of us who have been
around CIY for a long time,myself included, might be taking
for granted.
You know?
SPEAKER_03 (06:49):
Yeah, totally.
I you know, um and I say thistoo as somebody who obviously
works for CIY and has gone to acountless number of events now
now at this point over theyears.
Yeah.
Um like, okay, for instance,Superstart, for example, every
(07:12):
year.
I don't know why.
I never know why this gets me.
But I always like there's if youif you've ever attended one of
our superstart events, or ifnot, I'll explain to you.
There's always like a moment inone of the sessions where
something goes wrong.
And I'm air quoting that forthose of you on video.
For those of you not on video,I'm air quoting that super hard.
There's some something that goeswrong.
(07:33):
It really it's a part of it's apart of it.
It's a part of the whole thing.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:37):
It's like something has to break so that we can all
work together to fix it.
To fix it.
SPEAKER_03 (07:40):
And we learn a biblical truth from this, right?
And we share or we share thegospel because of it, and or
talk about what it means to be akingdom worker.
And it always without fail, I'mlike, oh no, the button stopped
working.
Like it it I'm like, it'sbroken.
What do we and I one time in St.
Louis got up out of my seat.
I hadn't seen, hadn't seen anevent yet.
Got up out of my seat and waslike, what do we do?
(08:02):
Well, Patrick was like, hey,buddy.
You've been here like, I don'tknow, 40 times.
Well what do you think?
SPEAKER_02 (08:10):
Youth pastors will do this too, because it's like
when we were at Indiana twoyears ago when we were talking
about unscripted, the wheel ofemotions breaks.
Like that's the big thing.
And Ann Wilson came like runningback to front of house, the the
next gen pastor at TradersPoint, and was like, what can we
do to help get this solved?
SPEAKER_03 (08:31):
No, no, no.
We're good, we're it's gonna beit'll be fine.
We're gonna solve it.
We're on it.
So that is to demonstrate apoint of like uh I would say
like the intentionality thatthose on our content team take
to creating an age-intentionalevent.
I feel like I me personally, Italk to a lot of people who
(08:52):
maybe this is their first timegoing to an a truly
age-intentional event.
That's a big part of what we do.
Move is clearly high school, mixis clearly middle school, uh,
superstar is clearly preteen,and so it's like, oh, like
actually seeing the content playout in that way, and it's like,
yeah, oh yeah, you really didgear that for my middle school
student.
Or you really did gear that formy preteen student.
(09:13):
That and I think the the focusof students being kingdom
workers is like, I love that youguys do that.
Like, that's what I always feellike I hear from new people is
like, I love that my studentsget to see themselves
represented on stage through avideo or maybe actu an actual
moment, an on-stage moment, orwhatever that may be in any
(09:34):
given year, and that we reallylike double down on.
We want students to seethemselves doing real life
kingdom work so that they'relike, oh, that is a real thing
that I can do in my daily life.
And so I feel like those things,maybe if you've been around a
while, you're like used to that.
Yeah, you're like, yeah,students do this.
And for some others, it's like,I I love that my students get to
(09:56):
see that.
That's cool.
SPEAKER_02 (09:57):
Yeah, I love that.
Um, well, we are we're we'rewe're we're gonna go talk to
Tito in a second.
We have a new segment on thepodcast, it's called Miked Up,
where Michael, producer Michael,gets to talk about anything that
he wants.
I love this.
And we get to we're gonna put iton.
SPEAKER_03 (10:15):
I have been saying for years we just need more.
SPEAKER_02 (10:18):
Give the man.
Give the man some time.
Let him cook.
Give him room to breathe.
Okay, so before we talk to Tito,let's do Mic'ed Up.
SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
Uh Brad did let me cook this week.
Um, I cooked dinner for oursmall group.
It didn't turn out the way Idid.
Wait, hold on, what'd you make?
Um I I I and this isn't it.
This is about this is about toturn into a whole thing.
Yeah, it's gonna turn into awhole thing.
This isn't this isn't even whatI actually intended on talking
about.
There's a different thing that Ido want to say this.
Yeah, I'll wait out.
You said let him cook and I justyou know but I I made um I I
(10:51):
made what I called counterfeitcarbonara.
Whoa.
My family has a tradition everyChristmas we eat this thing that
we call spaghetti and eggs.
It's like scrambled eggs withspaghetti noodles, essentially.
But like there's an actualItalian dish called Carbonara.
Yeah, like the pasta sauce ismade from eggs.
Yeah.
And so I did something that wasa little bit more of a
gussied-up version of whatspaghetti and eggs is.
(11:13):
It ended up not being nearly astasty as it is when I make it
myself.
I liked it, yeah.
It was edible.
It just wasn't, I wasdisappointed.
SPEAKER_02 (11:21):
But I don't know, like I don't know what the I
don't know what I enjoyed mymeal, but for somebody who's
like had it before, you know,it's like, oh yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_03 (11:31):
Before we get, I want you to get to what you
really want to talk about,Michael.
I do have to say, spaghetti andeggs is is a wild thing to just
hear about hey, yeah.
My family just eats spaghettiand eggs.
I'd be like, hey, I have a lotof questions.
Most people's reaction is thator gross.
SPEAKER_01 (11:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:47):
But I said at one point, hey, this kind of has
like pad thai vibes.
Like it had the wide noodles andlike the thingy.
Yeah.
And uh Pikel said, You'rebesmirching my Italian food.
And I was like, Well, it's noteven Italian.
So Italian American.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (12:06):
Love it.
Yeah.
Um, okay, hey, I would love tomake a couple of album
recommendations.
Oh, okay.
Album recommendations.
These are worship albums, okay,because it's a question podcast.
Oh, okay.
So not in the life of ashowbird.
But but a couple episodes ago,um, I talked about how um how
much I think oceans deserve somemore respect, and Brad and I
argued about it for a littlebit.
(12:27):
Like the Song Oceans?
The Song Oceans.
Yeah, sorry, not the seven C's.
Love it.
But Oceans by Hillsong United.
Yeah, this guy.
Yeah.
Hillsong United.
Everyone but you, Brad.
SPEAKER_02 (12:36):
That's how it's gone so far.
SPEAKER_03 (12:37):
You didn't like you know were you like at the time?
SPEAKER_02 (12:40):
No, at the time I loved it.
Yeah.
But I just thought you've turnedon it.
We murdered it.
We just beat it to a pulp.
It's no, it's no longer bangerstatus for me because it's just
like we don't need to do it all.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
If you want to hear a more fleshed out version of
this conversation, you can go toseason five, episode one,
listen, listen to it there.
Anyway, um, two albums I wouldlove to recommend because in
talking about oceans and likesongs that deserve a comeback,
in my opinion.
There's an album that was sentto me earlier this year.
Apparently, it came out on mybirthday.
SPEAKER_02 (13:10):
Oh, Michael.
SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
Um this album is called Foundations by an artist
called Worship Circle, which isreally more of like a collective
artist or whatever.
Okay.
Um and it's it's a bunch of likeworship leaders that all like
you've probably like heard ofthem if you pay very much
attention to most mostly likethe bigger churches that put out
albums.
This album is made up of um moresort of contemporized, if I can
(13:38):
say that, if that makes sense,um stripped down versions of
classic contemporary worshipmusic.
Okay.
Let me read a few of the songsthat you'll find in this album.
SPEAKER_02 (13:49):
I'm gonna be singing here in a minute.
SPEAKER_01 (13:51):
The first the first open the opening track is Open
the Eyes of My Heart.
Yes.
Yeah, good one.
Featuring Paul Below.
I think that's how you say hisname.
Um the second one we're comingout swinging, okay?
Yeah.
After open the eyes of my heart,we go to step by step inside.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Uh We Fall Down is a little bitlater.
(14:13):
Um then Your Grace is enough.
SPEAKER_03 (14:16):
Yeah after that.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
Hey, in case you're listening and you didn't know,
it is his grace is enough.
It is enough, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:22):
And Chris Tomlin still goes hard in the paint.
SPEAKER_01 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, just like just like howLegolas takes one small bite of
the limbus spread and it'senough to fill the stomach of a
of a fully grown man.
His grace is enough.
Yeah, no, I got that.
That was Lord of the Rings.
Marvelous Light.
I know featuring Charlie Hall.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah, can you believe it?
Anyway, um, go check out.
I'm gonna be so honest, I don'tknow who Charlie Hall is, but
(14:46):
I'm pretty sure he's that guythat that sang Marvelous Light
the first time, I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, I believe you.
Um anyway, we did that one whenI was in high school.
Go listen, go listen toFoundations by Worship Circle.
It's a live album.
It's a great time.
When I've been down in thedumps, and I've been down in
some dumps, it's a good it's agood album to listen to.
(15:08):
Do you want to talk about that?
No, I'm just saying, like, likeit's like it's been a good one
to listen to, you know.
Good.
Um the second album.
SPEAKER_02 (15:15):
Mike'd up.
Mike's gonna tell us about hisdumps.
The dumps that I'm doing.
Okay.
Hey, hey.
SPEAKER_01 (15:21):
Uh wow.
Spaghetti and eggs, everybody.
SPEAKER_04 (15:25):
Dump number one.
SPEAKER_01 (15:26):
Joplin, Missouri.
Um, that's not true.
I love living in Joplin.
I'm this is actually my home.
He's from here.
SPEAKER_03 (15:33):
When people are like, so like, yeah, you're in
Joplin, and I'm like, yeah, I'mfrom Joplin.
SPEAKER_01 (15:37):
Like, I'm a person here.
SPEAKER_03 (15:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:39):
I live here.
Yeah, you're a Joplinite.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (15:41):
As is producer Lauren.
17 years.
As is producer Lauren.
Web City High School.
Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (15:48):
It's a joke.
I'm not trying to actually dumpon Joplin.
Anyway, the second album, okay.
This one is called This Is MyMeditation by an artist called
Middlebrook Music.
There's a little bit of biashere.
Okay.
Because I have a brother thatwas part of this album.
It also came out earlier thisyear.
My brother Steven.
(16:08):
He's on staff at a church inKnoxville, Tennessee.
Fellowship Christian.
SPEAKER_02 (16:12):
Fellowship Knoxville, shout out.
SPEAKER_01 (16:13):
Mm-hmm.
Shout out.
The road that that church is onis Middlebrook.
Something.
I don't know, Middlebrooksomething.
Clever, I like it.
Um so they released an albumearlier this year.
Um, and I quite enjoy it.
Every song is written from likea like specific scripture.
Um I'm here for that.
And there there's been plenty oftimes where like I'll be like,
(16:35):
you know, in my own likepersonal devotional time reading
in the Psalms or something, andI'll read a line and I'll be
like, that is in that one song.
SPEAKER_02 (16:43):
That's where that's where David got it.
SPEAKER_01 (16:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Seriously, David, a bigMetalbrook fan.
Um anyway, there's just there'sa few songs on here that are
that are big highlights for me.
Um the biggest highlight writtenby Stephen Hester.
Sufficient.
Shout out.
Go listen to it.
Sufficient?
Sufficient.
SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
Written by Stephen Hester, incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (17:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (17:08):
Um, I will be listening to those albums,
Michael, and maybe next uh timeor an episode in the future I
can report back to you.
SPEAKER_01 (17:16):
Not the next one because there won't be enough
time.
SPEAKER_02 (17:17):
No, there will not.
SPEAKER_01 (17:19):
Thank you for that, producer Michael.
I'll I will also say one morelittle tag on top of that.
There are instrumental versionsif you listen to the deluxe
album.
There are instrumental versionsof the songs.
I like to listen to those fromtime to time when I'm doing my
own little quiet times.
So, you know.
That if you're looking for newworship music, check those out.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
Honestly, I am I am.
SPEAKER_03 (17:40):
Yeah, are you just are you an instrumental guy,
Brad?
SPEAKER_02 (17:42):
I I am an instrumental music guy.
Okay.
I told Michael yesterday thatsitting in a dark room and
listening to the interstellarscore is my favorite movie.
Like I don't even need themovie.
SPEAKER_03 (17:57):
It's just burned in your brain like Matthew
McConaughey hitting on the likewindow.
Yeah.
It's just like I don't even Idon't even need to watch the
movie.
I just know.
Like it's just there.
Okay.
Uh hey, thank you for the musicrecommendations.
For for for all of you peopleout there, go go revisit JHB,
some Jordan Howerton band.
Oh.
In case.
(18:17):
Just like give it a listen.
I was listening to it the otherday.
Still hits.
Shout out, shout out JordanHowerton.
Shout out Jordan Howerton band.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (18:24):
Uh still great worship music.
Do you want to sing us one ofthe songs?
SPEAKER_03 (18:28):
Move, man.
SPEAKER_02 (18:30):
No, I can't do it.
He's being silly, but Loganactually has a beautiful voice.
Fun fact, everybody.
All right.
On that note, uh, let's go talkto Tito.
Tito Lozano, all the way fromSmyrna.
Am I saying that right?
Uh Antioch.
Antioch.
(18:50):
Yeah.
You're not you guys aren't inSmyrna?
SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
No, we're in.
We do have a campus in Smyrna.
SPEAKER_02 (18:55):
You have a campus in Smyrna?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:57):
Yeah, but we're located in Antioch, which is
just like 30 minutes down theroad.
SPEAKER_02 (18:59):
So I d but still I want to know if I'm saying it
right.
Smy Smyrna Yeah, Smyrna.
Yes, sir.
Smyrna.
Smyrna.
Okay, anyway.
How you doing today?
I'm doing great.
How about you guys?
Yeah.
Good.
Is your fall off to a greatstart at Lakeshore Christian
Church?
It is.
SPEAKER_00 (19:17):
Busy, but uh fun and and really good, actually.
SPEAKER_02 (19:20):
Yeah.
What does your guys like uhlaunch into fall programming
look like?
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Um we started off with just like a family night.
Um, invite all the families,kind of get them a vision of
what what the plan is for theschool year, give some food,
because that's how you getanybody to show up to anything
is food.
Um so yeah, so just that, andthen we kick off with our you
know, with the lesson, with theseries and stuff like that.
But we normally kick it off witha good old family night and have
everybody invite their friends,eat some good food, and set the
(19:46):
tone and the vision for uh theupcoming school year.
SPEAKER_02 (19:49):
So, what did you do for dinner for your fall
cook-off?
I'm just curious.
I always hear what people likecook for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
So for the first one, we just did pizza, just
because it was simple.
Okay, great.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But classic.
I have it lined up.
So like this month we're doingtacos and nachos.
Um, next month, October is gonnabe a chili cook-off, I think,
between both campuses, ourSmyrna campus and Enia campus.
We'll have just a big old chilicook-off and do some prizes,
have some fun with it.
Still setting that one up.
(20:21):
November is my favorite big oldThanksgiving meal.
And then in December, we just douh PJs and breakfast kind of
thing.
SPEAKER_02 (20:27):
So heck yeah.
So the the church that Logan andI and Michael um go to, and
producer Lauren off camera, umthey do wow, we all go to CCO in
here.
That's crazy.
Uh they do dinner everyWednesday night before uh youth
group, and they have about fivethings that they rotate between.
(20:47):
And when I tell you that likethe amount of excitement that I
have to go to youth group on anygiven night depends on what they
are serving.
SPEAKER_03 (20:58):
Yeah, what's your least favorite?
SPEAKER_02 (20:59):
So my least favorite, this is controversial.
My least favorite is thetaquitos.
SPEAKER_03 (21:03):
Oh no, that's not controversial.
SPEAKER_01 (21:05):
The Wednesday night teeth.
SPEAKER_03 (21:06):
That's not controversial?
SPEAKER_01 (21:07):
No, that's not controversial for all of you out
there.
SPEAKER_03 (21:08):
Hey, for Tyler Bate, if you're listening.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
This just played the Lauren Bryan.
They changed him.
SPEAKER_02 (21:14):
Oh, great.
Well, then I may have to reviseall the power things, but my
favorite is the chickensandwich.
That's your favorite.
No, no, I love the I love thechicken sandwich.
SPEAKER_03 (21:23):
I like here's the deal.
Tacos and nachos, Tito, that'swhat I want.
Well, we don't do that.
No, I'm saying that.
SPEAKER_02 (21:28):
But that's what I'm saying is we like are always on
a rotation.
SPEAKER_03 (21:31):
So and I'm telling you that Tito's got it figured
out.
SPEAKER_02 (21:33):
He's got it figured out, man.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
Do you guys just cater it or is it family
participation kind of how do youguys do that?
There's like a volunteer teamthat yeah, makes it all.
SPEAKER_02 (21:42):
Yeah.
Cool, cool.
Yeah.
So pulled pork rocks.
Anyway, that's not what any ofus came here to talk about.
SPEAKER_01 (21:48):
The taquitos are the Sunday taquitos now.
SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
The so okay.
Yeah.
But don't go to church on thatSunday.
I have a feeling that thelisteners are getting very bored
with the taquito talk, but it isself-indulgent and it's great.
Um well, Tito, no, the taquitoswere different on Sunday than
they were on Wednesdays, but nowthey're the same.
Okay.
Um, let's talk about somethingbetter.
(22:11):
It's re it matters a lot to us.
You know what's better thantaquitos?
Jesus.
SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
You're getting so good at your transition.
SPEAKER_02 (22:19):
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Um, so Tito, we tossed out aquestion to you, said, hey,
which which do you feel like ismore important for um the place
your ministry is at right now?
Are we more in more focused oncreating intentional
student-only spaces?
Or are we more focused onintegrating students into the I
(22:43):
keep saying big church.
That's why I say the same thing.
Which is so funny that that likestuck.
unknown (22:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (22:49):
Like I don't even know what to call it anymore.
But everybody like knows whatyou're talking about.
I know.
So I might as well I'm leaningin.
Okay.
So um Yeah, so I'm I'm curious.
We'll just start theconversation in the easiest
place to start it, which is whydid you say what you said?
Why are why are you like, heckyeah, I'm super passionate about
intentional student only spaces.
SPEAKER_00 (23:09):
Yeah, I picked um intentional student space only,
or not only, but because it'sjust it's a welcoming, it's just
a welcoming place.
Um, and it's something that I'vebeen working on recently.
We've had the room.
I've been the youth pastor herefor seven years, and we've
always had um two specificstudent rooms.
One is kind of like our open gymarea.
Play basketball, kick the balls,don't worry if we put a hole in
the wall, something like that.
(23:29):
And then we have our youth roomwhere I do the lesson, we used
to have a worship band.
Um, and both areas have beengreat.
And both areas are places thatthe students feel familiar with
and can kind of set up their ownway so they just feel more
comfortable.
Um but here's recently our youthroom when I do my lessons, I've
kind of set it up as a um thestage, as a lounge.
So I got couches, bean bags,TVs, um, kind of, and then let
(23:53):
them decorate it.
Like one of the funniest thingsI did was I had them clean the
whole room, but I told them ifthey clean it, they can decorate
it the way they want to.
So they were like super happy toclean.
Um, as long as they get todecorate, and honestly, it's a
win for me because I don't knowhow to decorate anything.
My wife doesn't let me touchanything at home.
Um yeah, so so they get to comehere, they get to be like, okay,
this is not only a space where Ifeel comfortable and feel like I
(24:14):
can invite my friends, but it'ssomething that I feel like is
personable to me because they'vehad touches into it into setting
things up and personalpersonalizing it the way they
want to do it.
SPEAKER_02 (24:25):
So the uh the ownership piece I think is like
kind of a big deal that Ihonestly hadn't really thought
about is like if you have astudent-only space, you can give
students a bit more ownershipabout not only the physical, we
can talk more about the physicalspace, but more like what
happens there, you know, like uhstudent student-centric
programming.
(24:46):
Um have you had like do you havekind of a uh a core group of
students who you feel like havebeen able to hit their stride
like within that space and belike, have you seen, I guess
what I'm asking is have you seensome like leadership kind of
naturally rise to the top sinceyou have all these kids kind of
(25:06):
meeting in one place all thetime together?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Yeah, definitely.
I know specifically when we umbreak off into small groups, my
um female adult leaders have letme know that they actually go on
stage now, sit on the couch,kind of get on the beanbags, and
they feel like the students openup more.
They just feel a little bit morecomfortable, a little bit more
relaxed.
It's not like uh, hey, we're allin a circle on a chair, share
your you know, darkest secrets.
It's hey, we're all here, we'reall chilling, and they just
(25:30):
naturally open up.
On Sunday mornings, I've noticedit where even sometimes, if it's
not a lot of us um here on aSunday morning, a lot of them
will be like, Can we do thelesson on stage um where the
couches are?
And I'm like, Yeah, sure.
So they I could tell that theythey want they want it um and
they just feel more comfortable.
It feels less um organized,which um organized isn't bad,
(25:50):
but sometimes it's you get someof those best conversations um
when that little organization isum not there as much.
SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
When yeah, when you're able to lay your guard
down a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_04 (26:00):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:01):
So um so I wanna I wanna talk about a couple of the
pieces of of pushback, I guess,that I would feel like somebody
would have to this and have somepretty extensive conversations
about them because I know theseare things that you care about,
(26:22):
and so I want to like make surethat we flesh this out a little
bit.
Um the first is I think a lot ofpeople want to push students
into like adult ministry spaces,big church, so to speak, um in
order to uh have them createlike a spiritual connection with
(26:44):
their families.
And two would be I want to givestudents a chance to serve,
which I can do easier by likestripping away some of the
student ministry programming andpushing them to get involved in
what happens here on a Sundaymorning or a Wednesday night.
Um so yeah, I don't know wherewe want to start with that, if
(27:07):
one of those kind of jumps outto you or the other, but those
are things that I kind of wantto hit on because those are the
kind of the, you know, thatthat's the counterargument to
all of this, and I want to justtalk through that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
No, I I agree with both with both those things.
Um so we actually go into bigchurch the last Sunday of every
month.
Um, because I do agree that umeven though this is super
important to have their ownspecific room, I do think it's
you know, it's still my part tointroduce them to big church.
I know we keep using thatlanguage, but because once, you
(27:36):
know, once they graduate fromhigh school, they don't this,
you know, they don't have thisanymore.
So we try to get them familiarwith being in there.
But we've tried both thingswhere it's just like, hey, we're
not gonna have, you know, for awhole month we didn't have a
youth group, and we just threwthem in there and it almost got
forced.
Um they didn't they didn'treally like it.
They were already coming inthere with bad attitudes because
it's like, why don't we have ayouth group?
Uh so then when we strip it downto one one Sunday a month, I
(27:58):
feel like they already knewwhat's coming, they're like
mentally prepared, they're finewith it.
Um, you know, there's alwaysgonna be some kids that are
trying to sneak into the youthroom and have to open it up, and
there's somebody just chillingin here and have to kick them
back out.
But um, it it is important tointroduce them to go in there,
though.
Like, um, whether it's forfamily time or just even to get
familiar with listening to youknow the head pastor.
I feel like if they go here,they should definitely be
(28:18):
familiar with who the headpastor is, his sermons, all
those things.
Um, so it is important on thatend.
And then the volunteering partis I also try to have them
volunteer at least one onceevery other month.
Um, try to get them plugged intoTempu, to the childcare.
Because I'm the middle schooland high school are the only
ones that go into um big churchfor the last Sunday of the
(28:39):
month.
Other than that, it's the fifthSunday for our church.
So on the fifth Sunday everymonth, which only falls like
three or four times a year, um,all our kid programs are shut
down, and everybody like thewhole thing is like everybody go
sit in there with your familyand stuff like that.
And then um, shoot, did I answerboth of them right there?
Or did Yeah, no, you didn't.
(29:00):
I just sounded like you weregonna use something else, but
just to add to the volunteerpart, um, as much as I love to
volunteer, I do try to spread itout, spread it out because um
one time we had students thatwere volunteering all the time,
and I realized that the specificstudents that were doing that,
um, they didn't invite theirfriends as much or they didn't
come with other people becauseum it was kind of hard for them
to uh invite people when theywere running the tech booth or
(29:22):
when they were doing stuff likethat.
So I did notice that if theychose to volunteer every single
time instead of switching it upa little bit.
SPEAKER_03 (29:29):
Um Tito, I'm curious now, like as you I've heard you
talking, how how do you run likeprogramming through the year?
So it sounds, I mean, it soundslike you have Sunday morning
programming for students.
Um what what else does yourprogramming kind of look like
throughout the year?
SPEAKER_00 (29:46):
So we have our typical Sunday morning, um,
which is junior or high schoolstudents first service at nine,
and then our middle schoolstudents at second service
during 11 o'clock.
And then Wednesday night is bothmiddle school and high school
together, but we do split alloff for small groups and stuff
like that.
Then we we split off betweenhigh school girls, high school
guys.
SPEAKER_03 (30:06):
So is your Wednesday night programming are students
the only ones like coming tochurch that night or does your
or does the like the adultprogramming and things like
that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:17):
No, it's just our our students on Wednesdays.
SPEAKER_03 (30:20):
Got it.
So you've got so you've got likethat student only space
Wednesday night where it's like,hey, this is our thing.
Like this is youth group.
And then on Sunday morningsyou're talking through like,
hey, we can plug you in a fewSundays to to volunteer to go to
big church and not just have I'mguessing so Wednesday night too
is like classic youth group.
(30:40):
Yeah, that's right.
And then Sunday morning is likeBible study focused type of
thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
So a lot of churches I do kind of want to talk about
the physical space a little bitmore because I feel like a lot
of churches that are the size ofLakeshore are not often able to
like have the flexibility withtheir space that you guys have
had and are not often able tolike set aside a spot and be
(31:09):
like yo this is junior high andhigh school this is a place that
they have an ownership of thisis a place where they can feel
comfortable.
Was that something I'm I justwant to know if that was
something that you likeinherited at Lake Shore.
And I know you grew up at atLakeshore too, right?
So maybe you remember a timewhen this wasn't true, but like
is that something that youinherited or is that something
(31:30):
that you had to like fight for alittle bit and be yeah
definitely inherited um we'vebeen blessed with that.
SPEAKER_00 (31:36):
You know the room the room would be used for some
other stuff once in a while orsomething like that.
But it never to where itinterferes with the way we can
set things up or um with meusing my space.
But luckily it's always beenlike that.
We've inherited it.
So and they've been pretty goodwith um letting me kind of do
what I want in here and you knowget let the students do things
and so as long as we don't burnthe building down.
(31:58):
Yeah there you go.
SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
Tito I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit is
there a way that you wouldencourage somebody who doesn't
have like a dedicated youthgroup space hey here's maybe a
way that you can because I feellike one of the benefits just
hearing you talk is you talkedabout like hey we're gonna clean
this room but then you get todecorate this room all your own
but they they feel a sense ofownership and I think that
(32:19):
there's there's just somethingto like your church home where
when you are there like when youreally feel a part of your
church like you're like this isan extent this is an extension
of my home.
Like I know the people here.
I want to take care of it.
I'm a part yeah and I want totake care of it.
I want to like I care or I havebuy-in like you mentioned
ownership I care about thisthing.
How would you encourage somebodywho'd like maybe they don't have
(32:41):
a dedicated youth space to likestill cultivate that a little
bit within the their students attheir church?
Yeah so trying to so like ifthey don't have a room like what
can they do instead of that orif you're yeah how would you how
would you help them still feellike they you know are a part of
the ownership in in the space intheir church.
SPEAKER_00 (33:03):
I think just I mean just letting them have even if
you don't have your own room Ifeel like when they have input
um whether it's what you knowone thing that I did to set up
this school year really well isat the end of last uh school
year I kind of did like a surveyof like what are some things you
want to learn, what are somethings you want to add what are
some things you want to takeaway um and they really enjoyed
that.
So I kind of gave them theirtime to do that.
No pressure was like you don'thave to put your name on if you
(33:25):
like this Wednesday night sucks.
I don't like the speaker whichis me like do do whatever you
want just I want to be able tobe here for you.
So I think when you do stufflike that, even if you don't
have a specific room if you feellike you're giving them um a
voice um where they feel likethey can add um something to the
youth group they really theyreally enjoy that.
SPEAKER_02 (33:44):
Yeah it's a good show is uh has there ever been
anything on there that likesurprised you that ended up
being like a really really goodidea it's like someone asked for
this and I was like oh dang Igotta actually do that.
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (33:56):
So I've recently just started doing it like the
last two years.
Nothing crazy it has been greatthough like it's it's definitely
set up this school year umreally well.
But yeah surprisingly especiallywith some of the students I have
nothing crazy or nothing evennegative like nothing even too
negative.
Even when they were being alittle negative they're like no
we still like it but this couldbe better or this and that.
SPEAKER_03 (34:16):
So that's fine it's been it's like they're at you
gave them agency and they'regiving you like actual good
feedback.
Yeah it yeah it's like so it's Iinterested you with this and you
came through.
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (34:27):
But also like sometimes it's not even like I'm
thinking about every year ourboss Jason French president of
this organization sits down withevery single employee here and
it's like just ask him hey howis working here you know and he
wants to hear from all of usabout that.
(34:47):
And I very rarely go in theremaybe never have gone in there
with anything like a major thatI'm like this has to change
right now or I'm gonna comeunglued.
You know what I mean?
But you go in there and you'relike hey it would be nice if
whatever this kind of thing orwhatever.
But it's not even it's not eventhat like I'm kind of
(35:10):
manipulating myself a little bithere but it's not even that he's
like taking my feedback andimplementing it.
It's just that like hey thepresident of this organization
is making time to hear what Ihave to say.
Like there's something justdifferent about the psychology
of that that I think is alsoreally important for students
(35:30):
where it's like they don't wantto go to another place where
they like walk into a classroomand it's set up exactly how the
teacher wants it to be set upand they go home and they have
to keep their room clean andwhatever and can't paint the
walls the color that they wantto paint the walls because
they're painting you know thosekinds of things but like just
saying like hey you can havesome input in this whether or
(35:52):
not the input is actually eventhat you know earth shattering
is still just like a really goodthing I feel like I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (36:02):
Yeah.
And like you said, you knowwe're not always gonna do what
they what they ask but it doeshelp to listen.
And then when you do somethingthat they maybe put on the list
I mean that's super impactful.
They're like oh I I gave thatsuggestion.
Like they listen it's not justanother oh just write something
down it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03 (36:18):
Yeah but yeah I I I love it because it's like
whether you have a space whetheryou don't if you one of the
things to at least consider islike if you give your students
agency you give them ownershipof whatever it is we are doing
as a church meeting at this timeor this time in this space or
this space if I if I can offerthat then they feel a part of it
(36:39):
and that is a win.
SPEAKER_02 (36:41):
Well and that can help really cut down on some of
the like consumerism that yousee with like youth ministry too
where it's like I go to thischurch because they put on a
program that I really like.
I go to this church because Ienjoy being here on a Wednesday
night.
And it it becomes less aboutlike what they're offering you
(37:02):
and just more about hey what amI contributing to this place?
What am I how am I making thisinto a place not only that I
would want to be but that Iwould feel comfortable you know
inviting my my friends and myfamily to um it's just a really
cool thing.
Uh I feel I sidetracked myselfand I've got to think of the
question that I was going to askmy brain hurts.
(37:26):
I'm gonna be so honest with youguys I have a massive headache
today.
Okay.
Let's uh talk really quick justabout um kind of your dreams for
this uh I I know um you'retalking about how like the
physical space I kind of want toset that aside for a second I
feel like we've had a chance toto talk about that quite a bit
(37:48):
but um talk more about kind ofthe the spiritual space that you
uh create for students and umyou value like intentional
programming obviously you haveprogramming that is just for
middle school you haveprogramming that is just for
high school even the programmingthat you have that is for middle
school and high school togetheryou're splitting up into the uh
(38:08):
small groups that are basedbased on age and uh and gender
and whatever else so um I justwant to know like how when you
look down the road it's like howdo I want to continue to lean
into this idea that I'm creatingspaces that are intentionally
like for these students.
SPEAKER_00 (38:28):
Yeah along with those you know space like the
intentional part when um firstthing I think about when you we
keep talking about like theintentional program, intentional
spaces whatever it is um is theadult leaders I bring with me.
That's kind of been my big umgoal that I have is because you
know one way I like to ministeris I think about how I was
impacted when I was in middleschool and high school.
(38:48):
And a big way of that was notonly my youth pastor but the
adult leaders that I had aroundme.
They just poured so much into mylife outside of a Wednesday and
Sunday.
So I try to do that.
If I can encourage my um adultleaders to go to a volleyball
game, to go to a soccer game, togo to all these things and make
it to where my ministry isbeyond the building beyond the
physical space and beyond aWednesday night and a Sunday
(39:09):
morning then you know that's awin.
They remember those moments.
I love my youth pastor but Ican't tell you a single sermon
that he did um when I was inmiddle school and high school
but I can tell you the count youknow countless stories and
memories um where they werethere for me where they were
born into me where they pickedme up because I didn't have a
ride to school or what thousandsof stories that I can share.
And they still stick with me tothis day.
(39:31):
So I'm trying to do that for ourstudents as well.
And that you know I can't dothat by myself.
So it's awesome to have thosegreat volunteers and adult
leaders with me to to be able tohelp me out in that end.
SPEAKER_02 (39:42):
Well yeah and and like all of those places that
you're asking them to go arealso places that are like
intentionally created for them.
It's like we're going to yourhigh school soccer game or we're
going to this show choir concertor whatever.
Show choir is such a big dealhere it's crazy.
(40:06):
So Lauren were you in show choirproducer Lauren not in show
choir fun fact.
But anyway like yeah thosespaces are intentionally
designed for students and Ithink not only um like that's an
interesting aspect of this iswe're not only inviting students
into a space that we've createdintentionally for them but also
the places that they kind ofnaturally find themselves that
(40:29):
we are willing to go into whichit's like what other reason
would there be for a 35 year oldman to go to a Web City high
school soccer game?
Not any great ones probably butthe fact that I like love these
kids and I'm willing to to goand do that or whatever.
SPEAKER_03 (40:44):
So yeah that's really neat man.
Yeah Tito I like that I mean youhit on something that or you
said this and it made me thinkwhere you're like the things
that I remember when I was astudent were not any of the
sermons that my youth pastorpreached but you know all these
other asides right it's likepicking me up those things.
And I was like just for a minuteit was like do I remember and I
(41:06):
was like no shot no shot do Iremember anything that my you I
mean may maybe one sermon Icould pick out you know of a
hundred or so but the thingsthat I do remember are like the
conversations at what we used tocall like fourth meal after
youth group.
And it's I feel like one of thethings you're t like touching on
is and you've you kind of saidthis earlier it's like not the
(41:28):
organization is bad but like weneed a little bit of unstructure
and that's kind of what theywant.
They want the comfortability tojust like let their hair down
and it's like sometimes in thoseunstructured moments where it's
like we're just getting a mealwe're doing that is like the
most intentional student spacethere can be when I'm meeting
them where they're at at theirgame, at their school having
(41:50):
having a small group over like Ifeel like you know those
volunteers that just like plugin and just jump right into like
I'm just a part of your lifelike I'll be at your things you
know really make a lot ofheadway in relationships I feel
like with students because it'slike I'm gonna enter into your
space that is maybe disorganizedand unstructured and not just
(42:12):
youth group.
So I I I like how much you'vehit on that aspect of like
sometimes this is just what itlooks like for us in our
ministry.
SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
Yeah I think um I think it is kind of an
interesting thing to think aboutlike when we talk about
integrating students into like abig church I drive myself crazy
every time I say it.
(42:44):
But integrating students kind ofinto that adult programming I
think what we're saying is heywe want you to know what it is
like to be a part of thiscongregation as a whole so that
when you get to the next phaseof life this is something that
feels familiar to you.
But within that there is a lotof structure like what we're
asking them to do is like heyyou're gonna go volunteer in
(43:06):
this kindergarten room andyou're gonna do this lesson plan
with this teacher and this kindof thing and then you're gonna
go to this service and it goesexactly like this and then you
know like there is a lot of ofrigidity to that that I don't
think is bad but I am intriguedby this idea that it's just like
hey when we have our own spacewe don't have to play by all
(43:32):
those rules we can just kind ofto use Logan's expression let
our hair down and and and diveinto this so um I'm I'm
wondering though you talk aboutonce a month we're doing this
we're inviting them into to bigchurch what has it been like for
you you've been here seven yearsnow what have you noticed with
(43:53):
your students coming out of yourprogram and kind of the ethos
the culture of the program thatyou have there and moving on to
that next phase of life movingon to trade school work to
college maybe they stay inAntioch maybe they go somewhere
else I don't know but like whatwhat how have you seen this kind
of like help prepare studentsfor whatever's next yeah I was
(44:16):
actually about that recently umit's gone it's gone okay it's
gone it's gone decent I've seena lot of students that when they
come back from college they aregoing into Sunday service
they're not trying to you know Iused to have at first some kids
are trying to linger back.
SPEAKER_00 (44:29):
I'm like no you are you're too old like go in there.
But now I feel like and that wasbefore we were going into the
services and stuff like that.
Now they are pretty familiarwith it.
They go in there and um onething that I do wish um is just
seeing more um you know just forthem to join life groups or
something like that afterwards.
And then I know this is probablyswitching the gear just um but
(44:50):
just the you know sometimes itdoes seem then it's like oh you
know I'm back into college I'llgo in here I'll listen to the
pastor for an hour um and thengo back to my to my day-to-day
life um so I've seen that's whyI say it's like 50-50.
It's like I'm glad that they arefamiliar with it and they're
comfortable with going goinginto Sunday service.
But what else can they joinafter that?
(45:12):
You know how can I get them intoa life group?
How can I get them moreconnected with people in the
congregation other than just youknow sitting down listening to
the pastor and going back homeor going back to college and
stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (45:22):
Some of that answered I can can we can we
answer some of those questionsthat you just asked there like
how how do you do that?
How do because like the flipside of this argument I think a
lot of that is like built inlike you're you're showing them
when they're in high school thisis what it looks like to
volunteer this is what it lookslike to go to service this is
(45:42):
how you would get plugged into asmall group so you're saying
like well we still want to makesure that all those things
happen how do we help studentswho have left our program make
that happen so I'm gonna turnthat question back on you if
that's okay and be like okay howhave you done that you know yeah
I think um once so how we saythat question one more time.
(46:04):
Yeah at the end of your the lastthing you said you were just
like kind of listing off thislist of questions like how do I
help students get plugged into asmall group how do I help
students get involved servinghow do I help them want to go to
to to big church like how so Iwant to answer those questions
(46:25):
is basically what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00 (46:26):
So oh yeah I got you so yeah just um just getting
them connected with just morepeople I guess it it really does
come down to connection becausesometimes we try to solve one
issue with like something else.
So sometimes we just like okayhow do we get kids to continue
going to um big church afterthey graduate and then our
answer sometimes is just makethem go and they'll get familiar
(46:49):
with it.
And you know but it's we have todo more than that.
We have to it all comes downjust like a Wednesday night and
Sunday morning program it allcomes down to connections.
So how can we you know get themconnected with people um just
that's my job.
That's my job that's my adultleader's job.
And one way of doing it is youknow what I bring up now is like
hey I'm telling you to to takeyou know your small group um
(47:13):
serious and I'm gonna show youhow and then I tell them about
my life group.
I tell them how I go to acertain life group on you know
every Thursday and how my lifegroup helps me out when I'm
down, if I'm sick, you know, ifI need prayers.
So I just try to you know showthem that I'm living the life
that I'm telling them to um todo.
So just leading by example Iguess long story short just
leading by example um also ifI'm seeing like a fellow student
(47:36):
that graduated he's coming inSunday but I don't see anything
else that's my job as well to gotalk to him.
Go be like hey are you you knowplugged in somewhere?
Sometimes we can just be like ohyou know they got it or I'm not
their youth pastor anymore and Iwant to smother them and it's
like no no no you're you knowthey're always going to be my
students um and it's alwaysgoing to be my responsibility
and other people in the churchto guide them to be like hey
join my join join my life uh mylife group join my Bible study
(47:59):
all these different things.
So being intentional again andjust not waiting for them to ask
but for me to go up to them andjust start that conversation.
SPEAKER_02 (48:08):
Yeah I think that's such an important reminder kind
of as we wrap up a little bithere that you know the
relationship aspect no matterwhere you fall on this spectrum
the relational piece isnon-negotiable and it's like I
think those relationships haveto develop no matter which side
(48:29):
of it you're on.
But the fact that you're sayinglike you have to be willing to I
don't know I think for a youthpastor it would be easy to be
like okay this kid graduated nowthey're no longer my
responsibility especially inbigger churches where it's like
a little bit more um systematicum at times um but saying like
(48:50):
no if if we're gonna have ageintentional programming for
junior high and high schoolstudents then when they get to
the next phase I have to do thework of like helping them figure
out what that next phase lookslike.
So I think that's a really coolthing.
Logan are we leaving anything onthe table before I wrap up here
(49:13):
you got anything in your brainthat you gotta get out if not
it's okay.
Hmm I just I w you know Ithought I'd give you one last
chance.
SPEAKER_03 (49:23):
Uh yeah I got one more thing I was thinking about
this was right so as a parentI've I've you know one of the
the big thing we're discussingis f is fighting that like line
of how do I get you know I wantmy daughter to be a part of the
programming that is going onspecifically for her at our
church.
(49:44):
However I don't want her to missout on like our collective
church gathering that I do feellike is important and I want and
I want her to like uh you know Ithink one of the things we can
get worried about at times islike that we haven't prepared a
student to like get to bigchurch you know we keep saying
(50:07):
it I'm just gonna say it youknow that we haven't that we
haven't prepared a student toget to big church right it's so
I'm like okay I feel like I'mI'm a live in the gray person on
a on a lot of different thingsand so like this is it feels
like it lives lives in the graylike how do we strike the
balance of they go to theirstuff because that's important
but they're also a part of bigchurch because that's important.
(50:27):
Yeah.
But like how, Tito do you talkto parents um about that like
about that line of you know it'simportant for them to be here
but it's also important for themto maybe be a part of big
church.
How do you address that withparents?
SPEAKER_00 (50:43):
Yeah um it's I love that we have two services um
sometimes the parents uh don'tlike this part but um just
saying hey you know firstservice come to you know if you
had a high school student comeyou know drop your kid off um
try to plug them into a studythat's going on as well Sunday
morning it's like hey theparents you can stay here um
with this Bible study that'sgoing on Sunday morning while
(51:04):
your student joins me and thensecond service as a family you
guys can go into um big churchtogether um because I've had
that happen before where they'vewanted to stay or um you know
they want to do that together.
They want to go in theretogether but they do want our
their students to be in thereand we've opened that up some of
them are like I'm not saying twoservices just you got me for one
hour and you better do the mostbut some but some do enjoy that
(51:27):
some do um especially when theyfeel like it and a lot of it
really does come down to thekid.
If you get that kid if you canshow like if I can get a kid to
come in here and see thatthere's gonna be other kids um
and set it up and they startsaying hey mom hey dad I want I
really want to go in there a lotof the times you know the parent
will make that sacrifice to touh allow their children to come
(51:47):
into the youth only um space butthen also stay for second
service or first however they doit um and go in as a family as
well so that's that's reallygreat you know it's one of those
things where it's like forparents it's like you you can
only give them tools you knowyou can't make a parent use
(52:13):
them.
SPEAKER_02 (52:13):
But it's not like you've created an environment
where you like actually trulycan have the best of both worlds
which is great.
SPEAKER_00 (52:19):
Yeah and just like you you said that purpose like I
that's all I can do.
It's like at the end of the dayif the parent really doesn't
want their kid to come in thereit's you know there's not much I
can do.
But I my job is to at least givethem the sort the resources to
have that.
And if not to like I'll try tosend out emails too it's like if
the student can't join becauseyou know the school year starts
people playing sports I try toat least give a breakdown of
(52:39):
like hey this is going to be thetopic we're going through here's
all the verses we're gonna gothrough here's this just to make
sure the parents have that so ifthey want to go over that with
the students um they can andthey'll they won't just be lost
that they're out two weeks andcome in for the third week of a
series uh so I try my best to toto give those resources to the
parents uh but that's all I cando.
SPEAKER_02 (52:58):
Yeah that's awesome man well uh Tito really
appreciate you being with usagain had you on uh had you on a
couple years ago it's fun tohave you back um thanks for
thanks for sharing with us manreally appreciate you no man
thank you for uh for having meso it's fun um love you guys
love everything you guys do anduh it's exciting so we we love
(53:20):
you Tito take away good to seeyou Tito you as well see you
guys before we go hold on I'mgathering supplies sorry this is
not good radio before we go it'stime to give Logan a chance to
hype up one of his favoriteyouth pastors by adding them to
(53:43):
our sweet little cork board hereso Logan I'm gonna give you this
pin and you can yeah it'll dosome damage um and you can you
can add your buddy I don't knowif it's a guy or a girl here and
tell us why you chose them.
SPEAKER_03 (53:58):
Okay I'm gonna add truly my good friend Alec Russo
I'm gonna pin him right up hereto the top nice good pinning I
didn't do the assignment was toprint a small picture.
SPEAKER_02 (54:15):
Eight and a half by eleven is smaller than other
pictures.
SPEAKER_03 (54:20):
Sure smaller than the poster I didn't yeah you
know it's taken up quite a bitof the corkboard but that's
okay.
SPEAKER_02 (54:26):
He's got he's got some good holy jeans on in this
picture.
SPEAKER_03 (54:28):
Yeah I picked it twice Alec's gonna he's gonna
roast me later because I pickeda picture from like 2019 and
he's gonna be like that was solong ago how dare you but I
loved the hand up like hand uppreaching photo.
So that there's a little insightinto why I picked the photo.
Uh Alec my good friend uh didjunior high ministry for uh a
while uh in the in the valleybut is now at a church plant uh
(54:52):
in Phoenix in the Valley umcalled Echoes Church um and so
they they uh he started thereI'm trying to think it was um
earlier this year um where hestarted full time so he's he is
over students junior high endhigh school there primarily
works with the high schoolstudents though and has a junior
high counterpart but is overboth um and just is living
(55:15):
church plant life and so whichis hard yeah which is hard but
um is is doing a killer jobloving on loving on students
there in the valley um at a at anew place and so wanted to shout
him out um alec is a a greatyouth pastor because he just has
such a welcoming personality uhmakes like every makes everybody
(55:36):
feel like their friend Idefinitely feel like I'm his
friend hope he would call me thesame um so we're gonna find the
relationship on the podcast uhare we friends Alec uh I think
we are no um alec uh I want toshout out he thinks he's good at
golf he's okay he's doing he'sdoing okay yeah he's doing his
best he's doing his best yeah some too Alec um but uh love that
(55:57):
guy love what he's doing inPhoenix at Echo's church so
we're gonna shout him out goodman shout out to Alec appreciate
you and the work that you weredoing in the Valley also special
thanks to Logan and to Tito forjoining me today.
SPEAKER_02 (56:12):
Today's episode was produced by Michael Hester,
Lauren Bryan and myself twoweeks from now we're gonna
finish this conversation we'regonna talk about big church
we're gonna talk about in in inintegrating I got through it
integrating students into adultspaces with our good friend
Jordan Francis.
He's great if you don't want tomiss that be sure to subscribe
(56:34):
wherever you listen to podcastswe'll see you next time
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