April 1, 2024 • 42 mins
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Tyler Lane is the NextGen Pastor at Valley Real Life Church in Spokane, Washington. With over 13 years of youth ministry experience, he has a lot of great things to say about the world of youth ministry. In this episode we will dive into the daunting, but so important task of equipping students to live a life of Kingdom Work!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, this is Brad Warren and you are listening to
Beyond the Event, a youthministry podcast presented by
Christ in Youth, where we helpyou maintain momentum between
the mountaintops Getting realclose to summer.
Guys, I want you to know we canstill get you plugged in at
Move.
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already registered, let me knowhow we can help make that happen
(00:33):
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Engage if you want to starthaving conversations about going
on Engage trips in 2025 yes,that is a real year in 2025 we
can start having thoseconversations right now too.
We love the church.
We love serving you guys.
So if there are any obstaclesthat we can help you overcome
(00:55):
when it comes to getting you toour events and on our trips,
please just let us know.
We really relish and lookforward to the chance to serve
you.
Can't wait for that to happenthis summer as well.
Well, on today's episode, wehave a great conversation
planned for you.
We're going to be talking toTyler Lane.
Tyler is the next generationteam lead at Valley Real Life
(01:17):
Church, which is in Spokane,washington.
It is pronounced Spokane I didlearn that today.
Washington it is pronouncedSpokane.
I did learn that today.
So Tyler's been at it for along time.
He's been at Valley Real Lifefor about seven years, been in
youth ministry for about 15.
So he's got a lot of greatwisdom and I'm really looking
(01:40):
forward to you hearing what hehas to say.
So let's head over to myconversation with Tyler.
Tyler, thank you so much forcoming and being on Beyond the
Event.
Glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I would imagine that um I always I people have yelled
at me for how I say the wordfor so long.
Say the city that you're inSpokane, spokane.
So I'm not allowed to saySpokane is the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, the E is unnecessary.
Okay, spokane, all right, tellme about Spokane, washington,
today never mad when we havewinters or we don't have a ton
of snow, yeah, um, so it's, it'sgonna get up to the 50s today.
Well, sunny, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Um, it's like the first time we've seen sun in a
few weeks, but so we're gonnalet that set the tone for this,
this podcast, and not okay, notjoplin world, okay, which?
So you're not from there.
Where are you from?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So I was born and raised in Oklahoma yeah, um,
still water Oklahoma and thenwent to Ozark and then went uh,
was a pastor at a church in theBay area of California for about
five years before moving uphere to Spokane seven years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
So tell me about Spokane, especially coming from,
you know, oklahoma, oklahoma,joplin, I feel like pretty
similar in line like culturewise.
Um yeah, What'd you have to getused to moving out, moving out
there?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, so, um, probably the most important part
of that journey, though, uh,for me was my five-year stop, uh
, in the Bay area of California.
Um, because there's there'svery few worlds that are as
different between, like, theJoplin Oklahoma world and the
Bay area, um, and so incrediblydiverse, incredibly fast paced,
incredibly expensive.
(03:59):
All of these things, some ofthe things we really like, some
of the things we prefer not tohave, yeah, and so when we moved
up to spokane, we really didn'tknow.
I didn't know anything about it.
I knew gonzaga was here andthat was it.
You know, like, um, I like youdidn't know how to pronounce it.
You know all those things andso, um, but what we've, what we
(04:19):
found, is it feels like thismesh of kind of the West Coast
influence, but still heavilyfamily-centric, and so most
people, when they think ofSpokane, I tell people I'm from
Washington, they think ofSeattle, or they think of
Northwest, they think ofPortland, you know that type of
(04:42):
stuff, and so the East side ofWashington is a completely
different world than the Westside of Washington, and so, uh,
incredibly family centric, um,much more conservative, um, and
uh, yeah, so, uh, you know,north Idaho is as conservative
as they get.
We're our church is 10 milesfrom the Washington Idaho border
(05:04):
and Seattle's as liberal as itgets and we're kind of like
right in the middle there, andso it's kind of the things we've
loved about growing up my wifeand I both grew up in Oklahoma,
the things we loved aboutOklahoma and the things that we
loved about living in California.
But they kind of mesh into kindof this nice little cozy town.
I describe Spokane as like thelargest small town.
(05:27):
There's 250,000 people thatlive in this area but man, it
feels like everybody knowseverybody and they have weird
customs and stuff like that.
So yeah, that's how I describeit.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So a lot of people who do ministry on the West
Coast describe like this like inthe Midwest we're very much
starting to deal with like apost-Christian kind of thing,
you know what I mean, where alot of parents and grandparents
that grew up in the church butare no longer involved in the
(05:59):
church or having kids thatreally have no memories of the
church but those oldergenerations kind of do, and I
feel like a lot of people that Italk to out in the West Coast
very much more unchurched is howthey would describe it.
So which of those worlds areyou living in?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Or is it kind of both ?
It's kind of both, I mean, Ithink.
I think at the core, both ofthem are de-churched in a lot of
ways, like it's just adependent on like how many
generations removed from thechurch experience, right.
Like most of the people that welike Spokane one is like
ethnically the least diverseplace I've ever lived.
It's like 98% white, includingMissouri.
(06:46):
Yeah, including shopping, and soum, yeah, so um.
But the diversity comes in.
There's a huge, uh like SlavicRussian population, uh, in
Spokane, because the climate isapparently the same, and so they
kind of come over and theydon't like Seattle, so they just
keep going, uh.
And so what I've learned inseven years is like Russian
(07:08):
people, ukrainian people, theyhave a deep religious heritage
and so that there are severalSlavic churches here, and so I
think that kind of allows forthat.
But then so you've got thatheritage, you've got the
de-churched, you know, just likeI'm just living kind of my own
life, I just want to do my ownthing.
(07:29):
Church is maybe a part of myfamily's history, but not
necessarily mine, and then theMormon church is huge here, huge
here, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I guess you're not that far from like the Salt Lake
area.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you just go, like Utah, straight up to Boise
Boise is huge in the Mormonpopulation and just kind of come
straight up there and so um.
So I would say honestly thatthat's one of the things like
every week at our youth group.
We have a handful of Mormonkids that'll come with their
friends or whatever, and so kindof informing like, hey man,
what are these differences, howare they, how are we similar but
(08:01):
how are we different in verykey ways and what do those
relationships look like?
Seems to be kind of a hot issue, but I would say most of the
people we're seeing their familyhistory has some type of church
background.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, it's just like how far back do you have to go
in order to get?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
there.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah.
So where has Valley Real Lifefound its kind of niche within
all of that Like, who are youseeing that you're having
success kind of reaching andresonating with there?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah.
So our kind of our big thingright now is just like if we
left the community, like if ourchurch shut down, would the
community even know we were hereand um, as we went into covid
uh, you know, several years agoI guess, like four years ago um,
that was kind of this sentimentthat we were like starting to
(08:56):
really have this conversationabout and it kind of led us
through covid, it's led us outof covid, um about like how can
we be intentional in thecommunity?
And so at the youth ministryside, for me it's like how do I
invest in my leaders to go be inthe community?
One of the things we foundsuccess with is we just like
rearranged some of our budgetand said, okay, man, schools
(09:19):
here, schools here were hitreally hard because of COVID,
and so and so, and can Iinterrupt you really quick, in
what way do you mean like, yeah,so we didn't.
When we shut down in march of2020, our students at like the
high school level and middleschool level did not go back in
(09:39):
person until April of 2021.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
My gosh.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Okay, yeah, so they did some varying levels of like
online whatever, but like Right.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But, the social consequences of that are just
like unreal.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Huge and like that's.
That's been one of our biggestchallenges coming out of COVID
is man.
A lot of these age groups lostan entire year of that social
development, that educationaldevelopment.
I talk with teachers a lot,talk with parents a lot of just
like man.
The classroom management is thehardest aspect coming out of
that, because for a year theycould just turn their camera off
(10:17):
and just say they werelistening, and as long as
they're turning their stuff in,that was fine.
And so now to come back and tryto manage, manage them.
We see that at our midweekprogram um, like our middle
schoolers are just like wildright now, like just wild and um
, but you're starting to learnman, like at a very key part of
their development, uh,developmental stages, it was
(10:39):
like interrupted and for anentire year press pause for a
year.
Sports didn't happen, yeah, likeour football season got moved
to May, like of 2021, you know,because that was the first time
they could gather.
And you know, my daughter wasin kindergarten when we went
into COVID and for her first twoyears of school so kindergarten
(10:59):
, which she did half online,which is not ideal and then all
the way through first grade shewas masked up in a class, right,
and so I think that just likedefinitely informs kind of now
what ministry looks like now.
And so we kind of came comingout of that in 2022.
We have a high school that'slike a mile and a half from our
(11:23):
building and we were like, howcan we just love the teachers,
love the faculty, show them thatwe're here, show them we care,
with no strings attached.
And so we just brought thembreakfast one day and to one of
their staff meetings and justsaid, hey, thank you, you know,
thank you for all you're doing.
We see you, god sees you keepgoing.
And then we have three, twoother high schools kind of in
(11:44):
the same, what we call theValley bigger high schools, and
so we were like, let's do it forthem too, let's figure it out.
And we've got teachers thatwork at a Montgomery church, and
so we did it.
So then the next year we wentfrom three high schools.
We added three middle schoolsto that that are closest to us,
and then last year we addedthree more schools, three more
(12:05):
high schools, to that, and sowe're just starting the process
of doing that again.
We're going to add three moreschools again this year, so one
of doing 12 schools kind of inour area of just like, hey,
here's some Panera bagels andsome coffee.
We love you guys, we're sothankful for the investment you
guys are making and we're herefor you and and so it's been
(12:29):
cool just to see I get textsfrom our teachers that go to
these schools and they're likeman, thank you so much.
I got to have a conversationwith my coworkers about where I
go and how proud I am.
That's cool.
So it starts to start some ofthose conversations and so just
trying to make it a presence andum, and being around and trying
to get um, uh, creative withhow we're kind of partnering
(12:51):
with the schools, even thoughyou know it's definitely
challenging, I actually thinkit's easier to get into schools
out here than it was when I was,uh, when I was at college
heights in joplin or you, youknow, working in Oklahoma, and I
think part of it is like the,the.
I think the idea is that it'sless open to to church, which
(13:13):
may be true, but it's more opento just everything, and so
because of that, it's likeeverybody gets a seat at the
table, yeah and um, and so it's.
It's kind of interesting.
So we spend a lot of time likeworking with students on how can
(13:38):
we start like Christian clubsat their school.
Yeah, and you know, it feelslike we have teachers in almost
every school.
So it's like how do we leveragethat, how do we reinforce them
and encourage them?
And that's been, honestly, oneof the funnest parts over the
last couple of years, and justlike what's been going on in our
ministry, is how do we kind ofshow up in these places that
(13:59):
people aren't expecting us toshow up in?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, no, that's incredible that you guys are
just serving in that way.
I mean, if someone brought me acinnamon crunch bagel from
Panera, it's like I would feelloved so.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I think you're doing a good thing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So how you kind of started to get into it.
But I want to peel back layers.
How has that like culture at uh, at Valley bled down into the
student ministry and and and howdoes that kind of impact the
way that you program and the waythat you minister to students
and that kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, so, um, I should probably explain kind of
the structure of our ministry alittle bit, because I think that
that affects it, so we have a.
We don't have any studentprogramming in our weekend
services.
We have four weekend servicesevery weekend.
We have a Thursday nightservice, um, and then we have
three Sunday morning servicesand we don't have any student
programming at that.
We push all of our students toserve on the weekend service and
(14:58):
attend church, right and so, um, which I love, it's, it's
awesome.
And then we have we have whatwe call midweek, like most
churches.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I feel like at this point, With no vowels, right, no
vowels, you better believe it.
No vowels, mdwk.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
And so on Wednesday nightthat's middle school and high
school and it's kind of likewhat we call our front door to
our ministry.
It's kind of a stereotypicalyouth group worship games, and
then we split middle school andhigh school for teaching and
then we have what we callconversation groups, kind of
(15:35):
just going over the message Okay, how do we continue what's
happening?
And then on Sunday nights wehave life groups.
Life groups is what our churchcalls them, right?
So small groups, life groups,community groups, whatever you
want to call it, but we have iton Sunday nights.
And for high school they meetin homes all across our valley.
They're separated by grade andgender, so we might have
(15:57):
multiple groups in a home, butall the senior guys hang out at
one house and have severalleaders and all that stuff.
And so our middle school haslife group at the same time, but
they meet at our church.
And so it's really cool just tosee, like, as we've gotten more
in the community and we'vestarted to like cast that vision
(16:18):
to our students, like it givesthem a place to bring their
friends right.
So, like every week we'reseeing, you know, somewhere
between five and 10 new studentsa week because their students
are bringing their friends.
And that's kind of the pressurewe put on our students to say
like, hey, my job is not to getyour friends here, my job is to
equip you with the resources andthe courage to bring your
(16:42):
friends here.
And that's going to be moreeffective anyway, like a random
person come off the street, maystick around, but if they come
with you they know they havesomebody safe and somebody close
.
And so that's been kind of thechallenge and then and then our
goal is like on Wednesday nights, how do we just create the
funnest, most intentionalenvironment we can?
And some weeks we do a good jobof that, some weeks we don't.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You know, and we've all had the youth group game.
That uh, that just falls flat alittle bit.
I get that no.
So I, I want to dig in onsomething that you just said,
though.
You said, um, that your job isto equip students to be able to
invite their friends, so let'sjust talk about what that
actually looks like.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, Like, how do you?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
how do do you?
What is it that you are givingto a student that gives them
confidence to be able to do that?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, so what we like to do is let our students help
plan what we're doing, and so,like Wednesday nights, our
worship is done 100% by studentsfrom eighth grade all the way
to senior.
And then like our hosting, likethe games and announcements and
stuff, those are done bystudents like 90% of the time.
It's really rare if me or mymiddle school lead Emma, um, uh,
(17:56):
does that, and so, um, she'sreally poured into our band,
she's poured into these likehosts to make sure that they're
bringing fun or whatever.
But then when they are on stage, like they're more likely to
invite somebody, you know causethey're like, hey, come see me,
right, I come have fun with this.
Uh and so uh.
And then just the relationalenvironment I is huge, that's a
(18:18):
big thing at our church talkingabout relational discipleship
all the time.
Uh and so, um, we, we make it.
We're like, hey, don't feel likeyou have to have all the
answers, you don't have to likewin somebody to jesus, just
invite them to what god's doingin your life and and so we
really try to focus on just likedeveloping their own faith and
(18:39):
developing what they're excitedabout and what Jesus is doing,
and making sure we haveintentional and relational
leaders that are pouring intothem and that are having fun
with them and challenging themand holding them accountable
Right.
And that's kind of thedevelopment and so much of it
for us is at the leader levelthat I found the more I invest
(18:59):
in my leaders, the more I havefun with my leaders, the more I
spend recruiting leaders andchallenging them and holding
them to it.
Then that kind of trickles downto their investment in the
students and when I do that weget to reach a lot more students
, because I can reach a certainnumber of leaders who can reach
a certain number of students andyou know it starts to work with
(19:21):
that.
So a lot of that is just likeliving like a like an
intentional life with ourstudents and being honest and so
and students want to be a partof that and I think that's why
for our high school students wehave like twice as many many
students high school studentsthat are a part of our life
groups then that come to ourweekly midweek program because
(19:44):
your life group ministry islarger than the, than the
midweek thing.
Yeah, okay, yeah, and that'sreally interesting, yeah yeah,
the crazy part is like we closeit, so like once it starts, we
don't add people throughout thesemester and we charge for it.
So we do a study Every year,we'll do a different study and
(20:04):
all that stuff.
We charge for it.
But they love the relationalenvironment, whereas you look at
our middle school ministry,it's actually flipped Two times,
maybe even three times, as manykids come to our midweek
program.
They love the big energy, theyloveweek program, they love the
big energy, they love the games,they love just like being there
and in our life groups ministry, like that's probably an area
(20:24):
where we're like how do we, howdo we do this better?
You know, like how do we getmiddle school students excited
about discipleship?
But at the core, I think whatour high school students are are
learning and and and modelingis just biblical community, you
know, and that's hey, it's notalways going to be a Bible study
.
Sometimes it's going to be fun,sometimes it's going to be this
.
You know there's a, there's abunch of different lenses.
(20:46):
We can look at what life groupslook like, but do they have
this community that they feelsafe with?
Do that they that they want tobe a part of?
And it's, it's honestly myfavorite thing that we do here,
um, and just the intentionality.
It requires so much of me toequip, equip my leaders, um,
because I'm not a part of any ofthem.
I I don't lead a life group, Ijust lead the leaders who are
(21:09):
leading life groups, and so weget together a couple of times a
year as a whole group and therest of it is, you know, lunches
and coffees and text messageconversations, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
So I'm interested in how so you said high school
ministry it's like maybe two toone, twice as many kids come to
the live groups as come to yourmidweek programming.
So what about the Sundaymorning serving thing?
(21:42):
How many kids do you think?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
you have activated and involved in what happens on
Sunday mornings.
Of our active students, I wouldsay probably like 40%.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
And then if you just took like the ones that and so
like on on Wednesday nights, Iwould say 30% of our students
who come on Wednesday nights,their families don't come to our
church.
Yeah, right, so so thatobviously skews that number,
right.
Like they haven't made.
They haven't made that jumpfrom Wednesday nights being this
fun place where they're at tolike like this is the church
(22:17):
that I call home, um and so, um,but yeah, like of our active
students, I would, I would guess, probably for like between kids
ministry, we've got a full cafe, um, our worship team is and
tech team is awesome about likeequipping, like I just had this
freshman guy, uh, who's beenrunning, uh, lights and slides
for me for like the last couplemonths, um, and he started
(22:39):
running lights and slides for mefor like the last couple of
months and he started runninglights and tech for our kids
ministry, our elementary class,and he was like, hey, I think,
like it came to me, he's like,hey, I want to.
I think Wednesday nights wouldbe like more of a challenge,
like I want to keep doing theSunday so it doesn't conflict,
but could I do this?
So I got him trained in and ourstudent ministry on Wednesday
meets in our main auditorium.
(22:59):
So it's one of my favoritethings.
It gets kids comfortable withthe main weekend stuff, right,
which is another kind of resultout of COVID.
And so then he went to our maintech guy and was like, hey, do
you think I could come shadowfor weekend services?
And this kid's like 14, youknow.
And our tech guy and was like,hey, do you think I could come
shadow for weekend services?
And this kid's like 14, youknow.
And our tech guy who just likeloves investing into the next
(23:23):
generation too, he was like,yeah, come shadow.
And so we got three services onSunday and so he was like, hey,
watch me during practice, watchme in the first service, and if
everything's going good, let'sjust have you jump on at 9, 30
and 11.
And uh, and so every serviceI'd see him.
He'd come down and get like youknow, go to the bathroom or
whatever, come down from kind ofour, our media booth.
And I'd be like, hey, man,how's it going?
(23:44):
he's like dude, this is awesome,you know, like he was just so
pumped, you know, and andstarting to really feel like
this is, uh, like this is a goodrole for him within the church,
and so, yeah, those are thethings that get me excited too,
just like seeing seeing them getexcited.
Or, you know, uh, students thatyou know like are 15, 16, 17,
getting getting involved in ourcafe and then it springs them
into like their first job atlike Washington's known for
(24:05):
having like way too many coffeestands, you know, and so, um,
there's no shortage of that, butthey get like work experience
while they're serving andhelping people and, um, it's
pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, so I think that a lot of youth pastors would
say that they would like to getto a place where a lot uh, as
like most youth pastors would belike man.
If 40% of my kids were servingon a Sunday morning, that would
be mind blowing, awesome,amazing.
I think an obstacle that a lotof people run into is getting
buy-in from all of thoseministry leaders.
That a lot of people run intois getting buy-in from all of
those ministry leaders.
(24:41):
So you talked about your techguy and how open he is to
training people up and allowingpeople to be a part of what
happens on Sunday morning.
Would you say you feel likeyou've had to do work in order
to get buy-in from other peoplein the building to let like
(25:02):
wacky high school students helpout in their ministries?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
I would say, by and large, no,because I inherited it.
You know, and the guys thatcame before me I think did a
really good job.
Our lead pastor believes in it.
You know, he's adamant,especially, like for our high
school ministry he's adamant andlike we're kind of it's one of
the things that drew me out herethat we don't have high school
(25:27):
ministry stuff during weekendservices so that they can come
and be a part of the church,like as they're preparing to
graduate, like that's a hugeaspect of that and so so I think
you know, from the top down,that's that's something that is
not just welcomed but almostexpected, right Like, it's a
conversation we have on aregular basis and one of the
things that, like our our leadguy talks about a lot is my job.
(25:50):
I mean, my title is the next genteam lead, but I'm hands-on in
high school ministry and so,like my job as a high school
pastor is not just to createthese programs for students but
to minister to all of the highschool students that we have in
our church, because there's adecent number of families and
high school students that cometo our church that don't come to
our program Right, like, andit's just part of it, and so how
(26:13):
do we connect to them?
And a lot of ways we can dothat because they're already
coming on Sunday mornings is toconnect through serving, to get
them serving in different places, and so I've been blessed here
that that's just something that,by and large, people have
bought into.
But I think there's a coupleareas where we've really worked.
(26:34):
My approach has been okay.
I just want to build arelationship with that lead Um,
and then it's like one or twostudents that I think would be
great at at serving on theirteam and like let's trial run it
, you know, and then use thosestudents to like prove that, hey
(26:55):
, high school students,sometimes middle school students
, can do this and can do thispretty well.
Um and um no pressure, right?
Yeah, yeah, and so mess up Umyeah, and I think, um, I think
when I first got here, like ourworship team was kind of at that
place where they had had somelike um, just typical teenagers
(27:17):
be a part of the team and sothey show up late or they, you
know, they couldn't get a rideor whatever.
So they kind of had made it morechallenging for a for a high
school student to come and be apart of it, and and so at first
I was like man, I was frustratedby that and and really I just
started to focus on okay, let'sjust build a relationship, let's
build a trust.
We didn't have a high schoolband at all at the time and so I
(27:42):
said let's build that up, let'sgive them a place where they
can serve first and they can getreally good at it, and then I
can be like hey, look, they'redoing awesome, what about over
here?
And start to slide in, and sowe've seen that grow.
That's an area where I feellike we've seen some investment
and, um, and we've seen somefruit come from that.
Uh, and it's kind of createdthis culture of of worship in
(28:05):
our, in our church, in our, inour student ministry.
Uh, that didn't really exist,uh, seven years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, that's awesome.
So love that.
You feel like you walked into aculture where that was going to
be expected and that kind ofthing that's really cool.
So is there any?
so, honestly, valley Real Lifesounds like the dream gig, you
(28:33):
know, it's like the whole churchis on board with making sure
that we're raising up disciplesin high school ministry, all
these kinds of things.
So so that all the people whoare listening to this don't get
disillusioned and and tune out,let's talk about something.
Where is an area where you'retrying to, or feeling like you
are having to fight to, instill,like a culture that you believe
(28:56):
is is going to be necessary forthe overall health of the
student ministry, like what's,what's an obstacle you're
running up against?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, that's great.
Uh, great question.
Uh, I definitely don't want topaint any pictures that like uh,
I mean I love where I work, butit's it's, it's, it's tough,
you know too, right, like everychurch everywhere is, and the
messes and all this stuff.
You know too right, like everychurch everywhere is and, yeah,
the messes and all this stuff.
You know, I think for me one ofthe things um that is is kind
of student leadership.
(29:24):
Um, we've done it well incertain seasons.
Um, I don't feel like we'redoing really well in it right
now.
Um, I'm just creating like,okay, how do we provide another
level?
We have some students who arestepping up but, like man, how
do we give them more and moreownership of this ministry?
I think student ministry islike the first ministry that's
for them and can be done by them.
Um and so, um, so I want togive them more, but that takes a
(29:48):
lot of time and a lot of energy.
Um, that, um, I don't alwayshave um or don't prioritize Um,
so I think that's part of it.
And then I think, like with alot of them, like I mentioned,
like we're having new kids comeall the time, like on Wednesday
nights, but our numbers are notgrowing at the same rate of like
our new kids coming Right andso kind of.
(30:09):
Like church attendance, you knowthey say uh, in in the Western
half of the United States theysay the average church attendee
um is like 1.2 times a month.
Um and so, uh, we see that alot on our Wednesday nights.
Um, when I was growing up inoklahoma, like wednesdays was
kind of a sacred day, yeah, um,like, we didn't get homework on
wednesdays, we didn't havesports on wednesdays um, there's
(30:30):
no sacred day here.
That's probably true for mostplaces in america now, I would
guess.
But, um and so, just fightingagainst, like, but trying not to
see it as fighting againstschools and activities, but we
were, we are, fighting for theirattention, fighting for their
time and um, and so we'll getkids that'll come occasionally,
you know, but like, trying tocreate that buy-in and um, and
(30:53):
we see that at camps we're ableto do, you know, bring way more
to camps than we do on a weeklybasis.
Um, because camp is like thatone thing and we've created a
culture of camps.
Um, you know, thanks to CIY,that helps a ton with that.
But and so, but it's like, okay, but come and be a part of this
(31:14):
every week.
Like, how do we all year we cando these things, we can build
these relationships?
The core of this is not theevent but but the relationship
and and and these likeconnections that we're we're
building.
So how do we bridge that?
So I think that just as wide asour front door is in our
ministry right now, I feel likeour back door is just as wide
(31:36):
open and so kids are kind ofwalking through the house and
walking right out and so justthat follow-up and that
intentionality and kind ofkeeping them around and to where
they can really grow isprobably our biggest challenge
right now.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, and I remember talking to somebody I don't even
remember who it was who waskind of talking about the
dynamic that you mentioned,where kids you know the average
church attendee comes 1.2 timesa month or whatever.
So then, if I'm doing my mathright, if you need to say
something that you want everyoneto hear, you have to say it
(32:15):
four weeks in a row, right?
You got to really pound it homein order to make sure that
you're.
So having any kind of momentumthrough, like a series in youth
ministry or any kind of thing,is becomes difficult.
But, um, have you?
So you said you have a lot morekids that that come to camp and
do that kind of thing.
(32:37):
Um, I'm sure you've given somethought to this and I'd love to
just kind of brainstorm with you, even though it sounds like
this is something you're goingto work on.
But have you given much thoughtto, okay, how can we capitalize
on that?
How can we bring some of themomentum?
I mean, we're getting ready toenter a season where it's insane
for me to realize this, butit's basically summer, right?
(33:00):
So we're getting ready to headoff to all these camps.
Kids are going to have a greattime, they're going to build
relational bonds.
They're going to feel closer toJesus.
What does bringing them downoff of that mountaintop look
like at Valley Real Life?
How do we capitalize on that?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, and I would say we try to really do that
through our life groups.
My goal every year is that weget a hundred percent of our
life group leaders at camp Umand we look at, we look, so we
go to move, we go to move, um,uh, in Oregon.
Um, at the end of July and welook at that as the beginning of
(33:38):
our school year.
Um, and so, you know, all thekids have moved up to their next
grades.
Um, I've tried to recruit, likeuh, I was just meeting with a
leader the other day who was aneighth grade leader or trying to
cast vision, like, hey, do youwant to move up with your girls?
You've been with them for threeyears.
Do you want to stay in middleschool?
Kind of go back down, likewhat's, what's that look like?
And uh, and I was just like man, you're going to see some fruit
(34:01):
, you know.
And she was like, okay, when doI need to make that decision?
I was like, well, I need toknow about camp by like May.
And and she was like, okay, youknow, cause?
I was like, if we can lock incamp, then we, we create this
momentum for the fall Right.
And so our big kind of likenext step at camp is get into a
life group, get into a lifegroup, get into life group.
We say all this time you'resaying that at move, like at
(34:25):
move.
So, like, our registration forlife groups for the fall open
the first day we are at camp,and so, um, we, we talk about,
because it's just easy like tobe like, hey, these groups that
you're having this, this bigtransformation, this can be that
group that you spend the restof the school year with, if you
guys are intentional, if you cankind of.
(34:46):
And so we'll send out a messageit's automated to parents
during that week that say hey,your kids are having a great
time at camp.
Why don't you help themcontinue this on by signing them
up for a life group right now?
So, while they're at camp,their parents are getting an
email to say, hey, come be apart of life groups.
And so we see that every yearand we do a winter camp in
(35:08):
February as well, so kind oflike the halfway point, and we
start our life groups in thespring after winter camp,
intentionally, so we can.
Okay, here's another campexperience, a completely
different experience than whatwe experienced at MOVE, because
it's at a camp, it's just ourgroup and it's more rustic and
those types of things, but kindof a two different experiences
(35:30):
hitting two different types ofpeople and kids and it's just
over a weekend, but we're stilllike the next step is the same.
Hey, come be a part of a lifegroup.
Carry this momentum on and itfeels like we make incremental,
like improvements with thatevery year and the
intentionality life groups.
Last summer didn't get hit ashard at summer camp at MOVE, but
that's mainly because I spentall of MOVE in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Right, I heard about that.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah.
Yeah, it was a good time, so myappendix decided it did not
want to stay in my body and so Igot to experience MOVE
secondhand from the hospitalroom.
But so some of thoseintentionality and just those
details don't always happen, butit was a fun exercise to see.
You always ask that questionlike, hey, if the leader got hit
by a bus, how would this event,how would this go?
(36:16):
What does that look?
Speaker 1 (36:17):
like the leader did yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
So what happened and luckily we just have a great
team of leaders and a greatstaff team as well that just
said like, hey, it's not aboutTyler, he's never made this
about him, and so let's justkeep going and let's make this
happen.
And largely, I don't think theyskipped a beat, so I love it.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, it's great that you're seeing the incremental
change though, because I think,from a buy-in perspective, the
more kids students, I should sayare able to see the fruit in
their own lives of that type ofministry, the more they are
going to vouch for it to thepeople around them and the more
(37:00):
their commitment is going toincrease for the following year,
more their commitment is goingto increase for the following
year.
So it's like man, we just hopethat every year we see some
progress and then, maybe, youknow, another eight years from
now, we're sitting down talkingabout, um, how this is like a
super, super strong aspect ofthe ministry that you have such
high involvement in that.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
So I hope so.
Yeah, that's the hope.
Right Like, yeah, I think, justin ministry like I've done
student ministry for 16 yearsright, like, and it's awesome
when you get droves of kids thatcome, or you like see this, but
like most of youth ministry islike incremental, you know, like
you see, just like a couplekids like the light bulb clicks,
(37:40):
or a couple kids are decided togive their life to jesus, or a
couple kids are like jumpinginto understanding what kingdom
work looks like, or they'rechoosing to go into ministry,
like in my experience, thathasn't come in like droves or
these waves as much as um, itjust you got to put the
relational effort and energy andbeing intentional relationally,
whether that's leaders orstudents, it's a combination of
(38:02):
both, right, um, depending onyour context.
And and I've got, I've been atsmall churches, I've been at
larger churches and yet theapproach can stay the same and
it just yeah, it's, it'sincremental.
You know that's the word thatkeeps coming back to me.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
It's being faithful through a lot of the like two
steps forward, one step back,kind of stuff Like all right we
can you know.
But a lot of youth pastors doput a lot of pressure on an
event or a you know call toaction or a particular sermon or
series.
It's like okay, I'm reallyexcited about this.
(38:39):
Maybe this is going to be thething that builds some momentum,
but it takes a long time.
It takes a long time.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, so you've been there.
I mean, we drive hard.
Yeah, yeah, seven years I'vebeen here, um, and yeah, and
yeah, we're just like let's justkeep building, let's keep
creating this momentum.
And what does that look like?
And as people kind of come andgo, and you know, like in seven
years, I've now seen an entiregroup from sixth grade all the
(39:07):
way through, you know, highschool, you know, go through,
and it's a completely differentgroup and culture than when I
first got here, because the kidschange it right.
I think that's one of thethings I love most and
frustrates me the most aboutstudent ministry.
Right, like in high schoolministry, like literally, it's a
completely new ship every fouryears.
There's no, there's noretaining, you know, like it's
(39:29):
just constantly kind of changingand flowing and you gotta, you
know, stay intentional with thatUm, and it's the thing that
makes my hair continue to recedeand it's the thing that gives
me life too, you know things canbe two things right, as Lane
Moss always says.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So well, Tyler, I really appreciate you taking
some time to chat with me today.
A lot of really great stuff tochew on, so, um, you're, you're,
you're awesome.
Appreciate it.
Keep up the good work out there, man.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Brad man, I appreciate that, the invitation
and, uh, just so thankful forfor the work that you guys are
doing and what you allow us todo through CIY and through
summer conferences and thingslike that.
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, it's an honor, man.
Thank you, man.
What a great conversation.
So so thankful for Tyler andfor the reminder that you know
it's not our job to build thesesuper big attractional programs,
(40:31):
that if you build it they willcome students so that they are
comfortable sharing the gospelwith their friends and they're
comfortable bringing theirfriends to be a part of what the
(40:52):
Father is doing through theirlocal churches.
So I'm grateful for thatreminder.
I hope that you take thatreminder to heart and that it is
able to be a blessing to yourministry.
Speaking of blessing, how's that?
For a segue, I'm going to closeus out today by reading our
blessing over you, our wonderfullisteners.
May God show you grace andbless you.
(41:15):
May he make his face shine onyou.
May you experience the love ofChrist, through whom God gives
you fullness of life.
May you be strengthened by hispower.
May Christ himself make hishome in your heart, that you
would be full of his love andgrace and that those you serve
would see Jesus in you.
(41:37):
Today's episode was produced byMichael Hester, lauren Bryan and
myself.
Thank you so, so, so, so, somuch to Tyler for being with us
today all the way from Spokane,washington, thanks to the power
of technology and, of course,thank you for listening.
Thanks for being with us today.
If you liked what you heard,please be sure to subscribe to
(41:59):
Beyond the Event, wherever youlisten to podcasts.
We're going to be back in acouple weeks, but you can feel
free to connect with us in themeantime by reaching out to us
on the CIY Community Facebookgroup or by email at
podcastciycom.
See you next time, thank you.
Hello, this is Brad Warren and you are listening to
Beyond the Event, a youthministry podcast presented by
Christ in Youth, where we helpyou maintain momentum between
the mountaintops Getting realclose to summer.
Guys, I want you to know we canstill get you plugged in at
Move.
We can still get you plugged inat Mix, so if you're not
already registered, let me knowhow we can help make that happen
(00:33):
.
Engage if you want to starthaving conversations about going
on Engage trips in 2025 yes,that is a real year in 2025 we
can start having thoseconversations right now too.
We love the church.
We love serving you guys.
So if there are any obstaclesthat we can help you overcome
(00:55):
when it comes to getting you toour events and on our trips,
please just let us know.
We really relish and lookforward to the chance to serve
you.
Can't wait for that to happenthis summer as well.
Well, on today's episode, wehave a great conversation
planned for you.
We're going to be talking toTyler Lane.
Tyler is the next generationteam lead at Valley Real Life
(01:17):
Church, which is in Spokane,washington.
It is pronounced Spokane I didlearn that today.
Washington it is pronouncedSpokane.
I did learn that today.
So Tyler's been at it for along time.
He's been at Valley Real Lifefor about seven years, been in
youth ministry for about 15.
So he's got a lot of greatwisdom and I'm really looking
(01:40):
forward to you hearing what hehas to say.
So let's head over to myconversation with Tyler.
Tyler, thank you so much forcoming and being on Beyond the
Event.
Glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I would imagine that um I always I people have yelled
at me for how I say the wordfor so long.
Say the city that you're inSpokane, spokane.
So I'm not allowed to saySpokane is the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, the E is unnecessary.
Okay, spokane, all right, tellme about Spokane, washington,
today never mad when we havewinters or we don't have a ton
of snow, yeah, um, so it's, it'sgonna get up to the 50s today.
Well, sunny, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Um, it's like the first time we've seen sun in a
few weeks, but so we're gonnalet that set the tone for this,
this podcast, and not okay, notjoplin world, okay, which?
So you're not from there.
Where are you from?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So I was born and raised in Oklahoma yeah, um,
still water Oklahoma and thenwent to Ozark and then went uh,
was a pastor at a church in theBay area of California for about
five years before moving uphere to Spokane seven years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
So tell me about Spokane, especially coming from,
you know, oklahoma, oklahoma,joplin, I feel like pretty
similar in line like culturewise.
Um yeah, What'd you have to getused to moving out, moving out
there?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, so, um, probably the most important part
of that journey, though, uh,for me was my five-year stop, uh
, in the Bay area of California.
Um, because there's there'svery few worlds that are as
different between, like, theJoplin Oklahoma world and the
Bay area, um, and so incrediblydiverse, incredibly fast paced,
incredibly expensive.
(03:59):
All of these things, some ofthe things we really like, some
of the things we prefer not tohave, yeah, and so when we moved
up to spokane, we really didn'tknow.
I didn't know anything about it.
I knew gonzaga was here andthat was it.
You know, like, um, I like youdidn't know how to pronounce it.
You know all those things andso, um, but what we've, what we
(04:19):
found, is it feels like thismesh of kind of the West Coast
influence, but still heavilyfamily-centric, and so most
people, when they think ofSpokane, I tell people I'm from
Washington, they think ofSeattle, or they think of
Northwest, they think ofPortland, you know that type of
(04:42):
stuff, and so the East side ofWashington is a completely
different world than the Westside of Washington, and so, uh,
incredibly family centric, um,much more conservative, um, and
uh, yeah, so, uh, you know,north Idaho is as conservative
as they get.
We're our church is 10 milesfrom the Washington Idaho border
(05:04):
and Seattle's as liberal as itgets and we're kind of like
right in the middle there, andso it's kind of the things we've
loved about growing up my wifeand I both grew up in Oklahoma,
the things we loved aboutOklahoma and the things that we
loved about living in California.
But they kind of mesh into kindof this nice little cozy town.
I describe Spokane as like thelargest small town.
(05:27):
There's 250,000 people thatlive in this area but man, it
feels like everybody knowseverybody and they have weird
customs and stuff like that.
So yeah, that's how I describeit.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So a lot of people who do ministry on the West
Coast describe like this like inthe Midwest we're very much
starting to deal with like apost-Christian kind of thing,
you know what I mean, where alot of parents and grandparents
that grew up in the church butare no longer involved in the
(05:59):
church or having kids thatreally have no memories of the
church but those oldergenerations kind of do, and I
feel like a lot of people that Italk to out in the West Coast
very much more unchurched is howthey would describe it.
So which of those worlds areyou living in?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Or is it kind of both ?
It's kind of both, I mean, Ithink.
I think at the core, both ofthem are de-churched in a lot of
ways, like it's just adependent on like how many
generations removed from thechurch experience, right.
Like most of the people that welike Spokane one is like
ethnically the least diverseplace I've ever lived.
It's like 98% white, includingMissouri.
(06:46):
Yeah, including shopping, and soum, yeah, so um.
But the diversity comes in.
There's a huge, uh like SlavicRussian population, uh, in
Spokane, because the climate isapparently the same, and so they
kind of come over and theydon't like Seattle, so they just
keep going, uh.
And so what I've learned inseven years is like Russian
(07:08):
people, ukrainian people, theyhave a deep religious heritage
and so that there are severalSlavic churches here, and so I
think that kind of allows forthat.
But then so you've got thatheritage, you've got the
de-churched, you know, just likeI'm just living kind of my own
life, I just want to do my ownthing.
(07:29):
Church is maybe a part of myfamily's history, but not
necessarily mine, and then theMormon church is huge here, huge
here, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I guess you're not that far from like the Salt Lake
area.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you just go, like Utah, straight up to Boise
Boise is huge in the Mormonpopulation and just kind of come
straight up there and so um.
So I would say honestly thatthat's one of the things like
every week at our youth group.
We have a handful of Mormonkids that'll come with their
friends or whatever, and so kindof informing like, hey man,
what are these differences, howare they, how are we similar but
(08:01):
how are we different in verykey ways and what do those
relationships look like?
Seems to be kind of a hot issue, but I would say most of the
people we're seeing their familyhistory has some type of church
background.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, it's just like how far back do you have to go
in order to get?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
there.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah.
So where has Valley Real Lifefound its kind of niche within
all of that Like, who are youseeing that you're having
success kind of reaching andresonating with there?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah.
So our kind of our big thingright now is just like if we
left the community, like if ourchurch shut down, would the
community even know we were hereand um, as we went into covid
uh, you know, several years agoI guess, like four years ago um,
that was kind of this sentimentthat we were like starting to
(08:56):
really have this conversationabout and it kind of led us
through covid, it's led us outof covid, um about like how can
we be intentional in thecommunity?
And so at the youth ministryside, for me it's like how do I
invest in my leaders to go be inthe community?
One of the things we foundsuccess with is we just like
rearranged some of our budgetand said, okay, man, schools
(09:19):
here, schools here were hitreally hard because of COVID,
and so and so, and can Iinterrupt you really quick, in
what way do you mean like, yeah,so we didn't.
When we shut down in march of2020, our students at like the
high school level and middleschool level did not go back in
(09:39):
person until April of 2021.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
My gosh.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Okay, yeah, so they did some varying levels of like
online whatever, but like Right.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But, the social consequences of that are just
like unreal.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Huge and like that's.
That's been one of our biggestchallenges coming out of COVID
is man.
A lot of these age groups lostan entire year of that social
development, that educationaldevelopment.
I talk with teachers a lot,talk with parents a lot of just
like man.
The classroom management is thehardest aspect coming out of
that, because for a year theycould just turn their camera off
(10:17):
and just say they werelistening, and as long as
they're turning their stuff in,that was fine.
And so now to come back and tryto manage, manage them.
We see that at our midweekprogram um, like our middle
schoolers are just like wildright now, like just wild and um
, but you're starting to learnman, like at a very key part of
their development, uh,developmental stages, it was
(10:39):
like interrupted and for anentire year press pause for a
year.
Sports didn't happen, yeah, likeour football season got moved
to May, like of 2021, you know,because that was the first time
they could gather.
And you know, my daughter wasin kindergarten when we went
into COVID and for her first twoyears of school so kindergarten
(10:59):
, which she did half online,which is not ideal and then all
the way through first grade shewas masked up in a class, right,
and so I think that just likedefinitely informs kind of now
what ministry looks like now.
And so we kind of came comingout of that in 2022.
We have a high school that'slike a mile and a half from our
(11:23):
building and we were like, howcan we just love the teachers,
love the faculty, show them thatwe're here, show them we care,
with no strings attached.
And so we just brought thembreakfast one day and to one of
their staff meetings and justsaid, hey, thank you, you know,
thank you for all you're doing.
We see you, god sees you keepgoing.
And then we have three, twoother high schools kind of in
(11:44):
the same, what we call theValley bigger high schools, and
so we were like, let's do it forthem too, let's figure it out.
And we've got teachers thatwork at a Montgomery church, and
so we did it.
So then the next year we wentfrom three high schools.
We added three middle schoolsto that that are closest to us,
and then last year we addedthree more schools, three more
(12:05):
high schools, to that, and sowe're just starting the process
of doing that again.
We're going to add three moreschools again this year, so one
of doing 12 schools kind of inour area of just like, hey,
here's some Panera bagels andsome coffee.
We love you guys, we're sothankful for the investment you
guys are making and we're herefor you and and so it's been
(12:29):
cool just to see I get textsfrom our teachers that go to
these schools and they're likeman, thank you so much.
I got to have a conversationwith my coworkers about where I
go and how proud I am.
That's cool.
So it starts to start some ofthose conversations and so just
trying to make it a presence andum, and being around and trying
to get um, uh, creative withhow we're kind of partnering
(12:51):
with the schools, even thoughyou know it's definitely
challenging, I actually thinkit's easier to get into schools
out here than it was when I was,uh, when I was at college
heights in joplin or you, youknow, working in Oklahoma, and I
think part of it is like the,the.
I think the idea is that it'sless open to to church, which
(13:13):
may be true, but it's more opento just everything, and so
because of that, it's likeeverybody gets a seat at the
table, yeah and um, and so it's.
It's kind of interesting.
So we spend a lot of time likeworking with students on how can
(13:38):
we start like Christian clubsat their school.
Yeah, and you know, it feelslike we have teachers in almost
every school.
So it's like how do we leveragethat, how do we reinforce them
and encourage them?
And that's been, honestly, oneof the funnest parts over the
last couple of years, and justlike what's been going on in our
ministry, is how do we kind ofshow up in these places that
(13:59):
people aren't expecting us toshow up in?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, no, that's incredible that you guys are
just serving in that way.
I mean, if someone brought me acinnamon crunch bagel from
Panera, it's like I would feelloved so.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I think you're doing a good thing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So how you kind of started to get into it.
But I want to peel back layers.
How has that like culture at uh, at Valley bled down into the
student ministry and and and howdoes that kind of impact the
way that you program and the waythat you minister to students
and that kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, so, um, I should probably explain kind of
the structure of our ministry alittle bit, because I think that
that affects it, so we have a.
We don't have any studentprogramming in our weekend
services.
We have four weekend servicesevery weekend.
We have a Thursday nightservice, um, and then we have
three Sunday morning servicesand we don't have any student
programming at that.
We push all of our students toserve on the weekend service and
(14:58):
attend church, right and so, um, which I love, it's, it's
awesome.
And then we have we have whatwe call midweek, like most
churches.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I feel like at this point, With no vowels, right, no
vowels, you better believe it.
No vowels, mdwk.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
And so on Wednesday nightthat's middle school and high
school and it's kind of likewhat we call our front door to
our ministry.
It's kind of a stereotypicalyouth group worship games, and
then we split middle school andhigh school for teaching and
then we have what we callconversation groups, kind of
(15:35):
just going over the message Okay, how do we continue what's
happening?
And then on Sunday nights wehave life groups.
Life groups is what our churchcalls them, right?
So small groups, life groups,community groups, whatever you
want to call it, but we have iton Sunday nights.
And for high school they meetin homes all across our valley.
They're separated by grade andgender, so we might have
(15:57):
multiple groups in a home, butall the senior guys hang out at
one house and have severalleaders and all that stuff.
And so our middle school haslife group at the same time, but
they meet at our church.
And so it's really cool just tosee, like, as we've gotten more
in the community and we'vestarted to like cast that vision
(16:18):
to our students, like it givesthem a place to bring their
friends right.
So, like every week we'reseeing, you know, somewhere
between five and 10 new studentsa week because their students
are bringing their friends.
And that's kind of the pressurewe put on our students to say
like, hey, my job is not to getyour friends here, my job is to
equip you with the resources andthe courage to bring your
(16:42):
friends here.
And that's going to be moreeffective anyway, like a random
person come off the street, maystick around, but if they come
with you they know they havesomebody safe and somebody close
.
And so that's been kind of thechallenge and then and then our
goal is like on Wednesday nights, how do we just create the
funnest, most intentionalenvironment we can?
And some weeks we do a good jobof that, some weeks we don't.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You know, and we've all had the youth group game.
That uh, that just falls flat alittle bit.
I get that no.
So I, I want to dig in onsomething that you just said,
though.
You said, um, that your job isto equip students to be able to
invite their friends, so let'sjust talk about what that
actually looks like.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, Like, how do you?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
how do do you?
What is it that you are givingto a student that gives them
confidence to be able to do that?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, so what we like to do is let our students help
plan what we're doing, and so,like Wednesday nights, our
worship is done 100% by studentsfrom eighth grade all the way
to senior.
And then like our hosting, likethe games and announcements and
stuff, those are done bystudents like 90% of the time.
It's really rare if me or mymiddle school lead Emma, um, uh,
(17:56):
does that, and so, um, she'sreally poured into our band,
she's poured into these likehosts to make sure that they're
bringing fun or whatever.
But then when they are on stage, like they're more likely to
invite somebody, you know causethey're like, hey, come see me,
right, I come have fun with this.
Uh and so uh.
And then just the relationalenvironment I is huge, that's a
(18:18):
big thing at our church talkingabout relational discipleship
all the time.
Uh and so, um, we, we make it.
We're like, hey, don't feel likeyou have to have all the
answers, you don't have to likewin somebody to jesus, just
invite them to what god's doingin your life and and so we
really try to focus on just likedeveloping their own faith and
(18:39):
developing what they're excitedabout and what Jesus is doing,
and making sure we haveintentional and relational
leaders that are pouring intothem and that are having fun
with them and challenging themand holding them accountable
Right.
And that's kind of thedevelopment and so much of it
for us is at the leader levelthat I found the more I invest
(18:59):
in my leaders, the more I havefun with my leaders, the more I
spend recruiting leaders andchallenging them and holding
them to it.
Then that kind of trickles downto their investment in the
students and when I do that weget to reach a lot more students
, because I can reach a certainnumber of leaders who can reach
a certain number of students andyou know it starts to work with
(19:21):
that.
So a lot of that is just likeliving like a like an
intentional life with ourstudents and being honest and so
and students want to be a partof that and I think that's why
for our high school students wehave like twice as many many
students high school studentsthat are a part of our life
groups then that come to ourweekly midweek program because
(19:44):
your life group ministry islarger than the, than the
midweek thing.
Yeah, okay, yeah, and that'sreally interesting, yeah yeah,
the crazy part is like we closeit, so like once it starts, we
don't add people throughout thesemester and we charge for it.
So we do a study Every year,we'll do a different study and
(20:04):
all that stuff.
We charge for it.
But they love the relationalenvironment, whereas you look at
our middle school ministry,it's actually flipped Two times,
maybe even three times, as manykids come to our midweek
program.
They love the big energy, theyloveweek program, they love the
big energy, they love the games,they love just like being there
and in our life groups ministry, like that's probably an area
(20:24):
where we're like how do we, howdo we do this better?
You know, like how do we getmiddle school students excited
about discipleship?
But at the core, I think whatour high school students are are
learning and and and modelingis just biblical community, you
know, and that's hey, it's notalways going to be a Bible study
.
Sometimes it's going to be fun,sometimes it's going to be this
.
You know there's a, there's abunch of different lenses.
(20:46):
We can look at what life groupslook like, but do they have
this community that they feelsafe with?
Do that they that they want tobe a part of?
And it's, it's honestly myfavorite thing that we do here,
um, and just the intentionality.
It requires so much of me toequip, equip my leaders, um,
because I'm not a part of any ofthem.
I I don't lead a life group, Ijust lead the leaders who are
(21:09):
leading life groups, and so weget together a couple of times a
year as a whole group and therest of it is, you know, lunches
and coffees and text messageconversations, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
So I'm interested in how so you said high school
ministry it's like maybe two toone, twice as many kids come to
the live groups as come to yourmidweek programming.
So what about the Sundaymorning serving thing?
(21:42):
How many kids do you think?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
you have activated and involved in what happens on
Sunday mornings.
Of our active students, I wouldsay probably like 40%.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
And then if you just took like the ones that and so
like on on Wednesday nights, Iwould say 30% of our students
who come on Wednesday nights,their families don't come to our
church.
Yeah, right, so so thatobviously skews that number,
right.
Like they haven't made.
They haven't made that jumpfrom Wednesday nights being this
fun place where they're at tolike like this is the church
(22:17):
that I call home, um and so, um,but yeah, like of our active
students, I would, I would guess, probably for like between kids
ministry, we've got a full cafe, um, our worship team is and
tech team is awesome about likeequipping, like I just had this
freshman guy, uh, who's beenrunning, uh, lights and slides
for me for like the last couplemonths, um, and he started
(22:39):
running lights and slides for mefor like the last couple of
months and he started runninglights and tech for our kids
ministry, our elementary class,and he was like, hey, I think,
like it came to me, he's like,hey, I want to.
I think Wednesday nights wouldbe like more of a challenge,
like I want to keep doing theSunday so it doesn't conflict,
but could I do this?
So I got him trained in and ourstudent ministry on Wednesday
meets in our main auditorium.
(22:59):
So it's one of my favoritethings.
It gets kids comfortable withthe main weekend stuff, right,
which is another kind of resultout of COVID.
And so then he went to our maintech guy and was like, hey, do
you think I could come shadowfor weekend services?
And this kid's like 14, youknow.
And our tech guy and was like,hey, do you think I could come
shadow for weekend services?
And this kid's like 14, youknow.
And our tech guy who just likeloves investing into the next
(23:23):
generation too, he was like,yeah, come shadow.
And so we got three services onSunday and so he was like, hey,
watch me during practice, watchme in the first service, and if
everything's going good, let'sjust have you jump on at 9, 30
and 11.
And uh, and so every serviceI'd see him.
He'd come down and get like youknow, go to the bathroom or
whatever, come down from kind ofour, our media booth.
And I'd be like, hey, man,how's it going?
(23:44):
he's like dude, this is awesome,you know, like he was just so
pumped, you know, and andstarting to really feel like
this is, uh, like this is a goodrole for him within the church,
and so, yeah, those are thethings that get me excited too,
just like seeing seeing them getexcited.
Or, you know, uh, students thatyou know like are 15, 16, 17,
getting getting involved in ourcafe and then it springs them
into like their first job atlike Washington's known for
(24:05):
having like way too many coffeestands, you know, and so, um,
there's no shortage of that, butthey get like work experience
while they're serving andhelping people and, um, it's
pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, so I think that a lot of youth pastors would
say that they would like to getto a place where a lot uh, as
like most youth pastors would belike man.
If 40% of my kids were servingon a Sunday morning, that would
be mind blowing, awesome,amazing.
I think an obstacle that a lotof people run into is getting
buy-in from all of thoseministry leaders.
That a lot of people run intois getting buy-in from all of
those ministry leaders.
(24:41):
So you talked about your techguy and how open he is to
training people up and allowingpeople to be a part of what
happens on Sunday morning.
Would you say you feel likeyou've had to do work in order
to get buy-in from other peoplein the building to let like
(25:02):
wacky high school students helpout in their ministries?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
I would say, by and large, no,because I inherited it.
You know, and the guys thatcame before me I think did a
really good job.
Our lead pastor believes in it.
You know, he's adamant,especially, like for our high
school ministry he's adamant andlike we're kind of it's one of
the things that drew me out herethat we don't have high school
(25:27):
ministry stuff during weekendservices so that they can come
and be a part of the church,like as they're preparing to
graduate, like that's a hugeaspect of that and so so I think
you know, from the top down,that's that's something that is
not just welcomed but almostexpected, right Like, it's a
conversation we have on aregular basis and one of the
things that, like our our leadguy talks about a lot is my job.
(25:50):
I mean, my title is the next genteam lead, but I'm hands-on in
high school ministry and so,like my job as a high school
pastor is not just to createthese programs for students but
to minister to all of the highschool students that we have in
our church, because there's adecent number of families and
high school students that cometo our church that don't come to
our program Right, like, andit's just part of it, and so how
(26:13):
do we connect to them?
And a lot of ways we can dothat because they're already
coming on Sunday mornings is toconnect through serving, to get
them serving in different places, and so I've been blessed here
that that's just something that,by and large, people have
bought into.
But I think there's a coupleareas where we've really worked.
(26:34):
My approach has been okay.
I just want to build arelationship with that lead Um,
and then it's like one or twostudents that I think would be
great at at serving on theirteam and like let's trial run it
, you know, and then use thosestudents to like prove that, hey
(26:55):
, high school students,sometimes middle school students
, can do this and can do thispretty well.
Um and um no pressure, right?
Yeah, yeah, and so mess up Umyeah, and I think, um, I think
when I first got here, like ourworship team was kind of at that
place where they had had somelike um, just typical teenagers
(27:17):
be a part of the team and sothey show up late or they, you
know, they couldn't get a rideor whatever.
So they kind of had made it morechallenging for a for a high
school student to come and be apart of it, and and so at first
I was like man, I was frustratedby that and and really I just
started to focus on okay, let'sjust build a relationship, let's
build a trust.
We didn't have a high schoolband at all at the time and so I
(27:42):
said let's build that up, let'sgive them a place where they
can serve first and they can getreally good at it, and then I
can be like hey, look, they'redoing awesome, what about over
here?
And start to slide in, and sowe've seen that grow.
That's an area where I feellike we've seen some investment
and, um, and we've seen somefruit come from that.
Uh, and it's kind of createdthis culture of of worship in
(28:05):
our, in our church, in our, inour student ministry.
Uh, that didn't really exist,uh, seven years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, that's awesome.
So love that.
You feel like you walked into aculture where that was going to
be expected and that kind ofthing that's really cool.
So is there any?
so, honestly, valley Real Lifesounds like the dream gig, you
(28:33):
know, it's like the whole churchis on board with making sure
that we're raising up disciplesin high school ministry, all
these kinds of things.
So so that all the people whoare listening to this don't get
disillusioned and and tune out,let's talk about something.
Where is an area where you'retrying to, or feeling like you
are having to fight to, instill,like a culture that you believe
(28:56):
is is going to be necessary forthe overall health of the
student ministry, like what's,what's an obstacle you're
running up against?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, that's great.
Uh, great question.
Uh, I definitely don't want topaint any pictures that like uh,
I mean I love where I work, butit's it's, it's, it's tough,
you know too, right, like everychurch everywhere is, and the
messes and all this stuff.
You know too right, like everychurch everywhere is and, yeah,
the messes and all this stuff.
You know, I think for me one ofthe things um that is is kind
of student leadership.
(29:24):
Um, we've done it well incertain seasons.
Um, I don't feel like we'redoing really well in it right
now.
Um, I'm just creating like,okay, how do we provide another
level?
We have some students who arestepping up but, like man, how
do we give them more and moreownership of this ministry?
I think student ministry islike the first ministry that's
for them and can be done by them.
Um and so, um, so I want togive them more, but that takes a
(29:48):
lot of time and a lot of energy.
Um, that, um, I don't alwayshave um or don't prioritize Um,
so I think that's part of it.
And then I think, like with alot of them, like I mentioned,
like we're having new kids comeall the time, like on Wednesday
nights, but our numbers are notgrowing at the same rate of like
our new kids coming Right andso kind of.
(30:09):
Like church attendance, you knowthey say uh, in in the Western
half of the United States theysay the average church attendee
um is like 1.2 times a month.
Um and so, uh, we see that alot on our Wednesday nights.
Um, when I was growing up inoklahoma, like wednesdays was
kind of a sacred day, yeah, um,like, we didn't get homework on
wednesdays, we didn't havesports on wednesdays um, there's
(30:30):
no sacred day here.
That's probably true for mostplaces in america now, I would
guess.
But, um and so, just fightingagainst, like, but trying not to
see it as fighting againstschools and activities, but we
were, we are, fighting for theirattention, fighting for their
time and um, and so we'll getkids that'll come occasionally,
you know, but like, trying tocreate that buy-in and um, and
(30:53):
we see that at camps we're ableto do, you know, bring way more
to camps than we do on a weeklybasis.
Um, because camp is like thatone thing and we've created a
culture of camps.
Um, you know, thanks to CIY,that helps a ton with that.
But and so, but it's like, okay, but come and be a part of this
(31:14):
every week.
Like, how do we all year we cando these things, we can build
these relationships?
The core of this is not theevent but but the relationship
and and and these likeconnections that we're we're
building.
So how do we bridge that?
So I think that just as wide asour front door is in our
ministry right now, I feel likeour back door is just as wide
(31:36):
open and so kids are kind ofwalking through the house and
walking right out and so justthat follow-up and that
intentionality and kind ofkeeping them around and to where
they can really grow isprobably our biggest challenge
right now.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, and I remember talking to somebody I don't even
remember who it was who waskind of talking about the
dynamic that you mentioned,where kids you know the average
church attendee comes 1.2 timesa month or whatever.
So then, if I'm doing my mathright, if you need to say
something that you want everyoneto hear, you have to say it
(32:15):
four weeks in a row, right?
You got to really pound it homein order to make sure that
you're.
So having any kind of momentumthrough, like a series in youth
ministry or any kind of thing,is becomes difficult.
But, um, have you?
So you said you have a lot morekids that that come to camp and
do that kind of thing.
(32:37):
Um, I'm sure you've given somethought to this and I'd love to
just kind of brainstorm with you, even though it sounds like
this is something you're goingto work on.
But have you given much thoughtto, okay, how can we capitalize
on that?
How can we bring some of themomentum?
I mean, we're getting ready toenter a season where it's insane
for me to realize this, butit's basically summer, right?
(33:00):
So we're getting ready to headoff to all these camps.
Kids are going to have a greattime, they're going to build
relational bonds.
They're going to feel closer toJesus.
What does bringing them downoff of that mountaintop look
like at Valley Real Life?
How do we capitalize on that?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, and I would say we try to really do that
through our life groups.
My goal every year is that weget a hundred percent of our
life group leaders at camp Umand we look at, we look, so we
go to move, we go to move, um,uh, in Oregon.
Um, at the end of July and welook at that as the beginning of
(33:38):
our school year.
Um, and so, you know, all thekids have moved up to their next
grades.
Um, I've tried to recruit, likeuh, I was just meeting with a
leader the other day who was aneighth grade leader or trying to
cast vision, like, hey, do youwant to move up with your girls?
You've been with them for threeyears.
Do you want to stay in middleschool?
Kind of go back down, likewhat's, what's that look like?
And uh, and I was just like man, you're going to see some fruit
(34:01):
, you know.
And she was like, okay, when doI need to make that decision?
I was like, well, I need toknow about camp by like May.
And and she was like, okay, youknow, cause?
I was like, if we can lock incamp, then we, we create this
momentum for the fall Right.
And so our big kind of likenext step at camp is get into a
life group, get into a lifegroup, get into life group.
We say all this time you'resaying that at move, like at
(34:25):
move.
So, like, our registration forlife groups for the fall open
the first day we are at camp,and so, um, we, we talk about,
because it's just easy like tobe like, hey, these groups that
you're having this, this bigtransformation, this can be that
group that you spend the restof the school year with, if you
guys are intentional, if you cankind of.
(34:46):
And so we'll send out a messageit's automated to parents
during that week that say hey,your kids are having a great
time at camp.
Why don't you help themcontinue this on by signing them
up for a life group right now?
So, while they're at camp,their parents are getting an
email to say, hey, come be apart of life groups.
And so we see that every yearand we do a winter camp in
(35:08):
February as well, so kind oflike the halfway point, and we
start our life groups in thespring after winter camp,
intentionally, so we can.
Okay, here's another campexperience, a completely
different experience than whatwe experienced at MOVE, because
it's at a camp, it's just ourgroup and it's more rustic and
those types of things, but kindof a two different experiences
(35:30):
hitting two different types ofpeople and kids and it's just
over a weekend, but we're stilllike the next step is the same.
Hey, come be a part of a lifegroup.
Carry this momentum on and itfeels like we make incremental,
like improvements with thatevery year and the
intentionality life groups.
Last summer didn't get hit ashard at summer camp at MOVE, but
that's mainly because I spentall of MOVE in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Right, I heard about that.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah.
Yeah, it was a good time, so myappendix decided it did not
want to stay in my body and so Igot to experience MOVE
secondhand from the hospitalroom.
But so some of thoseintentionality and just those
details don't always happen, butit was a fun exercise to see.
You always ask that questionlike, hey, if the leader got hit
by a bus, how would this event,how would this go?
(36:16):
What does that look?
Speaker 1 (36:17):
like the leader did yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
So what happened and luckily we just have a great
team of leaders and a greatstaff team as well that just
said like, hey, it's not aboutTyler, he's never made this
about him, and so let's justkeep going and let's make this
happen.
And largely, I don't think theyskipped a beat, so I love it.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, it's great that you're seeing the incremental
change though, because I think,from a buy-in perspective, the
more kids students, I should sayare able to see the fruit in
their own lives of that type ofministry, the more they are
going to vouch for it to thepeople around them and the more
(37:00):
their commitment is going toincrease for the following year,
more their commitment is goingto increase for the following
year.
So it's like man, we just hopethat every year we see some
progress and then, maybe, youknow, another eight years from
now, we're sitting down talkingabout, um, how this is like a
super, super strong aspect ofthe ministry that you have such
high involvement in that.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
So I hope so.
Yeah, that's the hope.
Right Like, yeah, I think, justin ministry like I've done
student ministry for 16 yearsright, like, and it's awesome
when you get droves of kids thatcome, or you like see this, but
like most of youth ministry islike incremental, you know, like
you see, just like a couplekids like the light bulb clicks,
(37:40):
or a couple kids are decided togive their life to jesus, or a
couple kids are like jumpinginto understanding what kingdom
work looks like, or they'rechoosing to go into ministry,
like in my experience, thathasn't come in like droves or
these waves as much as um, itjust you got to put the
relational effort and energy andbeing intentional relationally,
whether that's leaders orstudents, it's a combination of
(38:02):
both, right, um, depending onyour context.
And and I've got, I've been atsmall churches, I've been at
larger churches and yet theapproach can stay the same and
it just yeah, it's, it'sincremental.
You know that's the word thatkeeps coming back to me.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
It's being faithful through a lot of the like two
steps forward, one step back,kind of stuff Like all right we
can you know.
But a lot of youth pastors doput a lot of pressure on an
event or a you know call toaction or a particular sermon or
series.
It's like okay, I'm reallyexcited about this.
(38:39):
Maybe this is going to be thething that builds some momentum,
but it takes a long time.
It takes a long time.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, so you've been there.
I mean, we drive hard.
Yeah, yeah, seven years I'vebeen here, um, and yeah, and
yeah, we're just like let's justkeep building, let's keep
creating this momentum.
And what does that look like?
And as people kind of come andgo, and you know, like in seven
years, I've now seen an entiregroup from sixth grade all the
(39:07):
way through, you know, highschool, you know, go through,
and it's a completely differentgroup and culture than when I
first got here, because the kidschange it right.
I think that's one of thethings I love most and
frustrates me the most aboutstudent ministry.
Right, like in high schoolministry, like literally, it's a
completely new ship every fouryears.
There's no, there's noretaining, you know, like it's
(39:29):
just constantly kind of changingand flowing and you gotta, you
know, stay intentional with thatUm, and it's the thing that
makes my hair continue to recedeand it's the thing that gives
me life too, you know things canbe two things right, as Lane
Moss always says.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So well, Tyler, I really appreciate you taking
some time to chat with me today.
A lot of really great stuff tochew on, so, um, you're, you're,
you're awesome.
Appreciate it.
Keep up the good work out there, man.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Brad man, I appreciate that, the invitation
and, uh, just so thankful forfor the work that you guys are
doing and what you allow us todo through CIY and through
summer conferences and thingslike that.
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, it's an honor, man.
Thank you, man.
What a great conversation.
So so thankful for Tyler andfor the reminder that you know
it's not our job to build thesesuper big attractional programs,
(40:31):
that if you build it they willcome students so that they are
comfortable sharing the gospelwith their friends and they're
comfortable bringing theirfriends to be a part of what the
(40:52):
Father is doing through theirlocal churches.
So I'm grateful for thatreminder.
I hope that you take thatreminder to heart and that it is
able to be a blessing to yourministry.
Speaking of blessing, how's that?
For a segue, I'm going to closeus out today by reading our
blessing over you, our wonderfullisteners.
May God show you grace andbless you.
(41:15):
May he make his face shine onyou.
May you experience the love ofChrist, through whom God gives
you fullness of life.
May you be strengthened by hispower.
May Christ himself make hishome in your heart, that you
would be full of his love andgrace and that those you serve
would see Jesus in you.
(41:37):
Today's episode was produced byMichael Hester, lauren Bryan and
myself.
Thank you so, so, so, so, somuch to Tyler for being with us
today all the way from Spokane,washington, thanks to the power
of technology and, of course,thank you for listening.
Thanks for being with us today.
If you liked what you heard,please be sure to subscribe to
(41:59):
Beyond the Event, wherever youlisten to podcasts.
We're going to be back in acouple weeks, but you can feel
free to connect with us in themeantime by reaching out to us
on the CIY Community Facebookgroup or by email at
podcastciycom.
See you next time, thank you.
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