BTE4.01 Creating a Welcoming Environment for Unchurched Students with Joel Firebaugh and Caleb DeRoin

Mailbag questions or topic suggestions? Text us!

What does it take to spark a revival among junior high students? Join us as we kick off Season 4 of "Beyond the Event" and introduce our exciting new video format! We promise you'll laugh along with us as we share on-camera bloopers and reflect on an unforgettable summer filled with God's surprises. Our special guest, Joel Firebaugh, Next Gen Pastor at Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, shares his firsthand experiences of a low-key revival and the astounding number of baptisms from their CIY summer events. Caleb and Brad also discuss the thrill of registration for the upcoming 2025 events and the joy of witnessing so many transformations.

Curious about what makes a junior high small group successful? Chandler Key’s humorous question sets the stage as we tackle the concept of "wins" in youth ministry. Michael emphasizes the importance of celebrating small victories and simply being a presence in the lives of students. Joel adds his perspective from overseeing kids and student ministries, including a recent milestone of nearly 300 baptisms. Together, we highlight the creation of inclusive spaces for unchurched students at youth camps, sharing powerful stories of transformation and offering practical strategies to make church activities welcoming for all attendees.

Finally, we explore how to engage diverse groups within church settings and celebrate the success of camp events that welcomed unchurched participants without any issues. Caleb provides insights on fostering inclusive environments, and Joel talks about the collaborative efforts between Crossroads and CIY in creating impactful camp experiences. We delve into the significance of camps in the church’s ministry and share strategies to make these transformative experiences accessible to everyone. Wrapping up, we express our heartfelt appreciation to Joel for his invaluable contributions and Caleb for his co-hosting, reminding listeners to stay tuned for more exciting episodes.

Be sure to check out the new video version of this podcast on YouTube!

Want to connect with us? Here's how!

• www.ciy.com
• youtube.com/christinyouth
• @christinyouth on Instagram
• CIY Community Facebook Group
• Email us at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, do you need to clap?
Probably.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Beyond the Event, season 4, episode 1, take 1.
Hi, I'm Brad Warren.
This is Beyond the Event, ayouth ministry podcast presented
by Christ in Youth, where wehelp you maintain momentum
between the mountaintopschanging things up in season
four.
This is crazy.
I know you already noticedthose of you who are avid

(00:29):
listeners that the intro was alittle different.
I can't say you're listening toBeyond the Event anymore
because we now exist in videoland.
I don't know anything aboutthat, but the magic people are
making it happen.
So, anyway, that's a thing youcan do If you want to watch me

(00:52):
and realize how awkward my bodymovements are at times.
You can do that on the YouTube.
The YouTube.
There will be links in the shownotes where that can happen.
Anyway, caleb Deroyne is withme.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Hello, caleb, you've talked a lot about and I wish I
could make some jokes about yourweird body movements.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, I'm just so much more conscious about like I
talk with my hands a lot.
That'd be great.
I don't know what I'm going todo.
Talk with your hands, I don.
That'd be great.
I don't know what I'm gonna dotalk with you.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I don't I don't have any idea um just so badly want
to hold it like an influencer.
Let's talk about our marriage.
I'm not what.
That's just okay.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I don't know those um yeah, those are the things that
they talk about while they'reholding the mic.
Anyway, that's not what we'regonna talk about today.
As a matter of fact, we aregonna going to talk about youth
ministry.
We're back for the first timesince the summer.
By the way, caleb, before wejump into what we're talking
about today, registration isgetting ready to open for events

(01:54):
in 2025, which doesn't feellike a real year.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
I think that we say that every year.
I know, but 2025 is not real.
It's getting more with 24 or 23, like 2025.
I don't know it's, it justfeels wild to me question for
you did you think in 2020 wewould see 2025?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
no, no, I'm kidding, of course I.
I I knew we would be here.
We're back from covid andbetter than ever.
Why would you bring that up?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Know we're having a good time, you're like remember
that trauma we all sufferedtogether.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I think that's why I liked it, because we all got to
do it together.
I'm a galvanizer man.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
You are a galvanizer, and we all did it.
We all did the thing, okay,anyway, how was your summer,
dude?
It was so good.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
This summer was unbelievable in a number of
different ways, but I think thething that keeps coming back is
God is just unfathomable,unfathomable, unfathomable I
can't say it fast, unfathomable,I can't say it fast.

(03:07):
Uh, and every, every moment Itry to figure out well, this is
what he's gonna do.
He just like one ups it and soit's.
It's very cool, and I thinkthat's kind of the stories of
the summer and yeah, it was, itwas great how was yours?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
it was, it was really good.
Um, put a pin in that.
For a second words that youcan't say oh, no, unfathomable,
like.
See that one's pretty easy forme, hard for you.
One that I can't say is theword I've been out to slow way
down Intricate.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Intricate.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Intricate.
I always like if I use thatword in a sentence, I will say
intricate.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
And I don't know A, I will say intricate, and I don't
know A word that's hard foreveryone to say is
Worcestershire sauce, except forpeople who live in Worcester,
worcestershire, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Anyway, my summer was great.
I did a lot of things, but oneof my favorites is I got to
direct two mixes.
Yeah, you did, baby.
For those of you who don't knowCaleb Deroyan, by the way, he's
the director of Mix, he's theguy for Mix.
So got to go to Florida hangout with my people in Florida.
I got to go to Tennessee hangout with my people in Tennessee.
Mix was incredible this year.

(04:13):
It was amazing, I found myselfbeing constantly challenged by
the content myself Like thewhole time I was there both
weeks.
I was just like oh my goodness,this is so for me and I need to
just slow down.
I need to take a beat thewilderness experience

(04:34):
unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
It was so cool it was very cool.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, it was a different thing different.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
yeah, and I think, coming into the summer we had a
little bit of anxiety about it,but again, I'm fathomable.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I mean anytime you try something new, it's like are
we doing the right?
Thing, but the Lord went upthere.
Yeah, Like I don't know howthis is going to work.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
And then it turned into some people's favorite part
of their week, which is justastounding.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
He's so good Won't he do it, won't he do it?
Won't he do it?
Well, I mean, we're gettingready to talk to a guy today I'm
not gonna not gonna give toomuch away here, but talking to a
guy today who had their week ofof mix baptized.
How many people?

Speaker 1 (05:15):
like 170 170 people.
We are bringing in billy graham.
He's coming back, no but likevery like low key revival, yeah,
and it's like yeah For juniorhigh students For junior high
students Sixth, seventh andeighth graders.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's amazing.
It's so cool.
I'm so excited for us to get totalk to Joel a little bit later
.
Joel Fireball, next gen pastorat Crossroads Church in
Cincinnati.
I'm from that area my grandpa,no, no my grandpa legit says
cincinnata, cincinnata ohio.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I don't know I think that's where they lied and
they're like I could be ie, orlike all the pronunciations and,
phonetically speaking, I.
It's because of people fromcincinnata and because of people
from Missouri.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Missouri, miami, oklahoma, miami.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
It is Miami, it's not Miami.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Oklahoma.
It's spelled exactly like MiamiFlorida, but it's Miami
Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
And it's the premier Miami of the United States.
It definitely is Buffalo RunCasino.
Can we talk about casinos, here?
Nope, okay, cut it.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Time for you know what a lot's changed around here
.
We're on video um.
Caleb's gonna be in theinterview with me, which is like
a first.
He's gonna help me interviewjoel, which is so fun excited
for that conversation but onetime-honored tradition, caleb,
that we are not going to give upis the mailbag.
Yes, because I love the mailbag.
I love youth pastors' questions.

(06:45):
They're the best.
So, for the first time inseason four of Beyond the Event,
michael Hester, how are youdoing?
Hey guys, how was your?

Speaker 3 (06:54):
summer, my summer.
It was good and probably thelongest summer I think I've had.
Okay In terms of number ofevents, how many did you do?
I think I did nine.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Nine, that's nine, nine, nine nine.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
But you know what Highlight for this summer for me
.
In the middle of the summer Igot called to fill in emergency
for one of our audio guys whogot sick, so you just got to mix
I got to go run sound at a mixevent.
Oh, that's pretty cool and Ihaven't run sound at a CIY event
in a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
That's amazing, it was a blast.
You said emergency.
You know what it makes me thinkof?
No, that TikTok sound Emergencyemergency.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Paging Dr Pete.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Emergency emergency.
Look at my fit Emergency.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
All right, man, look at those weird body movements.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
We gonna cut so much of this?
Nope, no, we are not.
Uh, here's what I'll say.
Um, we can cut that.
I type with my index fingershere's what I'll say.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
It's time for the mailbag.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Michael, take it away , okay uh, we're gonna start off
pretty light.
We have a question from timgray oh my gosh and tim wants to
know what is your favorite typeof sauce to put on food?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
oh, spicy ketchup from whataburger.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Spicy ketchup from whataburger yeah so I think the
whataburger spicy ketchup is sogood, I think that it's the only
good thing like if I could getwhataburger spicy ketchup and
put it on mcdonald's fries.
Guess what?

Speaker 1 (08:25):
you can they sell it at Walmart okay great old tubs
of it I love it.
We always have to in our fridge.
I love it, eat it on everythingspaghetti, spicy ketchup,
that's not true, that's reallygross mine is.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
I've just discovered this sauce.
First of all, I love cane sauce.
I think that cane sauce is likeso good.
I don't like it's fine, butit's just like thousand island.
It's okay, all right, uh.
However, I will say thatchick-fil-a has a underutilized
sauce.
Not trickful, I'm not talkingabout chick-fil-a sauce, calm

(09:00):
down.
It is their sweet and spicysriracha sauce and it is so good
, what do you put it on?
Though literally anything salad.
Yeah, put it on my eggs in themorning do you really?
no, but I do put it on theirnuggets and their fries and it's
very good.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
I think we have to weigh what sauce is the best by
the amount of foods that you putit on I would put it on salad.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
I'm gonna be honest, I would put it on salad.
So like'm going to be honest, Iwould put it on salad, so like,
that's what like is a tier.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Is that how you would do it?
Would I put spicy ketchup onsalad?
Probably Okay.
Name a food, Michael.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
But you're saying that a sauce is considered the
best sauce because of how manydifferent things you can put it
on.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I think that's how we should, because this is
subjective.
Let's make it objective.
How many would you put it on?
Would you put what's yourfavorite sauce?

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Well, the sauce that I was going to talk about was,
um uh, the secret sauce that wejust had at our staff retreat.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's really inside ball language.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
there it was um, you're right, but like I loved
it.
I'm not a salad guy.
I like almost never get salads,but I had a salad at every meal
at our staff retreat that wejust came back from.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Full of secret sauce.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
And there and there was a secret sauce.
It just said Tom's secret sauceand I was like what is this?
And somebody said I think it'slike a vinaigrette and I said
nah, I'll try it.
It did not taste like avinaigrette, it was good, it was
very good.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
And it was sweet.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
I don't know how many things I would put it on.
It's not like I had very manyopportunities to put it on a lot
of different things.
That's true.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
What do you think Tim Gray would say to this question
?
Probably ketchup or ranch, justHeinz ketchup.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
So Tim Gray is one of those people Cookout sauce, he
would say cookout.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
He would 100% say cookout sauce.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
That I was going to come up with this big thing of
like Tim Gray is holy, which heis.
I love you, tim, but it's likesomething Chick-fil-A, because
they love Jesus too.
You got the doggone Whataburger.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Can I doggone Chick-fil-A for?

Speaker 1 (10:53):
a second.
You have 20 seconds, five outof 10.
It is just a fast foodrestaurant, but us Christians
really love it.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
One time Caleb and I went into a chick-fil-a and
ordered food and we were gettingit to go because we were on our
way back from an event and itstarted pouring down rain while
we were in there and our van wasparked pretty far away.
And so we get our food andwe're like all right, gotta get
home, let run, let's make abreak for it.
We get within 12 feet of thevan and both of the bottoms of

(11:29):
our bags just fall out frombeing wet and everything goes
all over the parking lot.
And you know what we did.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
We went through the drive-thru.
Baby, we went through thedrive-thru.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Got more Chick-fil-A, so that was a lot of work for
five out of 10 food.
All right.
What's the next question,michael?

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Okay, next question we have from Chandler key, and
Chandler wants to know what doyou consider a win in a junior
high small group setting?

Speaker 1 (11:55):
That's a great question.
I think I commented on that one.
That man this is a greatquestion.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
I have a group of eighth grade guys that I lead
Yep, so I do this.
I have small groups of juniorhigh boys and I consider it a
win if I go the entire smallgroup and I don't have to smell
a fart.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
That's a win.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's like that's a win.
I'm being dead serious and Iyeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
So here's the deal.
I think that's a win becausethat's middle school ministry,
junior high ministry.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh my gosh, You're not kidding.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Of, we get to see some of these students for a
while, right Fifth through 12th.
However, your church breaks itdown and sometimes a sixth,
seventh and eighth grade yearsare all about planting seeds and
creating trust.
And so, yeah, if your win isyou didn't smell a fart, that's
great, because the biggest winin a middle school, junior high

(12:52):
small group setting is thatyou're there.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, a hundred percent Is that you're setting?
Is that you're there?
Yeah, 100%, is that you're?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
present that you're there, that they know your name
and you know theirs and you knowwhat it could be tough sledding
for years.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
You're putting money in the bank, but you're putting
money in the bank.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
And that's the way I see it.
Personally, I get to see themountaintop experiences during
the summer, but the honest truthis cool.
We get to see that people putin real work, leave their real

(13:26):
works to come to middle schoolministry on Wednesday nights and
hoping they just don't smell afart.
They still did it Like theystill left.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
I'm going to tell you right now I don't have a lot of
wins.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
There's not a lot of small groups where I don't smell
a fart.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
You gotta, but I'm there.
So you're telling me that theyare wins, which is great, and
Christchurch has got to stopselling those taquitos.
They really do.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
That is so true.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
On that note, you want to talk to Joel.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Oh dude, I love this guy so much.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
He's so cute.
Let's make it happen.
Joel Firebaugh, how are youdoing today, today?

Speaker 4 (14:02):
8.5.
Where do we?

Speaker 2 (14:04):
find you Because.
I know that you are literallypigeonholing this recording into
just an insane week for you,geographically.
Where am I?
Schedule-wise, you know,mentally?

Speaker 4 (14:21):
where am?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
I Mentally?
Where are you Spiritually?

Speaker 4 (14:23):
where am I?
Yeah, but even though youdidn't ask geographically,
Cincinnati, Ohio yeah who dayMentally.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Who day For those not watching the video Joel rocking
the Bengals gear.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
That's right, that's right, so wait, what do you
think?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
I'm going to interrupt you.
Actually, I love it.
Already Is Water Bottle Gate.
Where are we at on this?

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Yeah, For those listening, this is very
important to student ministry.
It really is Joe Burrow.
He cost us a lot of money, theentire city.
We don't have running wateranymore because of his paycheck.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Your electricity is rationed, yes, rolling blackouts
.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
He hurt his hand last year and this first game he
picked up a water bottle.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
weird and everyone thinks his wrist is hurt and
he's like I just can't drink nowater, so where are you at on
that?
Yeah, I think his wrist is hurtand he's like I was just
getting a drink of water, sowhere are you at on that?

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, I think his wrist was hurting there.
Do I think it's broken or goingto be a big deal?
No, I think we'd know, but Ithink it was hurting a little
bit.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, which is a bummer, but he always starts
slow is what I've been tellingpeople.
Every year he's been with theteam.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
He's a slow starter.
He's been with the team.
He's a slow starter andeveryone listening.
We've had ministry years likethat.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
And we're back.
Anyway so what have you been upto this week?
What have you been doing?

Speaker 4 (15:49):
Yeah, so I am over 0 through 18 at our church, which
is a blast just kids andstudents.
So we were with our kids teamthis week on a retreat and then
yesterday evening it wasfantastic.
We've got people who've been onstaff a week.
One guy who's on staff negativethree weeks.
He didn't even start for threeweeks.
That's amazing and some peoplethat have been on staff 22 years
, so you bring that together andit was needed and it was

(16:10):
awesome.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
So, yeah, that's incredible.
That's where you, that's whereyou find me.
So I'm like rejuvenated andtired at the same time.
Yes, yep, yes, that's where Iam.
So get that.
Um, caleb and I actually weretalking behind your back before
you were here a little bit aboutpeople do that a lot.
The fact that you, your church,uh, crossroads at mix baptized
like 170 people or somethingcrazy like that.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
It was 296, but I don't know who's counting.
Actually, that was between thetwo.
That's move and mix.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Move and mix.
Baptizing 300 people is wild.
So all that to say, I'm takingthat off the table.
We have already discussed thata little bit.
Praise God for that.
That is unbelievable.
What happened?
Oh, he did it.
Those weeks of move and mix.
What are your highlights fromfrom your CIY summer?

Speaker 4 (17:07):
Well, I do have to address that.
First Cause it is awesome and aGod thing and I take no credit
in it.
I did not do one of those, notone.
Not one of the 296 baptisms didI do.
It's God thing and it's whatwe'll talk about later.
But it's because the people whocome to our camps which isn't
always true, but as far asthey're, they're non-believers
most of them are non-Christianscoming in, and so the gospels

(17:29):
what did that?
Many of them's first timehearing it and they're like I'm,
I'm in, and so ciy had a hugepart in the behind the scenes of
that, um, entire week.
So if we do take that out of itbecause that was my favorite
part, was baptisms um, I wouldsay the moments up until then
that were still walls beingbroken down.
So I mean the kid who you know,the night before started like a

(17:51):
hypothetically a fight night inhis thing, put tape over the
cameras and you know like thenext day raising a hand in
worship like a slow, you knowlike wall broken down, and just
those were, those were sprinkledthroughout the entire week, is
fantastic.
So those are my favoritemoments, for sure, and there's

(18:12):
lots of other good stuff, butthat's, that's what brings it
home.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I should say I really wanted to start a fight night
at middle school.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
With children.
I just think it's a confidencebooster.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
I'd feel really strong, get a couple easy dubs.
That's actually not true.
There are some big middleschoolers at Crossroads.
I think I could get worked by afew of them.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
I wouldn't be in a fight nightroads.
I think I could get worked by afew of them.
I wouldn't be in a fight night.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, I would get demolished Well that's a thing
that I wasn't expecting to talkabout.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
But thankfully they got baptized and hopefully you
know no more fight nights, nomore fight nights, but against
darkness Like they're fightingagainst darkness.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Amen, we're always going to bring it back.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
This is the gospel Fight nights, yeah oh, but
against darkness, like they'refighting against darkness, amen.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Amen.
We're always going to bring itback.
This is the gospel.
I love it.
Different kind of fight nightsthis is great.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
So part of the reason that Caleb Deroyne is here
really quick is because he has ahuge man crush on you.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
And it's mutual Um.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I know Good good neutral.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Um, I know, good, good, it's great.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Well then, yeah, I do but, like we, caleb was on like
an editorial team with ourgroup and we were talking about
like, oh, what should we betalking about on the podcast
this upcoming season?
And wanting to talk aboutsomething that you mentioned.
So caleb's here.
This is actually our first timedoing this.
Typically, it would just belike me interviewing you, but
caleb is here.
He's gonna jump in absolutelywhenever he wants.
He can interrupt me, he caninterrupt you, he can do
whatever.
He's a co-host.

(19:34):
So he's here, he's along forthe ride, um, but I want for the
three of us to have aconversation about something
that you just mentioned, whichis the fact that so so many of
the students that you bring tomove and mix, and so many of the
students that end up beinginvolved in your ministry on a
weekly basis are unchurchedpeople.
Is that well?

(19:55):
Is that a fair characterization?
Is that like what you?
Is that the verbiage you used?

Speaker 4 (20:00):
yeah, yeah, uh.
One of our taglines at ourchurch is we want to be a church
for people who have um given upon church but not given up on
god.
So yeah, unchurched is fair.
I wouldn't say all arenecessarily completely
non-believers or maybe evendon't believe in God, but pretty

(20:21):
much all of them have noteither been in church ever or
for years, or met Jesus here andare now grown up in this church
.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
There's some like moved people who've moved here
and stuff, but in, yeah,unchurched I'd agree okay, so we
want to talk about how tocreate spaces where people like
that don't feel superuncomfortable and super
threatened.
Uh, walking into a situationthat could be really
intimidating, whether that'swalking into a church, or

(20:49):
whether that's walking into aweek of camp um, or that may be
because I know that you dedicatea lot of intentionality to that
exact thing.
So Can I interrupt?
Can I interrupt, carl?

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, so one of the highlights from when I was with
you guys from middle school wasobviously baptisms.
But right after baptisms therewas one of your sites, one of
your bigger sites, was meetingout in the lawn right by where
the baptism pools were, right,hot tubs, same thing, where the

(21:25):
clean water was, and it wascelebration and it was great and
you guys were saying numbersand you, your your student
pastor, who was at that site,was hooping and hollering and
having a great time.
Um, and then at the very end ofthe time, um, cause I was just
like sketchily listening in theback- I guess, like I, wasn't a

(21:48):
part of it, but I was just likeit's kind of your thing.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, it's what I do.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
I.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
It's what I do I sulk in the shadows.
He said we brought X number ofpeople to camp this year, which
everyone cheered and everyonewent crazy.
And then he also said but thecoolest part of that number is
we have sent zero people homethis week and everyone lost

(22:12):
their minds, everyone lost theirminds, but knowing
you guys and knowing thestudents that you bring, and
knowing some of the storiescoming in, I thought that was
massive because I think you andI can connect on this.
Anytime you have to send astudent home, it is one of the
more heartbreaking things.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
It's the worst.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Dude, you're so close .

Speaker 4 (22:34):
I don't want to send you home.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Actually, you're so close, like this is I don't want
to send you home.
I actually you're the person Iwant here the most, right, but
like, whatever happens, you gotto do what you got to do.
Uh, but the fact that theybrought so many people, so many
people who are from inner cityCincinnati and didn't have to
send anyone home, is just likewild.
I thought that was so cool.
It is cool how.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
So before we talk too too much about events, because
I do feel like these are kind ofI mean culturally they're not,
but logistically kind ofseparate conversations, like how
do we make trips engaging forthese people?
But also just like how do youmake crossroads students
engaging for these people, likeif they walk in the door for

(23:18):
some of your regular programming, like what are they
experiencing?
Yeah, yeah that is maybe lessthreatening than what they might
experience somewhere else yeah,what a great question.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
I I want to say this first, just to kind of set
underline the conversation.
People are built differentlyEphesians 4 talks about.
There's apostles, there'sprophets, there's evangelists,
there's shepherds, there'steachers, and so there are
different churches going afterdifferent things.
Our church, our lead pastor, isevangelist just to his core and

(23:51):
so his heart has broken forlost people.
The church I grew up in and wasam who I am today.
It was a shepherding pastor andso he spent a ton of time
shepherding people and that'swhy I am here today, now able to
be a part of an evangelistchurch and anyway.
So just because your churchmaybe isn't doing this one
doesn't mean it's wrong.
Maybe your church, in theheartbeat behind it, is going

(24:12):
after something different, and Iwould actually always say try
to align with your church'svision and leadership.
But two, that still doesn'tmean you won't have non-church
kids walk through your doors,and definitely not non-Christian
.
You definitely havenon-Christian.
Some of the staff kids will benon-Christian.
So to any youth pastor,volunteer, youth volunteer
listening, I think this is agood conversation as we talk

(24:34):
through it.
But also don't feel like you'vegot to go shift your entire
mission.
I mean, align with where yourchurch is going and this just
happens to be where ours is.
So you asked how do we make itsafe for this type of community?
Right, it is great we have allthese systems in place for, like
, when we are going to do a talkand we'll do feedback sessions
and worship and all that stuffgoing to do a talk, and we'll do

(24:55):
feedback sessions and worship,and all that stuff Everything we
do is filtered through thislens.
So before last week I wasspeaking and we did a run
through.
I gave my talk and afterwardsone of the people said you used
the word disciples and didn'tsay who the disciples are.
And I was like yeah, but didn'teverybody know who the
disciples are?
And they were like no, yeah, no, yeah, and I'm like but it's

(25:15):
yeah, but doesn't everybody knowwho the disciples are, and they
were like no, yeah, no, yeah,and I'm like it's, but it's like
my message, yeahyeah, and they were like but
joel, you have to like, so wecall it our group, c group.
So like, just just say you knowthis is jesus.
C group is what?
You're kind of disciples likeme.
That quick.
But there's nothing assumed,there's no.
You know, if you're going touse language that might be from
the Bible or or quote unquotechurchy, that's okay, just
explain it.

(25:35):
And I love the line If you stoptalking to non-Christians,
they're going to stop coming,and so one of the simplest ways
is knowing they're there andtalking to them as if they're
there and in the room.
So that's, that's as bare bonesas it gets, and we can go into
stuff as much or as little asyou want.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Much the much part.

Speaker 4 (25:58):
Much I want to dive into so much.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
I mean like so aside from, how does that culture like
bleed into other aspects of theministry?
Like aside from, yeah, like I'mimagining, okay.
So like I grew up going tochurch and I think that if I
went, if I was unchurched and Iwent to church, like by far the
weirdest thing would be worship,like everyone's standing and

(26:24):
singing and some people are likeraising their hands and
interacting in different ways.
Yeah, this all feels like we'resinging to someone who's not
here, like I don't know.
That to me feels like thatwould be the weirdest part.
I'm interested in how thismakes its way into other parts
besides your sermon and the waythat you talk from stage.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, a couple things can do it.
It does make sense.
I want to go off on a tangent,though.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
That's the problem.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Do it.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
What's the weirdest thing about church?
For a non-church person who'scoming in, what would be the
weirdest thing?
The weirdest thing is that weeat people's bodies and drink
their blood.
You can't be like, hey, man,you want to drink this blood.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
I mean it's like I'll try anything once, but I mean
after that, you know.
So it is weird.
After that, if I like it, thenI'm a blood guy.
And then all of a sudden, we'reon the Santa Clarita diet.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Here we are.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
To get back on track right up front, in every single.
There's so much more to studentministry than the service, but
we're talking the service.
So right up front, we explainwhat they're about to go through
every service, no matter what.
Hey, here's what the next houris going to look like.
You know there's going to be.
I'm going to be up here for acouple more minutes.
Someone's going to come up anddo a game.
There is going to be a bandcoming on.
If you like live music, youmight like this next part.

(27:49):
Unlike live music, you know weare going to ask you not to just
be talking to your friends orhanging out, because this has a
purpose and it's a time ofservice.
We call worship and these arebasically poems written to God
and if you want to believe this,or do believe this, we would
ask you to sing along with it.
If you don't feel free to sitand just read and observe, you
know, but respect other peopledoing it.
You might see people raisingtheir hands.

(28:10):
It's just simple sign ofsurrender and we're not asking
you to unless you're ready to dothat.
And after that you're going tohear a speaker come out and
we'll never use the word, sermonor homily or you know.
He didn't talk for a little bitand hopefully when you go to
groups after that it'll sparksome questions for you to be
able to dig in.
You know, welcome out, lovethat you're here.
You know whatever we're doingfor that day, we'll just explain

(28:38):
up front.
It also makes it not choppyfrom then on out, so then when
the band does come out theymight read, but then they don't
have to like re-spend 10 minutes.
Also, whoever's in that momentusually is your most gifted.
Summarizing of communicator.
So, uh, instead of the personwho is unbelievable voice but
loves to talk for 25 minutes, ona tangent, and you know it's
just like oh yeah, Sermon afterthe sermon, baby.
Yeah, that's right.

(28:59):
That's right, and those do stillhappen, but it's just, that's
just some of the stuff, some ofthe stuff we do and that's
service-wise.
The other stuff, though, is itstill happens.
We do that my favorite story totell is during the talk.
During the talk, and we dobroadcast messages out to all of
our locations, so you can'treally you can do some crowd
stuff, but it has to land witheveryone.

(29:19):
Like any other broadcast, likeduring the talk, kid front row
answers his phone Hello, youknow, and everyone's like hey,
you know, and he goes no, no, no, yeah, I can talk, I can talk.
I'm at a concert right now andlike, right now, and like that's
just what he said, you know,and it's such a weird thing.
Thankfully we have volunteers,okay, you know, but like you
don't want to recommend himbecause that's what he like he

(29:41):
wasn't being insubordinate no,no that he was doing yeah, yeah
and at a concert you can open,you can answer your phone, you
know, like during this, and hemust have missed the part where
someone explained what the heckthat was, you know, or or what's
going on.
But still, and so culturallytoo, it just you need to be.
Everyone needs to be in forwhat you're going after, and

(30:02):
it's okay to treat believers toa higher approach.
It is You're bought in students, you're bought in people like
it really is.
And when?
So when new students, when it'stheir first time, they're going
to get something on their nametag.
We do like colored stickers.
So we all, internally any firsttime person we know they're
there, like they're around there, and and it's going to be
pretty hard for them to doanything to get kicked out or do

(30:25):
anything to get you know,because we're just assuming not
only is it their first week withus, it's probably their first
week in a church, and so we lovethat.
So we're going to work extrahard to make sure it feels safe
for them.
The last three weeks we've hadhuge fights at our student
ministry.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Have you for real.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, yeah, this last one and ours is.
So Thursday night is an adultservice, and then we have high
school students going on at thesame time and again they're
thinking this like school.
So I mean, there's, we're a busstops right out front, you know
.
So apparently two kids weregoing at it and so they weren't
going to fight right there.
We didn't even know it was allchill or whatever, but they were
like hey, afterwards.
So we're just started spreadingthat there was a fight right

(31:04):
after service, you know.
And they were like we're meetingin the parking lot, like again,
just like you would do atschool and and so as soon as it
was over, literally like 150kids just like like over there,
not everybody, but like a tonand like and two they start
circling up into and thankfullyit's because it's our whole

(31:25):
certain, you know cops are therelike breaking people up and
whatever, but like bro, theydidn't even really understand.
Like we're doing the parking lot, like they didn't understand
and every single one of thosekids is invited back next week,
you know.
Like, yeah, 100, they didn'teven really understand.
They're like we're doing it inthe parking lot, they didn't
even understand.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
And every single one of those kids is invited back
next week.
Yeah, 100% yeah, those are theones you want.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
So that's interesting .
You bring up some of your morebrought-in students or bought-in
students.
What does that look like?
I guess that can be a littlething, and that's sometimes what
we find, even at our events.
I don't want to call our eventsa church, because it's
certainly not the same thing atall, but how do you guys work so

(32:03):
well to create messages andflows or even games outside of
the room that are not justprogramming, that both are
welcoming, safe and loving tothose who have no idea what on
earth this thing is, and thosewho've been walking the faith
for a few years and are like allright, yeah, I got this.

(32:26):
You know, does that questionmake sense?
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (32:28):
Yeah, it does.
Yeah, our technical, ourchurch's technical mission
statement is to connect a seeker, which is someone it's actually
not an atheist, it's someoneseek, searching that can be
spirituality or they'researching for something but
connect a secret to a uh,christlike body of believers who
then can change the world.
And so you do need both.
Um, you do.
It would be a mess if we were.

(32:49):
Only everything is filteredthrough the lens of the new
person, but it's not necessarilyeven designed for them.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Um, if it was, we wouldn't do worship you know,
yeah, but it's like you have todo the hard work of getting all
the people who are bought in,not like, bought in like they
have to be on mission with youand be willing to accept the
like, the high level and,unfortunately, those kinds of
things you're dead on.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
And here's the level of maturity that, at least I see
it goes.
You know, spiritual maturity,Not believer at all.
And you know, says it thebeliever who then accepts Christ
and thinks they know everythingand they are better than
everyone else.
And they're judging the people,yeah.
And then the group that finallygets to like oh, I understand,

(33:33):
there's nonbelievers in the roomand I'm here to serve.
That's the highest tier, youknow.
And so we do get people who gothrough this middle thing, and
we understand when they come tous or say, hey, it wasn't deep
enough today.
You know, whatever weunderstand that they're just
also still on their journey,growing and seeking, and we need
to love them as well, and thatthey're probably in Bible
college no for us, for us I'mtalking even students.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding, I was like that in.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Bible college, oh same 100% 100%.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
I call myself a recovering legalist, like I was
that same in Bible college.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Well, actually, like I was hoping to get to this a
little bit later in theconversation, but we're there.
So I want in the conversation,but we're, we're there, so I
want to kind of hit on it.
I can see somebody listening toyou talk or watching this
podcast, which is the thing thatwe do now and, um, like the
criticism being, oh well, thatsounds like just another church

(34:30):
that's a mile wide and an inchdeep, and you know, like I do
feel like that is a thing thatpeople wrestle with and I don't
want to even really criticizethe motive of that.
You know what I mean, like, Ithink, wanting a depth of
spirituality is a great questionyeah but, how do you like
reconcile all of that?

Speaker 4 (34:51):
in your context to anyone who may be thinking that,
like I said when I was aboutcollege, that probably would
have been my exact same thoughtfor the exact return I'm a part
of.
If you were to come toCincinnati, ohio, drive or fly,
you were to come to our churchand you were to come on a Sunday
morning and you were to leave,I think you'd still have that
exact same thought.
And if your idea of what we dofor church is just our Sunday

(35:13):
morning or our Sunday servicefor students, then you'd be
right.
However, we work really hard tomake sure we are the church
seven days a week, and this iseverything from groups to
serving, to camps, to go trips,to discipleship, to leadership
programs I mean, the list islong that we are being the
church consistently, and whatwould differentiate us and I'm
not even that we are being inthe church consistently, and

(35:35):
what would differentiate us andI'm not even saying we're right
in this Then a lot of churchesthat would maybe have a
different mindset would be ourSunday service is, primarily at
least, filtered through thosefar from God, and the rest of
the week is for the people readyto take next steps in their
faith.
And so, and there's still partson the Sunday that I would even

(35:55):
contradict myself, like worshipis very, you know, intentionally
deep and the message isabsolutely still Bible-centered,
gospel-centered, but instead ofan hour it might be 30 minutes,
you know.
Or instead of for students,honestly, for our middle school
messages are 12 minutes and ourhigh school messages are 17.
And you don't go over Because,and you don't go over because

(36:23):
never, yeah, I go over, but we,we tell everyone do not go over
ever.
But it is rare, it is rare thatwe would, and that takes way
more work.
It's way more work to have ashow, yeah, and that said, we do
it all because we know theattention span of most people
who haven't spent.
It's a muscle you can grow andyou should grow as you're there
longer, and it's why we do theseother things.
You know, in our camp sessionsare longer, etc.
But for the people coming in,we want to at least filter it

(36:45):
through their lens.
You know that, hey, they mightonly listen for six of those 12.
And so let's put in the work toto make it happen.
But but, yeah, I would argue,the second half of our mission
statement, the Christ-like bodyof believers, is really solid
and really strong and is thechurch, and our church is so
much more deeper than a Sundaymorning, is what I would say.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
I love that, that's super good.
And I wanna let you lead out onthis part of the conversation a
little bit, caleb, because Iknow that you've gotten to
interact with Joel at MIX atevents and have been a part of
their MIX events.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
So I want you to kind of just lead us into a
conversation about what thislooks like in those like
mountaintop experience moments,the kind of special occasion, I
don't know what all you guys do,but for the sake of our
conversation, like camp, yeah,yeah, I don't know what all you
guys do, but for the sake of ourconversation, like camp, yeah,
I think to preface this, I thinkit, I don't know if I can say

(37:45):
this, and if it's not good,we'll cut it right, yeah,
whatever.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
I didn't know.
We had an option of wildcards,thoughts that we can cut later.
We don't.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
It'll be great.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
This is live television.
Baby, Correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
That's right Because I think a lot of it was prior to
you coming into your role nowand me coming into my role now.
Yeah, and that it took a littlebit for Crossroads and COI to
partner together to do camps.
I don't think I'm wrong in that.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
No, you're dead on in that.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, and I think a little bit of that has to do
with you guys protect what youdo so so well that it's just
like we can do this, for like wecan do this and like we can, we
we feel really called to thisspecific thing and, um, and I

(38:42):
think we started this, what wasour first summer, 21.
Was that our first time to doit together?
Um, and I think even there thatthat year um was a little bit
of a on our end.
Do we trust them?
And on your end, do you trust us?
And so even like the precipice,like for even those who are

(39:05):
watching it that have whatever,like yes, I love you, joel, and
I love Crossroads dearly, withall of my heart.
I love you, joel, and I loveCrossroads dearly with all of my
heart.
But even then, it has taken afew years for us to really come
together as partners,symbiotically, to understand
what that looks like.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Yeah, and the journey before I was here too, I think
Crossroads learned hey, weprobably need to be at our own
camp, because if we're withother churches, we're now
distracting their mission Ifwe're bringing, you know, a ton
of non-churched kids who areacting like non-Christians you
know who are living by adifferent ethic than the
Christian kids.
Yeah, then that's not okay.
It's not okay if you know, likeso, if there's other churches

(39:50):
that they're getting away likeso.
It really is a culture thing.
And what made CIY such a greatpartner is I'll never forget the
line I don't know if it'swritten down on y'all's walls
somewhere or something but oneof you said we are the
bridesmaids to the bride, thechurch is the bride and you guys
are the bridesmaids and we'rehere to serve you.
And CIY has had such a humble,giving, willing spirit to say,

(40:16):
hey, we serve churches of alldifferent, like spectrums.
You know, we want them to teachjesus and believe, but, like we
like all different sizes andall different backgrounds and
some inner city and some suburbs, and you know, and when we meet
with them, we want to be thebridesmaids for this, this bride
of christ, this beautiful bridewho you know.
And so we've loved that andhonestly, I I don't.

(40:37):
The only reason it has beensuch a good partnership is
because CIY has taken the humbleapproach and been so amazing,
like in giving um in so manymoments, which has been awesome.
So we are now, we're now team.
I always was.
Church I was at before we didgo to CY with tons of different

(41:01):
churches and it was awesome andwe weren't necessarily the
church wasn't necessarily asdriven towards the unchurched
kid, and it was fantastic.
Well, there's some.
It still worked great.
I've always loved CY, but itwas new to Crossroads is what we
were talking about?
All that aside, and so it stillworked great.
I've always loved CY, but itwas new to Crossroads is what we
were talking about.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah, yeah.
So all that aside, love CY,love Crossroads Just explain a
little bit of what events looklike for you guys.
I know that you guys have evenshifted a little bit of what
regular school year programminglooks like and what you guys do

(41:38):
in the summer.
You mentioned GoTrips.
I would love to hear aboutGoTrips and how that works into
your ministry as well.
Yeah, so I'll just give you thetime and I'll probably ask a
few more questions.
But what do events look like toyou guys?
Because you guys are big intocamp, Like Crossroads is into
camp correct.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Camp starts our year, camp pushes our momentum into
the year.
Camp grows our ministry year toyear.
We love camp, and that's nottrue just in students.
Our church actually owns 700acres and we do.
There's not, but it's just baseland.
There's no housing, so they dotents but we do father-son camp,
mother-daughter camp, familycamp, woman camp, man camp,

(42:19):
couples camp, I mean camp isEvery camp.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
We love camp, all the camp.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
That's a church.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm not going to bring my son
and kids tent camping.
A lot of people call their CIOexperiences a lot of different
things.
You also use that word camp torefer to move and mix, so I just
want to make that clear for allthe people listening into our
conversation, but go ahead.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Yes, yes, yes, we love it and it starts our year
church wide and in the studentministry.
Other events is that whatyou're asking out beyond that,
or do you want me to lean intocamp?

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, I think camp, I think go trips, I think even a
little bit of how you guys makesome of your student gatherings
and event in and of themselves.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
So student ministry is students doing ministry and
so our discipleship in many waysis students pouring into other
students.
Sometimes that's high scores inthe middle scores, sometimes
it's high scores doingannouncements more choppily or

(43:21):
on stage.
Sometimes it is them prayingbefore service, being our prayer
team, after a message, etcetera.
Like student ministries,students doing ministry, and we
love to be a place for them tobe able to do that and events
and the rest of the year backthat.
So I'll start with the smallestand we'll kind of be a place
for them to be able to do thatand events and the rest of the
year back that.
So I'll start with the smallestthing and we'll kind of go out.
So we do something calledinfluencers.
It's actually a horrible namebecause their point is to serve.

(43:43):
It is our student leadershipprogram.
Their point is to serve andhave influence on our student
ministry, but not like bluecheck mark influencers, you know
.
So it kind of.
But now we're too far in deep,it's got like culture to it, so
we're staying with the name.
If you have a student leadershipprogram, don't call it.
It's been very confusing toexplain to people um, something
better and, uh, this is.

(44:04):
This is kind of our behind thescenes serve team.
So they are high schoolers andyou can be a ninth grader, but
they're high schoolers.
You have to apply for it.
It's 10 to 15 hours a week, umthat you come in, it's you're an
intern, basically you know andyou're, you are serving Um and
it's awesome.
And so it starts there.
There are over teams of adults,teams about everything, and

(44:26):
then we have C groups.
C groups are just our um groups.
Maybe your church has a groups.
Our church's name is Crossroads, so no, everyone thinks that's
why we call them C groups.
We've never, ever written downand we'll never say what the C
is for.
It's because we've never reallypicked.
Some people call them communitygroups at camp.
They think they're camp groupsbecause they're C groups.
They're just, they're C groups,all right, and you as a leader

(44:47):
can make it whatever you want.
You can make it carrot groupsthat's right, and c groups have
their own culture as well.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
So that's the first word that I thought of that
starts with the letter c.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
I don't know why carrot groups or, but some
people do call them care groups.
So uh, not as cool is is doingevents all year long you know as
well, and, uh, high scorescan't are sometimes secret
leaders for middle school, youknow, and so you might be.
Go to 100 events.
You haven't even done one as awhole church, yeah, you're just
in this group that iscontinually moving and going,

(45:18):
and we do rooted, we do alpha,we do.
So these are just like more ofthe like options of like the
buffet, of like discipleship.
And then there's top of thefunnel events, which is like,
hey, you've probably neverstepped in our building.
We hope you come to this andthen maybe it could get you to
this, and then maybe it couldget you into a C group and maybe

(45:39):
it could get you going toRooted and maybe even you could
begin being on our serve teamfrom behind the scenes.
So that's kind of how it goes.
Our top of the funnel eventscould be anything and everything
.
The very top for us would becamp.
So a lot of people would putcamp you know it's like a next
tier.
Yeah, like, after you've doneall this stuff, you go to camp.

(46:00):
We want to make camp as easy aspossible.
Uh, we will do.
We will cut other thingsthroughout the year so we have
more scholarship dollars forcamps for people who can't
afford to go.
Um, we're not gonna scholarship.
The kid who just is, you know,wants to get a scholarship for
his fourth year in a row, tolike.
But if you've never been tocamp and you're saying money is
the one thing holding you back,and I know this can't be true
everywhere.

(46:20):
But like we're going to, we'regoing to be knocking on doors
throughout our church to figureout a way to get you there.
That's not be the barrier, youknow, because this is top of the
funnel event.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
We had girls at camp like they were pregnant while
there and like did they getpregnant there cause?

Speaker 4 (46:37):
no, that was about 20 , so yeah, but two but two.
Two were already pregnant yes,which again the student ministry
I grew up in, I just wouldn'thave been allowed, just wouldn't
have been allowed.
You know, it was just badinfluence, it was bad, like
there's been plenty of reasons,but oh yeah, there's no way.
Yeah, so, but what a great time.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Golly, can't handle it, because what like a better
place for these two teenage?
Girls who are about to gothrough the hardest thing that
they've ever gone through andyou now have this whole
community.
That's like come with us, yeah,take a breath.

Speaker 4 (47:12):
And now I'm not gonna make you cry, so I'm not gonna
do the whole thing, but yeahlike their group no, do the
whole thing.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
I gotta hear it got together well they just they're
like they.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
They threw her a diaper shower like.
So afterwards it's high schoolhigh schoolers.
Oh, her group, her c group, solike 10 of them like, and the
lead like they're bringing herdiaper.
So she's set up like that's thebest thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Can we really quick and like we've taken up a lot of
your time?
So I want to be respectful, um,but I do want to make sure that
we hit on one thing.

Speaker 4 (47:44):
So these top of the funnel.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Stop talking, joel no , no, no, no, that was me.
That was me saying, brad, pickyour next question wisely,
because this might be it.
So top of the funnel events,right?
Yeah, I know a lot of churchesthat like, because of the point
that you made earlier, becauseof the overall like mission and

(48:06):
philosophy of the church,they're geared a little bit
differently than the way theCrossroads is, and that's OK and
that's good in their regularprogramming.
But a lot of churches likebring kids that aren't part of
their ministry to camp, um, likejust not on the scale that that
you guys do, where it's like aslarge of a percentage probably.

(48:28):
But most youth pastors, uh,have a handful, two, three, ten
kids in their group who camewith a friend whose parents
wanted to go on a European rivercruise.
And this is how we get rid ofthem.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
For a week or whatever those types of things.
I don't think you can go on acruise in the Thames.
There's just too much stuff inthere.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
I don't know, there are other rivers in Europe.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
I don't know what's the one in Paris that people
think did the Rhine is the one Iwant to get.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Gross.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
The Rhine in Germany.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yeah, and over the Rhine Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Anyway.
So what was I saying?

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yes, that's all on me how?

Speaker 2 (49:13):
No, I wasn't saying we got to wrap up.
I'm saying we gotta talk aboutthis before we wrap up.
Stop trying to leave me.
I would never is like how I cansee a trip being extremely
intimidating to somebody who hasnever done something like this
before.
So, aside from like money andthe logistics of making it easy

(49:36):
for students to go, which Ithink is wildly important and
I'm glad that you do it how doyou make it easy for them, like
mentally and psychologically, tomake that what might feel like
a big jump.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
I'm going to answer that and I'm going to say it's
why we have to do other stufftoo.
Like you're right, some kidsjust won't ever go to campus
their first thing.
It will be their 10th thing,you know, and that's why we're.
We have other top of the funnelstuff.
And hear me to go back to theother question.
If we stopped at top of thefunnel we would be a mile wide
and an inch deep.
You know, church it is it isjust a tool to then go through

(50:10):
the process of discipleship andlooking more like Jesus.
So one thing we do is we do anevent that is in February, that
is, I'll call it a gift to ourcommunity.
Again, I understand thateveryone can do this, but we're
gonna spend a lot of money onthis because of the purpose and
we are gonna, you know, bringpeople in and I'll talk a little
bit more about what it is andwhat it's called.
But our internal purpose of theentire event is to get kids

(50:38):
signed up for camp, to introducekids to camp.
So, um, so you, we might bringin bangles players and we might,
you know, call it a white outand have and have white, like we
want it to be where you're like, yeah, I don't freaking go to
this, you know, and they comeand they hang out and we spend,
we do really fun things and wethrow toilet paper across the
whole toilet paper fight andwhatever.
That goes wide out and we justkeep talking about camp.

(51:00):
It was just a little and like,if you went, to know where they
have toilet paper at camp it isthat bad.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
And if they don't have toilet paper, your EC at
CIY will go get you a whole newrole.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Amen.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
We start most of them off after like the opener with
like hey, we are going tounapologetically going to try to
convince you to go to camp forthe night.
You know when they leave turnsout, when you get thousands of
middle schoolers together andyou talk about camp the whole
time, they leave like, oh, let'sgo to camp, like I think we
could have done anything, wecould have been like boot camp
arm, like you need to go to themarines, like you know, and they
could leave and like like it's,it's horrible, but uh, but we

(51:38):
believe our purpose is correctand so that is one of the things
we we do in that event isincredibly expensive for that,
that purpose and we do like, wedo share the gospel at it and we
do other stuff.
But like the, the internalpurpose is, uh, to introduce
kids to camp.
And so there's a church calledccv, who is, I love, uh, jake is

(52:00):
their student guy.
They do something also on theother side, called camp encore,
which we may have to steal in afuture year, which then is also
like hey, you missed camp thisyear, bring friends to camp
encore.
It's like camp here, you know,and then just seating for the
next year, you know of, oh, Iwent to camp encore.
That's their top, top of thefunnel, and then camp is the

(52:21):
next one.
So, um, there's other stuff.
I mean that, that same church.
If we're talking about makingit easy, their church-wide
campaign was all for camp highschool camp and they wanted to
make it 50 because that's theprice it was 25 years ago.
And so they raised all thismoney as a church, not to get a
new auditorium, not to make campcheaper.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Affordable.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
It's wild yes.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
And don't hear this and get jealous, because I am
when I hear that that's not myheart in sharing it.
It's, what can you do with?

Speaker 2 (52:53):
what you have.
Yeah, there's ways to becreative.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
Yeah, there's ways to be creative, yeah, yeah, yeah,
exactly To figure out a way tojust like to to make camp easy.
Sometimes this is throughstories.
In fact, see how I resourcesthe heck out of churches with
this.
Just like, hey, here's somedifferent stories and tools and
you guys, I might be out in youguys, but there's been awesome

(53:17):
games played at camp that I'vejust emailed you guys.
You probably would do this too,and I'm like, can you just send
me that?
Like you know, send me andyou've sent it over and I and
like now that's on the effectstore but like, sent it over and
then I, I use it and they'relike I love that game and
everyone's like we played it atcamp and like I want to go to
camp.
So, yeah, there's all all sortsof stuff there, but I would say
it doesn't happen on accidentat all.
Like tons of intentionality hasto go in.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
And I mean what fruit ?
You know what I mean, even ifthis year.
Take this year alone and lookat it and it's it's overwhelming
to think about it.
It's so incredible what God didthrough your ministry at camp
and it's it's really encouragingfor me and I know Caleb as well
to hear all of the ways thatthat is being like compounded

(53:56):
throughout your funnel.
You know, um, as kids come homeand get plugged into all these
other different things.
It's really really cool.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
So yeah, so good.
And what I love about move andmix for a commercial for anyone
listening if, in case, youlisten to this podcast and
aren't already there is, youknow, when we have unchurched
kids for an hour, it's great andwe're glad they're there and we
have them for an hour, when youreally have four, five days
with them to continuously showup, for a leader to just

(54:23):
continually pour out love, tolet them hear the gospel, I mean
between morning and eveningsessions, five, six, seven,
eight times, you know, over andover, like for a group to start
to form, for a group chat tostart to form, like, like.
It's life-changing what canhappen there, and so it's why we
want to use it to start ouryear and get as many to it as
possible yeah, and I say, I sayall the time that their

(54:44):
relational capital is worth theprice of admission yeah, 100 oh,
dude, especially if it's 50bucks yeah, 50 bucks, yeah it's

Speaker 2 (54:53):
like uh jake, if are listening, can you help us all
figure that out?

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Anyway, joel, you are a treasure.
Truly, you are just a fountainof wisdom, and I thank you so
much I'm going to give you 20minutes to stop that, Michael.
Negative you stop, I'm Brad.

Speaker 4 (55:12):
That's Brad, michael is the whole thing.
I negative stuff.
I'm brad, that's my goal.
My goal is thing I do know yourname is brad, I know you do.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
We've met, yeah, and I'm gonna take 19 minutes and 30
seconds and I'm gonna reallywax poetic about how much I love
joel fireball.
No, I'm kidding um.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
People know, they know they know, they know they
know, caleb, this was a treat.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
You guys are the best , caleb, you already knew my man
crush was, you know,reciprocated.
Is it reciprocated?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Reciprocated.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
Oh, that's his word.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
That's his word.
He can't say All right.
We said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, Okay, let me at least
finish my thought I was going tosay new man crush of brad so
there it is, and michael is nothere.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
He's got a beautiful beard, him as well he does have
a great beard yes, now back tothe word thing.
Yeah, so you can't sayreciprocal, I can't say an
unfathomable.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Unfathomable.
It's a hard one, that's reallygood and I cannot say the word
intricate that one seems likethe easiest one.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
I know, but I say I speak fast sometimes and when I
say in the middle of a sentence,I say intricate and I sound
like an idiot.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
COVID, which is said a lot, and he would just be like
they got covered.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
And you're like my grandma, who will never listen
to this, is a sweet, sweet,sweet old lady from Madison
County, kentucky, and has youknow she's higher educated than
I am, so like I'm not trying tomake her sound dumb, but she
says this, she talks about.
You heard all this news aboutthe COVID.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
That's it.
That's what I'm saying.
Covid, everyone's got theirword.
C-o-v-e-d Everyone's got theirword.
C-o-v-e-d.
Everyone's got their word.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
On that note, joel thank you for being here.
We appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
We love you so much.
I loved every second of it.
Who day, hey, who do they thinkis going to beat them?
Bengals, apparently thePatriots.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
They did, they sure did.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Alright, that's enough.
Bye.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
Alright, bye guys.
Guys, no thank you for real.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
I think it was really good stuff.
Thanks guys, it was a lot offun.
Joel fireball is a legend, bro,that was so good man yeah that
was really good.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Uh, very selfishly, wore my crossroads shirt today
you did, I did.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Caleb will shamelessly sport church merch.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Oh dude XX, 2201 North Main Street.
If you want me to wear yourchurch's shirt, please send it
to me.
I'll wear it every week.
I love free t-shirts.
He wears this one every day andI just wash it every night.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
But anyway, that was a really cool conversation and
you know what I love.
I love how he goes to a hugechurch but as he was talking.
I think it's so scalable whathe was talking about like to do
an event where the whole pointof the event is to drive people
to sign up for camp yeah anysize church with any budget 100.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, yeah, I think it just takes intentionality, um
, and and I understand sometimeswe don't want to be intentional
or don't have the bandwidth tobe intentional and so some of
those things I think is justreally like hey, just thinking
about it, yeah, just doing it ina February when it's like

(58:31):
spring semester has kicked off,we're not getting into the camp
push yet.
Just do one night where it'spizza and camp, whatever it is.
I think that's so good.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
I agree 10,000%, and I hope that Joel's conversation
has sparked a little bit ofcreativity in the minds of those
who are watching and orlistening.
So we're about done.
Can you close us out for thefirst time on?
Season four for the first timeon video.
Yes, direct to camera.

(59:01):
Uh with uh praying our blessingover our lovely youth pastor.
Friends, direct to camera.
You can read it.
Great, I was like I haven'tmemorized it yet.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Uh, okay, yeah, let's do this.
Uh, I was like I haven'tmemorized it yet.
Okay, yeah, let's do this.
Wherever you are, whereveryou're watching or listening but
watching because you wanted tosee Brad's face.
Could you just hold out yourhands?
Is that weird?
Can we do that?
It's not weird?

Speaker 2 (59:29):
Just hold out your hands, unless you're driving.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
If you're driving, keep them on the steering wheel,
hold up a finger.
Would love to just pray overyou guys, whoever is listening
to this, and if you work withyouth, I truly believe that you
are changing the world.
So let's get in a space wherewe can say this, and I would

(59:52):
love to pray this for you MayGod show you his grace and bless
you.
May make his face shine on you.
May you experience the love ofChrist, through whom God gives
you fullness of life.
May you be strengthened by hispower.

(01:00:15):
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 today's episodewas produced by Michael Hester,

(01:00:38):
Lauren Brian and myself.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Joel
.
I really, really love everysingle word that he said on this
episode.
So thank you, Joel, for beinghere.
Thank you, Caleb, forco-hosting with me.
If you liked what you heard, besure to subscribe wherever you
listen or watch podcasts.
We'll see you again in twoweeks.
Until then, we love you, Takecare.

(01:01:02):
See you next time, Thank you.