February 27, 2025 • 34 mins
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GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Are you looking to maximize efficiency in your youth ministry? Well, you might be wasting a lot of time on these 5 things! We’re discussing five common pitfalls that frequently waste precious time for youth pastors—habitual practices that often lead to burnout and hinder your efforts in engaging with your student ministry. The goal of this episode is to help you implement practical wisdom and ultimately reclaim your time and passion for your calling. Boost your productivity and engagement now! If you find these insights resonating with you, don't forget to subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review!
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You may also enjoy these episodes:
(#038) How to Plan Your Week in Youth Ministry - Time Management Tips
(#061) How to Prioritize Your Time as a Youth Pastor & Love Your Job
(#113) Feeling Overworked in Youth Ministry (5 Productivity Killers)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we're talking about five things youth pastors
do that waste their time.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where
every week we give youactionable and practical tips
that you can implement into youryouth ministry.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen
Laskola, and I just got backfrom winter camp Yay.
So if I sound a little bitraspy, a little bit hoarse,
that's why I don't be yelling atpeople the whole time.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The funny thing is I really wasn't I think it's
something about lack of sleep,that mountain air.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Mountain air, because it wasn't just me, it was like
a few people kind of have likehorse voices right now.
So whatever, today we aretalking about things that youth
pastors do that waste time.
I feel like that's a prompt forlike a game or something,
things that youth pastors dothat waste time For 400.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Please a prompt for like a game or something, things
that you bastards do that wastetime for 400, please.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Number one are these are all ones that I have learned
, probably the hard way.
So, I'm going to like tell youhow I used to kind of do it
wrong and waste a lot of time.
Number one is writing fresh newcommunication every single week
, my best hack of the last fewyears.
And if you already do this inour way ahead of me, good for
(01:29):
you.
I wish I would have learned itsooner.
Always save your weekly emailsto a word document, edit them,
copy and paste them into theemail and send them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
When you do that, do you save it as a new document or
are?
You constantly going off of thelast one you sent.
I didn't know if you meant likeso that you had it when you go
for the next year to do summercamp signups, you can use the
same email.
You just go back and you're.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
No, I'll talk about that concept in a little bit
with some other stuff.
But this is like I have twodocuments I just saved to my
desktop, so they're always there.
It says parent email leaderemail.
I open it up worst casescenario on Monday to edit it.
But I look at what I sent lastweek and if it's still relevant,
I keep it or change the wordingto reflect like this week
(02:21):
instead of next week orsomething like that.
I put the new talk sheet inthere so that everyone's in the
loop.
I update anything having to dowith the events and it's so much
easier than every single week,dear parents, blah, blah, blah.
And I just used to sit down andwrite these really long emails.
I make sure everyone knew whatwas going on for the week and
(02:42):
I'm like I don't want it tobecome so stale that everybody
just deletes it because they're,like you say the same darn
thing every week.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
But if, like, I'm announcing something that's
happening in three weeks, youknow it's like well, why rewrite
that every single time?
And then there's some thingsthat I leave on there like
static, like summer camp datesJuly 10th through the 17th you
know, and I highlight that andthe link to our calendar online,
(03:13):
like once you set your summercamp dates.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Is that in the bottom of that email always all the
way until, yeah, you go?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
yeah, so that everyone's reminded every single
week, and then, as we getcloser, I might push that toward
the top, like we're a hundreddays out from winter or summer
camp, or 50 days out, whateverit might be like just kind of
like okay, now I'm going tostart drawing more attention to
it.
But those big things that areimmovable, like my winter camp
(03:41):
dates or my winter camp dates,summer camp, summer camp camp
dates, or my winter camp dates,summer camp, summer camp, and
then for my leaders, that wouldbe the leader retreat, it's all.
I include the camp dates for myleaders, but then I add our
retreat, which is in November,so that it's always on their
mind of like, oh yeah, I need tomake sure I get that off of
work, or oh yeah, I need to makesure I don't have family in
town that week, or whatever.
(04:02):
So I just copy and paste thoseback into my email every week
and then I usually change likethe first few lines, like this
week we just got back from camp,so I said something about that.
You know like, hey, camp wasgreat, so glad you guys came.
You know so, and I guess now ittakes me like 10 minutes
(04:23):
instead of 30 minutes.
So it is a great time saver,and I mean each, you know.
So it was like that used to bean hour just of emails, to make
sure everybody knew what wasgoing on.
Writing a big, long letter, sosaving your communication, and
then another one and I don't usethis one as frequently, but I
(04:44):
start sending communication tothe fifth grade parents a few
times throughout the year so Isave that onto my desktop.
It says fifth grade parentemail, so I'm reminded.
Oh yeah, make sure you'resending out summer camp dates to
them.
Make sure you're like, hey, it's, we have our promotion event,
(05:05):
like your fifth grader isbecoming a sixth grader, here's
what you need to know.
So those emails I do save sothat every year I can kind of
just change the dates anddetails but have those ready to
go, so anything that's on repeatfor you.
You could have a folder in yourcomputer like frequent email
(05:26):
things and if you're like, sayyou're doing more than just
student ministries, you couldeven have a free free why can I
not say that word Frequentresponse email folder, so like.
Oh, if you get the samequestions a lot of times, yeah,
yeah, like whether it'stheologically like if somebody
wants to know your stance onsomething, you change it a bit
(05:49):
to fit the current conversationyou're having, but you don't
have to rethink and write allthese things again.
Or parents like winter camp,like once they've registered,
here's what they need to know.
We're meeting at this time,we're getting picked up at this
time.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Here's, you know, the packing list, whatever, so
you're not always having toreinvent the wheel or rewrite
those same things, Ones that areon repeat all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
save those emails as a template for yourself, and it
not only does it save time, butit helps you not miss something
like oh shoot, I forgot to tellthem that because it will just
be the same thing every year,with just minor updates.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You.
I know you're not a fan of this, but chat GPT if you're writing
a brand new email is like yourbest friend because I never used
it, so you need to start.
So the benefit I'm sure I'mpreaching to the choir here
because I'm sure you guys use it, but it's so much easier to
edit and fine tune somethingthat's been written than writing
(06:49):
it from scratch.
A lot of us feel like I'm notcreative enough at this moment
to start it, you know, andwhereas you just give chat GBT
the prompts and say this is kindof what I want to say, you know
, and then it just boom withinseconds and then you take that
out and you can have it changeit or you can just edit it, so
it's really convenient.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, I was a communication major, so like
thinking of words and buildingcommunication, thinking of words
.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's not that hard for me.
I'm a professional at it, butwhen we're talking about things
that youth pastors do, thatwaste time.
You're right, it would be good,it saves time.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, if it's not a strength for you, then yeah,
that's a great idea.
Or just those moments of like.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I don't feel like having to create an entire email
.
I'm going to have chat, gpt,write it up and then I'm going
to put it in my own words.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah for sure, all right.
Number two things that wasteour time is doing the big
meetings every single week.
I don't like meetings, I am nota meeting person and I think
the weekly big two-hour meetingsare too much and they're a time
(07:58):
suck.
Sometimes you do need thattwo-hour staff meeting.
I just don't think you need itevery week.
It could be an every other weekkind of thing.
If you really need to two hourstaff meeting, I just don't
think you need it every week.
It could be an every other weekkind of thing.
If you really need to pull yourstaff together and talk about
some stuff.
I just don't think there's thereis any place in ministry for a
weekly two hour meeting.
I don't even think there's aplace for a weekly one hour
(08:22):
meeting.
Could just be my personality.
I hate them, but I feel likethey're not efficient.
Like if you have to meet for anhour with the same people every
single week, I just don'tunderstand how much could have
possibly changed in a week.
The only time I do that is andfeel it's highly necessary is
(08:42):
when we're at the finish linefor camp planning and things are
changing rapidly because campis fast approaching, but just in
a normal setting.
I here's what I feel like Ineed a weekly meeting for my
volunteers.
When they get to youth group onTuesday night we chat for 15
(09:04):
minutes about here, like it's alittle huddle, like here's
what's going on, here's the gamewe're playing, here's how you
play, here's your role, here'sthe big idea for your small
groups.
That's 15 minutes on Tuesdaynight and then my interns come
in Tuesday afternoon.
If I feel like we need ameeting, we maybe will meet for
(09:24):
about a half an hour and that'sjust to like all right, what are
you doing, what do we need done, what needs to be set up?
And now we deploy and go.
And then maybe once in a whilewe'll have a little bit of a
longer, deeper meeting of likeall right, like what are goals
and like kind of more dreaming.
But I don't feel like that is anevery week kind of thing.
(09:47):
I think that is a waste of timeto do those big, long drawn out
.
And I know some people enjoymeetings because it's like we're
all together and like this isour time to like see the team.
To that I would say take thatidea and go get coffee together,
(10:08):
go treat them to frozen yogurt,go like get tacos but just
sitting in a meeting because youmiss them.
It's like this is the mostboring way to catch up.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Like I don't want to just sit around the table and
like, uh, it's like at leastlet's go out and get a taco and
then talk about our lives.
You know, I don't feel like ameeting.
I feel like to me meetings areto accomplish things and hanging
out is for hanging out.
I don't like the blending ofthe two.
It's like let's meet to do whatwe need to do and then go have
(10:42):
some fun, you know, but don'ttry to make a meeting like the
fun time.
Then that cancels it out.
Like it's not fun when you'rejust sitting there.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So any, that's just my opinion, but you look at it,
where adding a meeting tohanging out ruins the hanging
out Other people might say,adding hanging out to a meeting
makes the meeting more fun.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I just you're a glass half empty type when it comes
to meetings, Cause I just feellike this isn't hanging out.
You are putting it's a wolf insheep's clothing, Like you are
pretending this is hanging outit's it's not, it's a meeting.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Do you do post camp meetings to like debrief or
anything like that?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Sometimes for our summer camp.
Yeah, we'll do like anappreciation dinner for all the
leaders, because that one's alot of work.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
But is that a hanging out or is I mean like meetings?
Do you ever have meetings Like?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I will text them individually and email them and
say hey, if you have anyfeedback or want to debrief or
something you think we couldhave done different, just send
it to me.
But then we celebrate with likeokay, and I'm buying everyone
dinner, you know, let's all justcelebrate.
And then we might tell storiesof like this was so cool, or oh,
what was your favorite moment?
(11:55):
You know, but I like fun and Idon't think meeting and fun can
go together for me ever, nomatter what you do, it's just
not going to happen for me.
So yeah, I guess and I can'treally pinpoint where all of our
listeners are at with this butI guess, just assessing how much
(12:17):
time am I spending in meetingseach week?
Does this meeting?
Asking yourself the question,does this meeting need to be
weekly, or could this bebiweekly, or could this be
monthly and still be asefficient?
Does this meeting need to betwo hours?
Could it be one hour?
If this meeting is one hour,could it be a half hour, Like,
(12:37):
are you just being as efficientas you can with your time and
everybody else's time?
And sometimes the leader likesmeetings because they're like
hey, all my people, you know,and everybody else's time.
And sometimes the leader likesmeetings because they're like,
hey, all my people you know andthe people are like why am I
here?
This is pointless, you know,especially if we have a lot to
do.
That's me.
I'm an efficiency person, soI'm like I can be efficient at
(12:59):
having fun, but I cannot beefficient at a meeting.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, if, you're, you're asking a lot of your
volunteers just to begin with,kate, you know you want them to
be there however many weeks,three weeks out of four, at
least every month, to be at aprogram.
And then if you're asking thaton top of that, and there's
these weekly meetings andthere's it's like, oh, I'm not
cut out for this, so you bettermake it worth it of like, oh my
gosh, like I'm glad.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So if it's just for the sake of it, you might have
to swallow your pride.
I think meetings make leadersfeel important, so they keep
them, you know, instead of justsaying, well, I guess we don't
really have anything to talkabout.
Like that feels like shouldn'twe have something you know?
So just assess how you're doingthat.
And then, number three, redoingstuff because you didn't save
(13:46):
it is a huge time waster.
So this could be anything fromthe emails we were talking about
to talk sheets, like discussionsheets for your small groups
that's kind of hard to say.
It could be your sermon notes.
It could be graphics for games.
Like so often we play the samegames like two times a year.
Like a weekend game two times ayear, you know.
(14:09):
And so like say, we're playinghuman foosball.
It's like we should have aslide for that, Not like all
right, I'm going to spend 30minutes making a little graphic
slide for it.
It's like, well, if you playthe same games, you should
always have the same game slidesand logos and graphics.
So just plug and play.
Those should all be savedsomewhere, and I cannot tell you
(14:30):
how much time it saves, Like,even like when we do the battle.
It's like the rules they'realready there.
My winter camp, summer camppacking lists already saved
already there.
My leader meeting notes forsummer camp already there.
So make sure things that youknow you're going to use again,
take the time to save them in aplace you will see them and
(14:52):
remember them so that every yearit comes around you're just
ready to go, and with messagestoo, you know, especially if you
ever have like guest speakingopportunities.
A lot of times I just pull frommy archive and my notes of just
like oh, I did this really cooltalk on Daniel, so now it's an
easy yes to speak at a chapel ora Christian club or FCA or
(15:17):
something like that, becauseit's like, oh, I have those
notes.
Yeah something like that,because it's like, oh, I have
those notes already to go andthat was easy to refresh my
memory, not just build somethingfrom the ground up every time
or ask chat, gbt or you knowwhatever GPT, gpt, P or B P,
chat, gpt.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Chat GPT.
It can hear you right now too.
Hello, chat GPT, hope you'rehaving a good day.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I'm sorry I got your name wrong.
Like when I said it out loud,I'm like that didn't sound right
GP.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I can't talk.
It's a weird name.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Anyways, next.
Another thing is this is goingto sound so counterintuitive,
but a lot of youth, pastors andleaders in general waste their
time trying to develop theirweaknesses.
And I think, like people alwayssay, like, start improving what
you're not good at.
(16:14):
Like, assess yourself.
Like I'm really good at this,okay, well, whatever you're not
good at, spend time developingthose skills.
But actually research shows theopposite, that you should build
on your strengths.
So what are you already like a90% at?
Lean into that and becomereally proficient, because you
(16:37):
clearly have the natural giftsto do so.
The things that you're not sogood at.
Don't see that as this goal.
To like I'm going to conquerthis, you know, and become the
best graphic designer there is,because you might just not have
a natural bent that way and whenyou could be sharpening a skill
(16:58):
that can be sharpened and youcan become an excellent speaker,
if that's kind of your gift,whereas the other one you might
put all this time and effort toand you're still going to be
like a C plus.
So the goal would always be tofind somebody who can do those
things very well.
Our campus pastor does not likeanything having to do with
(17:22):
technology.
You know, he's really good withpeople.
He's really good face to face.
He's really good, like, atcaring for people.
But if it has to do with techhe's like, ah, no, no, no, I
don't want to do it.
So he hands that off to peoplewho can do it like with the snap
of a finger, what would takehim like 15, 20 minutes to
figure out and they could haveit done like almost with the
(17:44):
next breath, like literally, soyou can surround yourself,
hopefully, with people that canpick up your slack on those
things and for you that thatcould even be students, because
you might be thinking like, ohmust be nice, like to have
people to pass off things to youknow.
(18:04):
But like social media, forinstance, I think that's another
one that youth pastors waste alot of time doing.
Well, shout out to Scout Norman.
She is one of our students whoshe started really young, when
she was a younger high schooler,and like we would just teach
her little by little like how touse the camera and let her come
(18:26):
to events and stuff like thatshe does all of our Instagram
reels at events.
Yeah, like everything that wasposted from winter camp was all
her.
I didn't log into our socialmedia once.
I don't think Caleb did either,it was all Scout.
So that's something that I usedto be like, oh shoot, I need
like material for our likeInstagram story and for a post
(18:50):
and all, and I would be liketrying to get pictures and stuff
.
And I would just see her atwinter camp sitting on like the
wall like editing and addingmusic and just looking at her
phone and I'm like, oh, she'sposting for us.
Like how awesome, she's reallygood at it.
So if something like that, likeif you're never going to be a
guru at Instagram or socialmedia, give it away to someone.
(19:13):
One of my directors.
She's in school for graphicdesign.
So when we need a game, slidefor a game instead of me, I
would just Google, image searchsomething and copy and paste it
into a with the watermark.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I don't even.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
I have no shame, I've done watermarks so many times
Like what, what, what else am Isupposed to do?
She has a knack for that andcan do it and does a really good
job, and then she gets somepractice in.
So sometimes it's beingcreative of you know, passing
that stuff, stuff off to peopleand then doing what you're
(19:48):
really good at, you know, andletting them do what they are
good at, instead of, like I wantto be a jack of all trades and
be good at everything.
I used to kind of think likethat Like I want to learn to
play the guitar because I neverwant to be without a worship
leader, and then I want to learnhow to do graphic design,
because I always want to be,because I think my goal was I
want to be as independent aspossible.
(20:09):
I don't want to be dependent onanyone else.
But while I was busy trying tomake myself into something I
wasn't like, I was spread sothin that even the things I was
really good at felt B, b minus,you know.
Instead of like I'm a, I'm agood teacher, and when I give it
(20:29):
my all, I'm a great teacher.
You know what I mean.
And it's like I'm a bad graphicartist and when I give it my
all.
I'm a bad graphic artist youknow, so that's the sentiment
there and you know that's worktoo, like like developing that
team around you, you know, andpraying.
(20:50):
I think you can pray for thosegifts on your team, like God,
send me someone who's good atthis, or help me to have the
right conversation with someonewho would be excited to do
social media for us or dographic design for us or do like
I don't know what, whatever itis you can hand off.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, what about things like I'm just not good at
organization.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
That is true A lot of people are not.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's not so much a task as it is a like skill.
Yeah, yeah, well, and it's alearned skill like you can learn
to be more organized if you canpass it off, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
You know, I think I've always felt that
organization is a learned skilland you can discipline yourself
to not drive everyone around youcrazy because you, because to
me and I guess where this iswhere this one's hard for me,
because I don't I don't see thedisconnect of like why can you
(21:55):
not return an email?
Like that's not a skill, that'sa discipline.
And so for me me and you maydisagree I feel like
organization is in a categorymuch more of discipline than
skill, because a lot ofdisorganized people, I feel like
how it manifests to me, it'slike that wasn't had nothing to
(22:18):
do with your skills.
You don't know how to text back.
You don't know how to text back.
You don't know how to write anevent in your calendar.
You don't.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I think sometimes it could be more keeping on top of
those things, and which is adiscipline True.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So I discipline myself.
The second somebody writes orsends me the date I have to walk
over.
Write it in my calendar,because if I just go oh, I saw
it and move on, I will forget.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
And.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I've been burned so many times where someone's like,
okay, see you at 10.
I'm like, see me at 10.
What's at 10.
?
And I go back and look and I'mlike, oh my gosh, why did I not
write that down?
So it's a discipline.
Like everyone has a skill towrite things down.
Everyone has a skill to textback.
It's to me like a little bit ofa cop-out to call that a skill,
(23:08):
like I'm just not good at it.
It's like I mean, I don't knowhow to write javascript like
that is an actual skill I don'tknow, I don't think people write
.
His job is scripts.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You know beep boop boop computers.
I think they got rid of that,but I could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I remember trying to learn some of that in college.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Beep boop boop computers.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
And we were trying to learn how to write.
What is it called?
Html like code like that yes,that's what I'm talking about
and I was like this is insane.
I cannot write code and thenthe teacher would show us how to
like.
Okay, if you want this line tobe green and this line to be
blue.
Now we go back to the html andyou write this and I'm like this
(23:54):
is wild, like I, that was askill, whereas I feel like this
is like well, so you have a penright and you can write, so
write it in your calendar, ta-da.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
What about remembering it?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
It's not a skill, but like I don't know so the
discipline would be look at yourcalendar every single day,
multiple times a day.
I do that, like I have to lookat my calendar multiple times a
day, so I almost feel like theskill would be the discipline.
Yeah.
Like get a better, just a skill.
I think we're going in circles.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
But yeah, just having , yeah, maybe it just is more of
a discipline.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I don't know.
Join the conversation in thecomments below, we're moving on
Another thing youth pastors doto waste their time other than
talking about.
Skill and discipline for way toolong is writing your own
curriculum.
I think that there's nothingwrong with it.
I think sometimes when youwrite your own curriculum it can
turn out really good.
(24:53):
I would at least encourage somekind of jumping off point
because, like you said, with thechat, gpt stuff, it's like well
, okay, this is good, not great.
I need to like take the ballnow.
And that's how I feel withcurriculum.
(25:14):
It's like all right, likethere's some stuff here and this
is stuff I never would havethought of.
I want to change this questionjust a little bit and I maybe
I'm going to add another one andinstead of it taking me 45
minutes to write something fromthe ground up took me 10 minutes
to kind of tweak it to fit ourgroup a little bit better.
(25:34):
So I think not using curriculumis a mistake, like and I'm not
saying like you are like readinga script like a robot, but it
is such a time saver as ajumping off point of giving you
a structure to go off, of givingyou a, you know, like and then
(25:55):
just kind of putting it in yourown words Totally and fitting it
to your group from there.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
But the bulk of the work has already been done.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Because I feel like people who are always going to
be writing sermons from theground up, discussion sheets
from the ground up, Every week.
Then that is your full-time job.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
There is.
No, you don't have time to beorganized, disciplined or
anything else, because,literally, if you have the
privilege to only be a teachingpastor, that would be realistic.
But youth pastors do not havethat privilege.
We have so many other things wedo besides teaching that it
(26:33):
seems like our time could bebetter spent elsewhere.
And that's not to say liketeaching's not important,
because I don't want you to hearme say like, ah, who cares?
Spend five minutes, get upthere, give it your best shot.
I'm just saying like I feel likesometimes, when faced with a
decision of like, I feel likesometimes, when faced with a
decision of like should I pourinto my leaders or should I
(26:54):
really study for this sermon?
I'm going to study for thesermon, or should I return this
email that's been sitting in myinbox for two days, or should I
spend a little more time divinginto the theology?
It's like, yes, our teaching isimportant and that's why we're
here to preach the gospel, butthe truth is we get paid to do a
(27:19):
lot of things besides justteaching.
So when you need a little bitof help so that you can cut down
your prep time, not cut downyour quality, then things like G
shades, things like co-leaderthings, resources from life
church are hugely helpful, um,and sometimes those things like
(27:40):
we'll have bumpers and graphicsand things like that that really
enhance it to make it look likeyou spent a lot of time on it.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Talk sheets for the smaller leaders.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, and so it just gives you that little cushion of
like, wow, instead of spendingsix hours developing a sermon, I
can spend, you know, one or two, you know, I don't know,
depending on the topic and howfamiliar you are with it.
I just look back at my past andI feel like I used to spend way
(28:11):
too much time sermon preppingand, however, I feel like I'm a
better teacher now, yet I spendless time sermon prepping.
And maybe that's because ofmaturity, but I also feel like I
didn't use any curriculum, anyhelp, any tools back then.
It was just literally ground upevery single week and it got
(28:33):
exhausting and I remembertelling one of our pastors that
he's like how is you know yourministry going?
I'm like it's a lot.
I teach like two or three timesa week between weekend services
, midweek service, studentleadership team, and then if I
was a guest speaker somewherelike at a chapel or something at
a school, he's like, oh, like,why don't you just save your
(28:55):
talks and redo them?
and you know like he's trying tohelp me make my life easier,
but it was like I just felt likeI had to write these sermons
out of thin air every time whenI could have been like so much
more relaxed and doing otherthings you know so yeah, along
those same lines.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
if you want to check out an episode we did about
things that you can do to savesome of your time and add more
hours to your week, make sureyou check that out.
It'll be in the descriptionbelow.
All right, the question of theday this week is what is the
weirdest thing you've ever foundin someone else's house?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
So I had a boyfriend named Jeff La Scola once, funny
coincidence, and he saved hiskidney stones in a bottle
underneath his sink.
Oh, if they're not a bottle.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
It's in a ziploc bag, oh, ziploc bag.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So underneath the the sink it's for research in the
cupboard you just see a littleziploc bag with teeny, tiny
little kidney stones odd shaped.
They look like grape nuts tellyou what they didn't feel teeny
tiny but um like does anyoneelse know of someone who keeps
(30:13):
their own personal kidney stonecollection in their bathroom?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I am making a gravel path in our backyard and I
needed some extra stones it wasweird.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I feel like you know what it was weird, you know what
if you haven't passed a stone?
You don't know the joy itbrings you when it does pass.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, it's like a trophy for those of you that
have passed the kidney stone.
Did you save it?
Speaker 1 (30:37):
put it in the comments no, they didn't, I
guarantee you, they did not man,I should throw you under the
bus.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
What do you have?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
did you fish it out of the toilet or did you pee it
into your hand?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
oh, dealer's choice, which is worse I want, I'm
asking.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
I fished I've never asked I've never asked this
question before.
It never occurred to me.
How did you get it?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
you're gonna get burnt by the molten lava the
deeper you go I don't want to.
I would fish it out and wash itoff.
It's not like I've never hadurine on my hands before.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
This podcast took a drastic turn, let's, let's have
my turn my turn to share.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
The weirdest thing I found was we stayed at um.
It was a staff retreat and westayed at a really nice house in
Coronado.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I remember they had one or two giant narwhal tusks
or horns or whatever Tooths,those giant horn oh, that was
kind of sad On display.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
They were real.
Yeah, I don't know if that'seven legal, but they were there
and yeah oh, I just got sad.
I know it was.
That was weird.
It was a little weird.
It's like an ace ventura whenbeautiful home he goes into that
room and you know ace venturalike loves animals, and it's
like when nature calls thatright, and it's like all the
(32:05):
like animal heads and thetaxidermed animals you know
taxidermed animals.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Is that a term?
And he's like hyperventilatingthat's how I felt with the
narwhal tusk tooth horns.
I think technically they're atooth I think you're right,
which is weird because they comeout of their head um.
They poke through their oh,that sounds horrible I believe?
Speaker 1 (32:27):
yikes, I don't know.
I was reading in some littlelike kids national geographic
the other day my kids dentistoffice where I get my teeth
cleaned.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, you're the weird one.
Anyways, put in the commentsection below what's the
strangest?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
thing I make you insecure about your kidney.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I don't care, hey, if anybody's dealing with any
kidney stone issues.
I can tell you everything youneed to know because I've passed
over 25.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I stopped counting at 25, so I've been telling people
12 and they've been shook, andnow it's 20.
I didn't double it because 25just seemed obscene it is.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
That's why I stopped counting, because it kind of got
ridiculous and I think Iactually just lost count at one
point jeff yeah, well, I savedthem.
Um, put in the comment sectionbelow.
If there is anything you sawstrange in someone else's home,
let's do a community comment ofthe day and then we'll call it a
day.
This comes from ricky hammonds,who says and this is in regards
to what he loves about thispodcast he said the thing I
(33:27):
enjoy the most is how I feellike weight has been lifted off
my shoulders.
You guys have helped me planbetter and invest more into my
team.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Ooh, I like the part where he said weight lifted off
his shoulders.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I like the part where he said invest more in his team
.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I like the part where he said hi, my name's Ricky.
He didn't say that, but it wasimplied.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
It was implied.
Thank you, ricky, appreciatethat, and thank you guys for
watching and listening.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
And we'll see you next time, right?
Anything to add to that?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Anything to add to that?
Nope, nope, nothing to add tothat.
Well, is that what I soundedlike?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I don't know.
Well, you kept going and Ithought you were going to try to
get in there.
Today we're talking about five things youth pastors
do that waste their time.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where
every week we give youactionable and practical tips
that you can implement into youryouth ministry.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen
Laskola, and I just got backfrom winter camp Yay.
So if I sound a little bitraspy, a little bit hoarse,
that's why I don't be yelling atpeople the whole time.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The funny thing is I really wasn't I think it's
something about lack of sleep,that mountain air.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Mountain air, because it wasn't just me, it was like
a few people kind of have likehorse voices right now.
So whatever, today we aretalking about things that youth
pastors do that waste time.
I feel like that's a prompt forlike a game or something,
things that youth pastors dothat waste time For 400.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Please a prompt for like a game or something, things
that you bastards do that wastetime for 400, please.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Number one are these are all ones that I have learned
, probably the hard way.
So, I'm going to like tell youhow I used to kind of do it
wrong and waste a lot of time.
Number one is writing fresh newcommunication every single week
, my best hack of the last fewyears.
And if you already do this inour way ahead of me, good for
(01:29):
you.
I wish I would have learned itsooner.
Always save your weekly emailsto a word document, edit them,
copy and paste them into theemail and send them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
When you do that, do you save it as a new document or
are?
You constantly going off of thelast one you sent.
I didn't know if you meant likeso that you had it when you go
for the next year to do summercamp signups, you can use the
same email.
You just go back and you're.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
No, I'll talk about that concept in a little bit
with some other stuff.
But this is like I have twodocuments I just saved to my
desktop, so they're always there.
It says parent email leaderemail.
I open it up worst casescenario on Monday to edit it.
But I look at what I sent lastweek and if it's still relevant,
I keep it or change the wordingto reflect like this week
(02:21):
instead of next week orsomething like that.
I put the new talk sheet inthere so that everyone's in the
loop.
I update anything having to dowith the events and it's so much
easier than every single week,dear parents, blah, blah, blah.
And I just used to sit down andwrite these really long emails.
I make sure everyone knew whatwas going on for the week and
(02:42):
I'm like I don't want it tobecome so stale that everybody
just deletes it because they're,like you say the same darn
thing every week.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
But if, like, I'm announcing something that's
happening in three weeks, youknow it's like well, why rewrite
that every single time?
And then there's some thingsthat I leave on there like
static, like summer camp datesJuly 10th through the 17th you
know, and I highlight that andthe link to our calendar online,
(03:13):
like once you set your summercamp dates.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Is that in the bottom of that email always all the
way until, yeah, you go?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
yeah, so that everyone's reminded every single
week, and then, as we getcloser, I might push that toward
the top, like we're a hundreddays out from winter or summer
camp, or 50 days out, whateverit might be like just kind of
like okay, now I'm going tostart drawing more attention to
it.
But those big things that areimmovable, like my winter camp
(03:41):
dates or my winter camp dates,summer camp, summer camp camp
dates, or my winter camp dates,summer camp, summer camp, and
then for my leaders, that wouldbe the leader retreat, it's all.
I include the camp dates for myleaders, but then I add our
retreat, which is in November,so that it's always on their
mind of like, oh yeah, I need tomake sure I get that off of
work, or oh yeah, I need to makesure I don't have family in
town that week, or whatever.
(04:02):
So I just copy and paste thoseback into my email every week
and then I usually change likethe first few lines, like this
week we just got back from camp,so I said something about that.
You know like, hey, camp wasgreat, so glad you guys came.
You know so, and I guess now ittakes me like 10 minutes
(04:23):
instead of 30 minutes.
So it is a great time saver,and I mean each, you know.
So it was like that used to bean hour just of emails, to make
sure everybody knew what wasgoing on.
Writing a big, long letter, sosaving your communication, and
then another one and I don't usethis one as frequently, but I
(04:44):
start sending communication tothe fifth grade parents a few
times throughout the year so Isave that onto my desktop.
It says fifth grade parentemail, so I'm reminded.
Oh yeah, make sure you'resending out summer camp dates to
them.
Make sure you're like, hey, it's, we have our promotion event,
(05:05):
like your fifth grader isbecoming a sixth grader, here's
what you need to know.
So those emails I do save sothat every year I can kind of
just change the dates anddetails but have those ready to
go, so anything that's on repeatfor you.
You could have a folder in yourcomputer like frequent email
(05:26):
things and if you're like, sayyou're doing more than just
student ministries, you couldeven have a free free why can I
not say that word Frequentresponse email folder, so like.
Oh, if you get the samequestions a lot of times, yeah,
yeah, like whether it'stheologically like if somebody
wants to know your stance onsomething, you change it a bit
(05:49):
to fit the current conversationyou're having, but you don't
have to rethink and write allthese things again.
Or parents like winter camp,like once they've registered,
here's what they need to know.
We're meeting at this time,we're getting picked up at this
time.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Here's, you know, the packing list, whatever, so
you're not always having toreinvent the wheel or rewrite
those same things, Ones that areon repeat all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
save those emails as a template for yourself, and it
not only does it save time, butit helps you not miss something
like oh shoot, I forgot to tellthem that because it will just
be the same thing every year,with just minor updates.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You.
I know you're not a fan of this, but chat GPT if you're writing
a brand new email is like yourbest friend because I never used
it, so you need to start.
So the benefit I'm sure I'mpreaching to the choir here
because I'm sure you guys use it, but it's so much easier to
edit and fine tune somethingthat's been written than writing
(06:49):
it from scratch.
A lot of us feel like I'm notcreative enough at this moment
to start it, you know, andwhereas you just give chat GBT
the prompts and say this is kindof what I want to say, you know
, and then it just boom withinseconds and then you take that
out and you can have it changeit or you can just edit it, so
it's really convenient.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, I was a communication major, so like
thinking of words and buildingcommunication, thinking of words
.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's not that hard for me.
I'm a professional at it, butwhen we're talking about things
that youth pastors do, thatwaste time.
You're right, it would be good,it saves time.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, if it's not a strength for you, then yeah,
that's a great idea.
Or just those moments of like.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I don't feel like having to create an entire email
.
I'm going to have chat, gpt,write it up and then I'm going
to put it in my own words.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah for sure, all right.
Number two things that wasteour time is doing the big
meetings every single week.
I don't like meetings, I am nota meeting person and I think
the weekly big two-hour meetingsare too much and they're a time
(07:58):
suck.
Sometimes you do need thattwo-hour staff meeting.
I just don't think you need itevery week.
It could be an every other weekkind of thing.
If you really need to two hourstaff meeting, I just don't
think you need it every week.
It could be an every other weekkind of thing.
If you really need to pull yourstaff together and talk about
some stuff.
I just don't think there's thereis any place in ministry for a
weekly two hour meeting.
I don't even think there's aplace for a weekly one hour
(08:22):
meeting.
Could just be my personality.
I hate them, but I feel likethey're not efficient.
Like if you have to meet for anhour with the same people every
single week, I just don'tunderstand how much could have
possibly changed in a week.
The only time I do that is andfeel it's highly necessary is
(08:42):
when we're at the finish linefor camp planning and things are
changing rapidly because campis fast approaching, but just in
a normal setting.
I here's what I feel like Ineed a weekly meeting for my
volunteers.
When they get to youth group onTuesday night we chat for 15
(09:04):
minutes about here, like it's alittle huddle, like here's
what's going on, here's the gamewe're playing, here's how you
play, here's your role, here'sthe big idea for your small
groups.
That's 15 minutes on Tuesdaynight and then my interns come
in Tuesday afternoon.
If I feel like we need ameeting, we maybe will meet for
(09:24):
about a half an hour and that'sjust to like all right, what are
you doing, what do we need done, what needs to be set up?
And now we deploy and go.
And then maybe once in a whilewe'll have a little bit of a
longer, deeper meeting of likeall right, like what are goals
and like kind of more dreaming.
But I don't feel like that is anevery week kind of thing.
(09:47):
I think that is a waste of timeto do those big, long drawn out
.
And I know some people enjoymeetings because it's like we're
all together and like this isour time to like see the team.
To that I would say take thatidea and go get coffee together,
(10:08):
go treat them to frozen yogurt,go like get tacos but just
sitting in a meeting because youmiss them.
It's like this is the mostboring way to catch up.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Like I don't want to just sit around the table and
like, uh, it's like at leastlet's go out and get a taco and
then talk about our lives.
You know, I don't feel like ameeting.
I feel like to me meetings areto accomplish things and hanging
out is for hanging out.
I don't like the blending ofthe two.
It's like let's meet to do whatwe need to do and then go have
(10:42):
some fun, you know, but don'ttry to make a meeting like the
fun time.
Then that cancels it out.
Like it's not fun when you'rejust sitting there.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So any, that's just my opinion, but you look at it,
where adding a meeting tohanging out ruins the hanging
out Other people might say,adding hanging out to a meeting
makes the meeting more fun.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I just you're a glass half empty type when it comes
to meetings, Cause I just feellike this isn't hanging out.
You are putting it's a wolf insheep's clothing, Like you are
pretending this is hanging outit's it's not, it's a meeting.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Do you do post camp meetings to like debrief or
anything like that?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Sometimes for our summer camp.
Yeah, we'll do like anappreciation dinner for all the
leaders, because that one's alot of work.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
But is that a hanging out or is I mean like meetings?
Do you ever have meetings Like?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I will text them individually and email them and
say hey, if you have anyfeedback or want to debrief or
something you think we couldhave done different, just send
it to me.
But then we celebrate with likeokay, and I'm buying everyone
dinner, you know, let's all justcelebrate.
And then we might tell storiesof like this was so cool, or oh,
what was your favorite moment?
(11:55):
You know, but I like fun and Idon't think meeting and fun can
go together for me ever, nomatter what you do, it's just
not going to happen for me.
So yeah, I guess and I can'treally pinpoint where all of our
listeners are at with this butI guess, just assessing how much
(12:17):
time am I spending in meetingseach week?
Does this meeting?
Asking yourself the question,does this meeting need to be
weekly, or could this bebiweekly, or could this be
monthly and still be asefficient?
Does this meeting need to betwo hours?
Could it be one hour?
If this meeting is one hour,could it be a half hour, Like,
(12:37):
are you just being as efficientas you can with your time and
everybody else's time?
And sometimes the leader likesmeetings because they're like
hey, all my people, you know,and everybody else's time.
And sometimes the leader likesmeetings because they're like,
hey, all my people you know andthe people are like why am I
here?
This is pointless, you know,especially if we have a lot to
do.
That's me.
I'm an efficiency person, soI'm like I can be efficient at
(12:59):
having fun, but I cannot beefficient at a meeting.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, if, you're, you're asking a lot of your
volunteers just to begin with,kate, you know you want them to
be there however many weeks,three weeks out of four, at
least every month, to be at aprogram.
And then if you're asking thaton top of that, and there's
these weekly meetings andthere's it's like, oh, I'm not
cut out for this, so you bettermake it worth it of like, oh my
gosh, like I'm glad.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So if it's just for the sake of it, you might have
to swallow your pride.
I think meetings make leadersfeel important, so they keep
them, you know, instead of justsaying, well, I guess we don't
really have anything to talkabout.
Like that feels like shouldn'twe have something you know?
So just assess how you're doingthat.
And then, number three, redoingstuff because you didn't save
(13:46):
it is a huge time waster.
So this could be anything fromthe emails we were talking about
to talk sheets, like discussionsheets for your small groups
that's kind of hard to say.
It could be your sermon notes.
It could be graphics for games.
Like so often we play the samegames like two times a year.
Like a weekend game two times ayear, you know.
(14:09):
And so like say, we're playinghuman foosball.
It's like we should have aslide for that, Not like all
right, I'm going to spend 30minutes making a little graphic
slide for it.
It's like, well, if you playthe same games, you should
always have the same game slidesand logos and graphics.
So just plug and play.
Those should all be savedsomewhere, and I cannot tell you
(14:30):
how much time it saves, Like,even like when we do the battle.
It's like the rules they'realready there.
My winter camp, summer camppacking lists already saved
already there.
My leader meeting notes forsummer camp already there.
So make sure things that youknow you're going to use again,
take the time to save them in aplace you will see them and
(14:52):
remember them so that every yearit comes around you're just
ready to go, and with messagestoo, you know, especially if you
ever have like guest speakingopportunities.
A lot of times I just pull frommy archive and my notes of just
like oh, I did this really cooltalk on Daniel, so now it's an
easy yes to speak at a chapel ora Christian club or FCA or
(15:17):
something like that, becauseit's like, oh, I have those
notes.
Yeah something like that,because it's like, oh, I have
those notes already to go andthat was easy to refresh my
memory, not just build somethingfrom the ground up every time
or ask chat, gbt or you knowwhatever GPT, gpt, P or B P,
chat, gpt.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Chat GPT.
It can hear you right now too.
Hello, chat GPT, hope you'rehaving a good day.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I'm sorry I got your name wrong.
Like when I said it out loud,I'm like that didn't sound right
GP.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I can't talk.
It's a weird name.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Anyways, next.
Another thing is this is goingto sound so counterintuitive,
but a lot of youth, pastors andleaders in general waste their
time trying to develop theirweaknesses.
And I think, like people alwayssay, like, start improving what
you're not good at.
(16:14):
Like, assess yourself.
Like I'm really good at this,okay, well, whatever you're not
good at, spend time developingthose skills.
But actually research shows theopposite, that you should build
on your strengths.
So what are you already like a90% at?
Lean into that and becomereally proficient, because you
(16:37):
clearly have the natural giftsto do so.
The things that you're not sogood at.
Don't see that as this goal.
To like I'm going to conquerthis, you know, and become the
best graphic designer there is,because you might just not have
a natural bent that way and whenyou could be sharpening a skill
(16:58):
that can be sharpened and youcan become an excellent speaker,
if that's kind of your gift,whereas the other one you might
put all this time and effort toand you're still going to be
like a C plus.
So the goal would always be tofind somebody who can do those
things very well.
Our campus pastor does not likeanything having to do with
(17:22):
technology.
You know, he's really good withpeople.
He's really good face to face.
He's really good, like, atcaring for people.
But if it has to do with techhe's like, ah, no, no, no, I
don't want to do it.
So he hands that off to peoplewho can do it like with the snap
of a finger, what would takehim like 15, 20 minutes to
figure out and they could haveit done like almost with the
(17:44):
next breath, like literally, soyou can surround yourself,
hopefully, with people that canpick up your slack on those
things and for you that thatcould even be students, because
you might be thinking like, ohmust be nice, like to have
people to pass off things to youknow.
(18:04):
But like social media, forinstance, I think that's another
one that youth pastors waste alot of time doing.
Well, shout out to Scout Norman.
She is one of our students whoshe started really young, when
she was a younger high schooler,and like we would just teach
her little by little like how touse the camera and let her come
(18:26):
to events and stuff like thatshe does all of our Instagram
reels at events.
Yeah, like everything that wasposted from winter camp was all
her.
I didn't log into our socialmedia once.
I don't think Caleb did either,it was all Scout.
So that's something that I usedto be like, oh shoot, I need
like material for our likeInstagram story and for a post
(18:50):
and all, and I would be liketrying to get pictures and stuff
.
And I would just see her atwinter camp sitting on like the
wall like editing and addingmusic and just looking at her
phone and I'm like, oh, she'sposting for us.
Like how awesome, she's reallygood at it.
So if something like that, likeif you're never going to be a
guru at Instagram or socialmedia, give it away to someone.
(19:13):
One of my directors.
She's in school for graphicdesign.
So when we need a game, slidefor a game instead of me, I
would just Google, image searchsomething and copy and paste it
into a with the watermark.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I don't even.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
I have no shame, I've done watermarks so many times
Like what, what, what else am Isupposed to do?
She has a knack for that andcan do it and does a really good
job, and then she gets somepractice in.
So sometimes it's beingcreative of you know, passing
that stuff, stuff off to peopleand then doing what you're
(19:48):
really good at, you know, andletting them do what they are
good at, instead of, like I wantto be a jack of all trades and
be good at everything.
I used to kind of think likethat Like I want to learn to
play the guitar because I neverwant to be without a worship
leader, and then I want to learnhow to do graphic design,
because I always want to be,because I think my goal was I
want to be as independent aspossible.
(20:09):
I don't want to be dependent onanyone else.
But while I was busy trying tomake myself into something I
wasn't like, I was spread sothin that even the things I was
really good at felt B, b minus,you know.
Instead of like I'm a, I'm agood teacher, and when I give it
(20:29):
my all, I'm a great teacher.
You know what I mean.
And it's like I'm a bad graphicartist and when I give it my
all.
I'm a bad graphic artist youknow, so that's the sentiment
there and you know that's worktoo, like like developing that
team around you, you know, andpraying.
(20:50):
I think you can pray for thosegifts on your team, like God,
send me someone who's good atthis, or help me to have the
right conversation with someonewho would be excited to do
social media for us or dographic design for us or do like
I don't know what, whatever itis you can hand off.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, what about things like I'm just not good at
organization.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
That is true A lot of people are not.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's not so much a task as it is a like skill.
Yeah, yeah, well, and it's alearned skill like you can learn
to be more organized if you canpass it off, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
You know, I think I've always felt that
organization is a learned skilland you can discipline yourself
to not drive everyone around youcrazy because you, because to
me and I guess where this iswhere this one's hard for me,
because I don't I don't see thedisconnect of like why can you
(21:55):
not return an email?
Like that's not a skill, that'sa discipline.
And so for me me and you maydisagree I feel like
organization is in a categorymuch more of discipline than
skill, because a lot ofdisorganized people, I feel like
how it manifests to me, it'slike that wasn't had nothing to
(22:18):
do with your skills.
You don't know how to text back.
You don't know how to text back.
You don't know how to write anevent in your calendar.
You don't.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I think sometimes it could be more keeping on top of
those things, and which is adiscipline True.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So I discipline myself.
The second somebody writes orsends me the date I have to walk
over.
Write it in my calendar,because if I just go oh, I saw
it and move on, I will forget.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
And.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I've been burned so many times where someone's like,
okay, see you at 10.
I'm like, see me at 10.
What's at 10.
?
And I go back and look and I'mlike, oh my gosh, why did I not
write that down?
So it's a discipline.
Like everyone has a skill towrite things down.
Everyone has a skill to textback.
It's to me like a little bit ofa cop-out to call that a skill,
(23:08):
like I'm just not good at it.
It's like I mean, I don't knowhow to write javascript like
that is an actual skill I don'tknow, I don't think people write
.
His job is scripts.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You know beep boop boop computers.
I think they got rid of that,but I could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I remember trying to learn some of that in college.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Beep boop boop computers.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
And we were trying to learn how to write.
What is it called?
Html like code like that yes,that's what I'm talking about
and I was like this is insane.
I cannot write code and thenthe teacher would show us how to
like.
Okay, if you want this line tobe green and this line to be
blue.
Now we go back to the html andyou write this and I'm like this
(23:54):
is wild, like I, that was askill, whereas I feel like this
is like well, so you have a penright and you can write, so
write it in your calendar, ta-da.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
What about remembering it?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
It's not a skill, but like I don't know so the
discipline would be look at yourcalendar every single day,
multiple times a day.
I do that, like I have to lookat my calendar multiple times a
day, so I almost feel like theskill would be the discipline.
Yeah.
Like get a better, just a skill.
I think we're going in circles.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
But yeah, just having , yeah, maybe it just is more of
a discipline.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I don't know.
Join the conversation in thecomments below, we're moving on
Another thing youth pastors doto waste their time other than
talking about.
Skill and discipline for way toolong is writing your own
curriculum.
I think that there's nothingwrong with it.
I think sometimes when youwrite your own curriculum it can
turn out really good.
(24:53):
I would at least encourage somekind of jumping off point
because, like you said, with thechat, gpt stuff, it's like well
, okay, this is good, not great.
I need to like take the ballnow.
And that's how I feel withcurriculum.
(25:14):
It's like all right, likethere's some stuff here and this
is stuff I never would havethought of.
I want to change this questionjust a little bit and I maybe
I'm going to add another one andinstead of it taking me 45
minutes to write something fromthe ground up took me 10 minutes
to kind of tweak it to fit ourgroup a little bit better.
(25:34):
So I think not using curriculumis a mistake, like and I'm not
saying like you are like readinga script like a robot, but it
is such a time saver as ajumping off point of giving you
a structure to go off, of givingyou a, you know, like and then
(25:55):
just kind of putting it in yourown words Totally and fitting it
to your group from there.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
But the bulk of the work has already been done.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Because I feel like people who are always going to
be writing sermons from theground up, discussion sheets
from the ground up, Every week.
Then that is your full-time job.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
There is.
No, you don't have time to beorganized, disciplined or
anything else, because,literally, if you have the
privilege to only be a teachingpastor, that would be realistic.
But youth pastors do not havethat privilege.
We have so many other things wedo besides teaching that it
(26:33):
seems like our time could bebetter spent elsewhere.
And that's not to say liketeaching's not important,
because I don't want you to hearme say like, ah, who cares?
Spend five minutes, get upthere, give it your best shot.
I'm just saying like I feel likesometimes, when faced with a
decision of like, I feel likesometimes, when faced with a
decision of like should I pourinto my leaders or should I
(26:54):
really study for this sermon?
I'm going to study for thesermon, or should I return this
email that's been sitting in myinbox for two days, or should I
spend a little more time divinginto the theology?
It's like, yes, our teaching isimportant and that's why we're
here to preach the gospel, butthe truth is we get paid to do a
(27:19):
lot of things besides justteaching.
So when you need a little bitof help so that you can cut down
your prep time, not cut downyour quality, then things like G
shades, things like co-leaderthings, resources from life
church are hugely helpful, um,and sometimes those things like
(27:40):
we'll have bumpers and graphicsand things like that that really
enhance it to make it look likeyou spent a lot of time on it.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Talk sheets for the smaller leaders.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, and so it just gives you that little cushion of
like, wow, instead of spendingsix hours developing a sermon, I
can spend, you know, one or two, you know, I don't know,
depending on the topic and howfamiliar you are with it.
I just look back at my past andI feel like I used to spend way
(28:11):
too much time sermon preppingand, however, I feel like I'm a
better teacher now, yet I spendless time sermon prepping.
And maybe that's because ofmaturity, but I also feel like I
didn't use any curriculum, anyhelp, any tools back then.
It was just literally ground upevery single week and it got
(28:33):
exhausting and I remembertelling one of our pastors that
he's like how is you know yourministry going?
I'm like it's a lot.
I teach like two or three timesa week between weekend services
, midweek service, studentleadership team, and then if I
was a guest speaker somewherelike at a chapel or something at
a school, he's like, oh, like,why don't you just save your
(28:55):
talks and redo them?
and you know like he's trying tohelp me make my life easier,
but it was like I just felt likeI had to write these sermons
out of thin air every time whenI could have been like so much
more relaxed and doing otherthings you know so yeah, along
those same lines.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
if you want to check out an episode we did about
things that you can do to savesome of your time and add more
hours to your week, make sureyou check that out.
It'll be in the descriptionbelow.
All right, the question of theday this week is what is the
weirdest thing you've ever foundin someone else's house?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
So I had a boyfriend named Jeff La Scola once, funny
coincidence, and he saved hiskidney stones in a bottle
underneath his sink.
Oh, if they're not a bottle.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
It's in a ziploc bag, oh, ziploc bag.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So underneath the the sink it's for research in the
cupboard you just see a littleziploc bag with teeny, tiny
little kidney stones odd shaped.
They look like grape nuts tellyou what they didn't feel teeny
tiny but um like does anyoneelse know of someone who keeps
(30:13):
their own personal kidney stonecollection in their bathroom?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I am making a gravel path in our backyard and I
needed some extra stones it wasweird.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I feel like you know what it was weird, you know what
if you haven't passed a stone?
You don't know the joy itbrings you when it does pass.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, it's like a trophy for those of you that
have passed the kidney stone.
Did you save it?
Speaker 1 (30:37):
put it in the comments no, they didn't, I
guarantee you, they did not man,I should throw you under the
bus.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
What do you have?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
did you fish it out of the toilet or did you pee it
into your hand?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
oh, dealer's choice, which is worse I want, I'm
asking.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
I fished I've never asked I've never asked this
question before.
It never occurred to me.
How did you get it?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
you're gonna get burnt by the molten lava the
deeper you go I don't want to.
I would fish it out and wash itoff.
It's not like I've never hadurine on my hands before.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
This podcast took a drastic turn, let's, let's have
my turn my turn to share.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
The weirdest thing I found was we stayed at um.
It was a staff retreat and westayed at a really nice house in
Coronado.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I remember they had one or two giant narwhal tusks
or horns or whatever Tooths,those giant horn oh, that was
kind of sad On display.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
They were real.
Yeah, I don't know if that'seven legal, but they were there
and yeah oh, I just got sad.
I know it was.
That was weird.
It was a little weird.
It's like an ace ventura whenbeautiful home he goes into that
room and you know ace venturalike loves animals, and it's
like when nature calls thatright, and it's like all the
(32:05):
like animal heads and thetaxidermed animals you know
taxidermed animals.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Is that a term?
And he's like hyperventilatingthat's how I felt with the
narwhal tusk tooth horns.
I think technically they're atooth I think you're right,
which is weird because they comeout of their head um.
They poke through their oh,that sounds horrible I believe?
Speaker 1 (32:27):
yikes, I don't know.
I was reading in some littlelike kids national geographic
the other day my kids dentistoffice where I get my teeth
cleaned.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, you're the weird one.
Anyways, put in the commentsection below what's the
strangest?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
thing I make you insecure about your kidney.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I don't care, hey, if anybody's dealing with any
kidney stone issues.
I can tell you everything youneed to know because I've passed
over 25.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I stopped counting at 25, so I've been telling people
12 and they've been shook, andnow it's 20.
I didn't double it because 25just seemed obscene it is.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
That's why I stopped counting, because it kind of got
ridiculous and I think Iactually just lost count at one
point jeff yeah, well, I savedthem.
Um, put in the comment sectionbelow.
If there is anything you sawstrange in someone else's home,
let's do a community comment ofthe day and then we'll call it a
day.
This comes from ricky hammonds,who says and this is in regards
to what he loves about thispodcast he said the thing I
(33:27):
enjoy the most is how I feellike weight has been lifted off
my shoulders.
You guys have helped me planbetter and invest more into my
team.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Ooh, I like the part where he said weight lifted off
his shoulders.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I like the part where he said invest more in his team
.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I like the part where he said hi, my name's Ricky.
He didn't say that, but it wasimplied.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
It was implied.
Thank you, ricky, appreciatethat, and thank you guys for
watching and listening.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
And we'll see you next time, right?
Anything to add to that?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Anything to add to that?
Nope, nope, nothing to add tothat.
Well, is that what I soundedlike?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I don't know.
Well, you kept going and Ithought you were going to try to
get in there.
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