March 27, 2025 • 33 mins
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GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Character surpasses skills every time in youth ministry. That's the powerful message at the heart of this conversation about what truly makes a youth pastor valuable. While this podcast is always full of practical advice, this episode offers a crucial recalibration for youth pastors who might be focusing too much on where they're going rather than who they're becoming.
The episode breaks down four specific character qualities that increase a student pastor's value to the church: honesty, trustworthiness, tolerance , and teachability. These qualities, rooted in connection to the Holy Spirit, create sustainability in student ministry that mere talent cannot provide. Listen in and discover how deepening your character can transform not just your youth ministry effectiveness but your entire leadership journey.
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You may also enjoy these episodes:
(#091) What is the Biblical Definition of a Youth Pastor?
(#026) Increasing Your Value, Worth & Influence: Heart, Hunger, Hustle
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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 how you can increase your
value as a youth pastor to thechurch that you work at.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
talk about all things youthministry.
My name is Jeff Laskola andthis is Kristen Laskola.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And today we're going to talk about how you can
increase your value as a staffmember at your church, and today
is going to feel a little moredevotional and encouragement
rather than here's some tips andtactics.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Less encouraging.
More beat you over the head iswhat we usually do.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I don't think so.
I think we usually give, like,some practical tips, and today
will be a little more heart thanhead, which I think we all need
once in a while as youthpastors, to make sure that we're
not missing the point.
You know, like it's sort of thatrecalibration, like we're
working, working, working,working.
Wait, what's the point?
(01:04):
Like, like, what's the mostimportant?
What should we be keeping ourtemperature gauge on?
What should we make sure is notgetting off?
Because here's the truth If youlose yourself, you lose your
ministry.
Lose yourself.
Sorry, yes, jeff.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I don't think I can hear that phrase without
thinking that song Lose yourself, and then what's the next line.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And always just sort of stops there.
Sorry, take two and go.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So everything comes down to this core, this center
of in order to be a good youthpastor, you have to like
everything starts with that likegodly character and integrity.
That's it.
Like that is like the core ofwhat we do.
If we lose our character, if welose who we are, if we lose our
(02:00):
integrity, we lose our ministry.
Like I feel like so many peopleget so good at their job that
they start relying solely ontheir giftedness and in the
midst of that giftedness, in themidst of that success and all
of those wins, they sort offorget who they were supposed to
(02:20):
be the whole time.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Do you think that happens more often, where
someone gets to that point orsomeone that starts that way?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I feel like people get to that point.
I feel like they start out withthe right heart, they start out
with the.
I just want to like, preach thegospel and touch these lives
and let everyone know how muchGod loves them.
And then somewhere along theline, something gets you.
It's like is it going to becynicism?
Is it going to be lukewarm,kind of just like vague
(02:52):
spirituality?
Is it going to be loss ofpassion?
Is it going to be a moralfailure?
Like these are all like CarrieNewhoff wrote a whole book on
all these different ways thatburnout manifests itself and
sometimes people are like justover it and cynical.
And some people get into reallybad habits and addictions and
some like somebody you all like,if you lose your yours, if you
(03:17):
start to lose your soul, itmanifests itself in like some
different ways you know.
So I think people become thatway.
I think a lot of times peoplestart out with the right
intention.
Proverbs 10, 19 states whoeverwalks in integrity walks
securely.
But whoever takes crooked pathswill be found out.
And that's just emphasizing theimportance of our character and
(03:41):
our integrity, like no matterwhat we're doing in ministry,
like we are part of the message.
You know it's like we'repreaching the gospel, but we're
the medium for that Like.
So if the gospel is comingthrough us, like, does our
integrity match up with ourmessage?
You know, and you always wantto make sure that you're not
(04:04):
just becoming like a ministrybot, like I just go through the
motions and do the things.
Jesus loves you and we'replaying games, but that it's
coming from who you really areand what.
God has is currently doing inyour life, not what he once did
a long time ago, but is yourrelationship with God continuing
(04:25):
to be dynamic?
So the question we shouldconstantly be asking ourselves
is not like where do I want togo in ministry?
I think youth pastorsespecially are always like
what's my next step, what's mynext move, what's my next area?
And you know I love what DougFields always says, like, well,
(04:46):
I never wanted to be a seniorpastor, even if I had the
opportunity which I'm sure hedid it's just like this is what
I was made to do.
So we're not always trying tolook at where am I going, but
who am I becoming?
That's a much more importantquestion.
And in your station of liferight now as youth pastor,
(05:08):
instead of looking for what'sthe next step, what's the next
move, where's the next role,where do I go next?
How do I build this?
Like just having that answer inyour pants thing is just
continuing to look at whateverI'm doing now is my resume for
what I'm going to do in thefuture.
Now is my resume for what I'mgoing to do in the future Like,
if I do this well and keep mysoul and character and integrity
(05:30):
intact.
That is the prerequisite forwhatever might be next.
Because I always look at it asI didn't see myself in youth
ministry.
It wasn't like an I shall be ayouth pastor.
It's like God had set this pathand like kind of just led me
down it.
So, whatever the next move is,don't you think he might do that
again?
(05:50):
So just stay here until he saystime to pack up and move it.
You know you don't always haveto be like yeah, yeah, yeah, but
but when I get my real job?
or something like that.
So not where do I want to go,but who do I want to be.
So when we start to dive intoscripture, if you want to know
what qualifies a youth pastor,you know we talk about that kind
(06:14):
of stuff all the time on thepodcast Like what does it take
to be a youth pastor?
So today, instead of just likeour opinion and experience, what
is the true definition?
Like what is the?
What does the Bible say about?
What are the qualifications ofevery youth pastor?
So I'm going to read from firstTimothy three, and it says this
(06:36):
here's a trustworthy sayingwhoever aspires to be an
overseer desires a noble task.
Now, the overseer is to beabove reproach, faithful to his
wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able
to teach, not given todrunkenness nor violent, but
gentle, not quarrelsome, not alover of money.
(06:57):
He must manage his own familywell and see that his children
obey him.
He must do so in a mannerworthy of full respect.
If anyone does not know how tomanage his own family, how can
he take care of God's church?
He must not be a recent convertor he may become conceited and
fall under the same judgment asthe devil.
(07:17):
He must also have a goodreputation with outsiders, so
that he will not fall intodisgrace and into the devil's
trap.
In the same way, deacons are tobe worthy of respect, sincere,
not indulging in much wine, notpursuing dishonest gain.
They must keep hold of the deeptruths of the faith with a
clear conscience.
(07:37):
They must first be tested andthen, if there is nothing
against them, let them serve asdeacons.
In the same way, the women areto be worthy of respect, not
malicious talkers, but temperateand trustworthy in everything.
So these are descriptions ofpeople who want to be overseers
in the church, who have aleadership role in the church,
(08:00):
and it's really interesting thatwhat the Bible deems as
qualifications has a lot more todo with character, not skills.
So I think there's one skill onthere and it says able to teach
.
That's it, and other than that,every single other thing is a
(08:20):
character issue.
So when you're like, what doesit take to be a youth pastor or
an overseer in church leadership?
I think 1 Timothy 3 gives us apretty clear indication 99% of
it is character, 1% is skill.
And then, if you go to 1Timothy 4.
There is another list in thereand it's very similar, and then
(08:45):
I mean I'm not going to read allof these.
And then Titus 1 also talksabout since an overseer manages
God's household.
He must be blameless, notoverbearing, not quick-tempered,
not given to drunkenness, notviolent, not pursuing dishonest
gain.
Rather, he must be hospitable,one who loves what is good, who
(09:05):
is self-controlled, upright,holy and disciplined.
He must hold firmly to thetrustworthy message as it has
been taught, so that he canencourage others by sound
doctrine and refute those whooppose it.
That's again that teachingpiece, that theological piece.
And the elder qualificationshave a lot to do with the way
you run your family and you know, faithfulness in your marriage,
(09:29):
children who are obedient, allthat kind of stuff.
So let's boil that down to sayGod cares much more about our
character than our skill.
And I can't help but think ofthe example of King Saul, to
where the people really likedhim.
They saw him as a skilledleader.
(09:49):
I mean, I don't really knowwhat he had going for him,
except he was tall and handsome,I guess you know, like just
classic magnetic.
Well, you're good looking.
You must know what you're doing.
You know, I feel like peopleare.
I feel like in college Iremember them bringing up
studies that if you'reattractive, people automatically
think you're more interestingand that you are smarter, like
(10:13):
you know what you're talkingabout.
So they must've looked at KingI mean, human nature hasn't
changed, I'm sure.
So they looked at Saul andthey're like yeah, well, please
lead us.
You're, you're tall andhandsome, but there was no
substance, there was nocharacter and he led Israel and
his own household horribly.
You know, thank God for his son, jonathan, who had like some
(10:35):
common sense and love the Lordand all of that kind of thing,
but Saul didn't have the godlycharacters.
So I feel like we can besuckers for leaders that look
good on the outside but they'remissing the whole character
issue of how do they run theirfamily and how do they run their
(10:57):
own life and it's all.
Character, character, character,character able to teach
character, character, character,character able to teach
character, character, character,character, character.
So skills and character are notequal.
It's always character isgreater than skills, and I've
heard some people say you canteach skills but you can't teach
(11:17):
character, and I almost wrotethat down as a point because
I've learned that so many timesin different leadership settings
.
However, I think character is ahybrid kind of thing, like I
think it can be taught.
We teach our kids character allthe time.
Yeah, like you lie.
Here's why we don't lie.
We break trust and that showswhat kind of person you are, and
(11:39):
we break relationship when wedo that, it's the more difficult
thing to probably change thanlearning a skill.
Like, my character has changedfrom being around people with
great character.
It's like I look how they are soencouraging and I'm like I want
to be that way and I adopt that.
So I think character can betaught.
It's harder to teach and itboils down to it has to be an
(12:00):
act of the Holy Spiritultimately to change.
But I feel conviction in mycharacter when I watch other
people do things that I know Ishould be.
So I think character can betaught.
But when we're examiningourselves as leaders, it's not
so much as well.
(12:21):
I'm the best teacher and I'm,you know, throw the best events
and I'm just really good at myjob.
Like we want to be more thanjust good at our job.
That's important.
We have to be able to workafter all, we're getting paid to
do this some of us but yourcharacter outweighs that.
(12:43):
If you can do the job but yourcharacter sucks.
Like the book of Proverbs saysit's just going to catch up with
you eventually.
You know people will only likeyou.
Just hear of those pastors thatare like these weird geniuses
and they come up with like allthis amazing stuff but they're
verbally abusive to people andthey're toxic and it's like
(13:05):
people can't put up with thatforever.
You will be found out by youractions, no matter how smart you
are now, no matter how muchtheology, you know how good of a
teacher.
And I think people can hidebehind their skill to say, well,
because I'm so smart, becauseI'm such a good teacher, because
I can grow things, because I'msuper cool, everyone likes me.
(13:26):
You fill in the blank ofwhatever your superpower is as a
pastor.
They hide behind that andpeople enable it because they'll
excuse their behavior because,well, they're the golden child
of teaching and wow, look atthem, they're so good.
Let's just let this other stuffslide.
But inevitably that stuffalways catches up and will bite
(13:50):
someone somewhere.
It'll either bite themselves oryou'll get bit by them, or your
students or a parent.
Like it will get found out, itwill come out in some ugly way.
So, teaching, was this liketeeny, tiny part of it, like,
yeah, able to teach?
Also, let me tell you aboutyour character.
So don't excuse your badbehavior by saying I have other
(14:13):
gifts that make me worth it,because and that's a good,
that's a good word for when youhire someone like, well, they're
really good at this, yeah, butif their character sucks, it's
going to ruin everything and itwon't be worth the gift, you
know.
So that's why it's alwayscharacter is greater than skill,
(14:36):
because it's just, it can'tpull its weight.
You know what I mean.
So never, ever, overlook thoseglaring character flaws in
yourself or in other people.
Again, that's like the lens ofSaul.
It's like he kind of didwhatever he wanted and God just
eventually took his favor off ofhim.
(14:58):
Of like you don't do anything,I say like you just do whatever
is convenient for you.
you know, like a toddler reallywell, he acted like a toddler
when he was hurling his spear atdavid, when david's like
playing a little melody on theharp and he's like I love this
song, spear.
I'm like whoa.
You went from like, oh, this,this is so soothing.
(15:20):
Thanks for the song too.
I'm going to kill you, likewhoa, I just would love to have
been a fly on the wall and watchthis drama play out.
Like yeah, it is like a toddler, so what does that look like?
You know us.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
we're always going back to practical and couldn't
go a whole episode without goingpractical.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
True, but I want to help you.
I want to help you know like ohgreat, that sounds good, my
character matters.
Okay, let's get a little morespecific.
So what does that look like?
We're going to talk about fourthings, and the first thing is
honesty.
So if we want to have characterthat holds up and integrity and
make ourselves more valuable toour church and to our ministry,
(16:03):
it starts with honesty, andhonesty in the sense of do you
own up to your mistakes?
You know we're all going todrop the ball sometimes and
being honest with who we reallyare of like, yeah, I, I didn't
do what I said I was going to do, or I made a mistake, or nope,
I shouldn't have done.
Like, just honest with failureand not deferring it or blaming
(16:27):
others or hiding it or somethinglike that.
Just being very honest showsour character time and time
again, and along with that,another way to say it is
trustworthy.
But that means more like do youdo what you say you're going to
do consistently?
Like can?
(16:48):
Sometimes I've worked withpeople that I've given them like
all right, this is your thing.
And then weeks and weeks andweeks go by.
You're like so did you justdecide you weren't going to do
it, did you not get around to it?
And then the next timesomething comes along, I may or
may not ask you.
(17:09):
You know, like you might not betrustworthy that you say you're
going to do it, when you'regoing to do it, or like, if you
can't, then the honesty comesback in to say, hey, I know, I
said I could do this in twoweeks.
I don't think I can.
Would it be cool if I had fourweeks?
Of course, but don't just likeghost, like my biggest pet peeve
(17:30):
in life right now is beingghosted.
Don't just say I can't do it orI'm not interested, or I had
something come up, but justceasing.
Communication is so rude.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I think we had this conversation just the other day.
But I think the new generationit's almost like ghosting is
more accepted, like nobody lovesit, but it's more accepted in
the sense that it's like it's aresponse, a non-response.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
It is so weird and it's.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I hope that trend changes because, yeah, I think
like no one's like I don't mindbeing ghosted, like there was my
answer, but I think sometimesthe younger generations, that is
just their answer, I'm just notgoing to answer you, so you'll
kind of get the point.
It's like wow, that's rude andinconsiderate.
I will never accept it.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It like makes my blood boil.
It's so disrespectful.
I hate it, so don't ghostpeople.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
It's so awful.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So honest, trustworthy and tolerant is a
big part of this integrity pieceand this character piece.
And by tolerant I mean how doyou deal with frustrations,
irritations, inconveniences andI think we mentioned this on a
podcast recently.
But I was in a meeting with oursenior pastor and he said I
(18:50):
don't know why people, likesomewhere along the line, felt
like it is unacceptable foranything to irritate me.
Like all irritants must beaddressed and removed
immediately.
And I can't, and it's likehaving a tolerance, for there
will be people that frustrate me, and I am okay to navigate them
(19:12):
, it'll be all right, and I'mmature enough to cohabitate in
this space with them.
That is inconvenient, but areyou flexible enough to be like
well, I can find a way aroundthat?
This is not an ideal situation,but I can bend and mold and
flex and I can be tolerant ofless than ideal circumstances.
(19:34):
But instead of that demanding,entitled attitude of like this
has got to change, this has tochange, it's like or can you
flex that makes you valuable toyour church, that that is a
value that is making youpromotable.
(19:55):
You know, if that comes up, issomeone who can like look at
something, go, not ideal, butlet's keep going.
And some people are so good atthat they just like don't even
let it get them down.
Like, well, this sucks, allright.
How do we solve?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
it.
What's next?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, because just throwing a temper tantrum isn't
going to solve anything and youlose respect, like even if
someone accommodates you of like, oh yes, right away we will get
that irritant out of your way,like you lost respect with them,
you know.
So my advice is, if you can putup with it and navigate it in
(20:33):
maturity, then do unless it'sunhealthy or toxic or abusive.
Of course there's always thoseasterisk caveats, whatever fine
print, but for the most part,can you just deal?
Can you deal?
Can you build your tolerancefor annoying things?
Can you increase your capacityto deal with less than ideal
(20:54):
situations, like some of myleaders or interns that have
come through in the past.
I think I share this one wherethis guy came with us to winter
camp and he goes oh my gosh, Ionly got six hours of sleep last
night.
I'm like six hours the firstnight of winter camp, hallelujah
, that's something to celebrate,you know.
(21:15):
But it was just like oh my gosh, you know, and I get it, I love
sleep and it's very importantto me and I just thought it was
so funny.
It was like buddy, you ain'tseen nothing yet, you know, like
, so just increasing ourcapacity through tolerance, and
then lastly, how are younavigating the ghosters?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
are you tolerating them?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
um, I have no choice.
You know, I have given themevery opportunity to respond and
they don't, so I show up attheir house.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I need an answer right now.
You know I got to go.
It irritates me.
Actually, I'm going to ghosther.
I'm coming, here, I come.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Well, I don't know what you do, you just have to
accept it.
It makes me very frustrated,but and I would like to know the
reason Do you have?
A good reason, because I'm OKwith you ghosting me.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Just tell me why you ghosted me exactly, and then
I'll let it go.
I see how that sounds ghostingme again.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's a double ghosting.
Well, boo boo well, yeah Idon't know, it's hard not to
take it personally, yeah, but Idon't.
It's like well hard not to takeit personally, but I don't.
It's like well, nothinghappened.
You just decided you were done.
I guess Done before we even gotstarted.
(22:56):
And then, lastly, teachable.
So staying teachable meaningpotential criticism Do you even
ask?
And staying teachable meansthat you are well aware you may
get it wrong and it doesn't meanyou're bad or awful, it just
means like, do you expect tolike get a hundred on everything
you know?
Yes, said the three type Apersonality.
I do so sometimes.
That's hard, but I have triedto learn the art of not taking
(23:21):
feedback personal, but seeing itmore as you're wanting to make
me better or you're helping mewith my work.
You're not saying you are bad,but have you thought of this
with your work?
You know, there was a guy todaytrying to give me some feedback
on something he goes you know Ilove you and I said just say it
(23:44):
, what do I need to do?
I just say it just.
I can take it.
Just give me just what it is.
You know, and I've.
I feel like I can handle that alot better than I can handle
being ghosted.
But yeah, feedback like are youteachable of?
Have you ever thought of like?
A long time ago, our campuspastor said you know, I think
(24:06):
you should really highlyconsider taking an element out
of your programming, because wewould always do an icebreaker
every single night plus a game,and he's like it feels really
congested.
And I'm like you're right, weare always running out of time,
so we just do the impossibleshot and that's a lot quicker
(24:27):
than a full icebreaker.
And now we have time.
And and another thing, I thinkinstead of your program being
seven to nine, it should be six,30 to eight, 30.
And I thought, oh yeah, you'reright, and it's so much better
and my leaders love it.
So having an open, and thensometimes people will give me
feedback and I'm like man, I seewhy you'd say that and I
(24:50):
appreciate it, but I don't thinkthat's going to work.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
But here's why you're wrong.
Here's why.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I can't be teachable right now, but I'm like, ah,
that won't work and I and I knowbetter in that situation.
But the point is, is being openof like, could something be
better?
Like, how could you knoweverything you can't?
So being open to what's youridea.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
What do?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
you have.
How can, how could I be better?
I did a presentation tonightand I asked one of our higher
staff members like if you haddone that presentation, what
would you have done differently?
You know, and he's like I don'tknow, it was really good.
I said no, like if it were yournight and your job and you did
it, how would you have done it?
And what would you have saiddifferently?
(25:35):
He's like all right, I wouldhave done this.
I'm like see, that's so good, Iwant to do that next time.
So removing the personalelement is harder for some
people than others, but justkeep that in mind.
Those are four areas, butreally the power to do this, all
of this, our character andintegrity, doesn't come by our
(25:59):
own will or our own trying orour own whatever disciplines.
It comes from connection andsubmission to the Holy Spirit.
Like that's just the way that itis.
For me, another like elementthat comes in is the fear of God
.
Like I know, I'm going to haveto stand before God someday and
give an account of my ministryand the way I led.
(26:21):
And our senior pastor alwayssays as leaders, we're not held
to a different standard, we'rejust held to the same standard
more strictly, because the Biblesays not many of you should
become teachers, my dearbrothers, for in doing so you'll
incur stricter judgment.
So, remembering that the healthof your soul and your
relationship with God is reallythrown onto you as the
(26:44):
individual rather than on theorganization, like well, it's my
church's job to make sure.
No, it's not, it's your job tomake sure.
So, seeking to have that heartof knowing God, pleasing God and
then communicating truth.
But remember, like we said atthe beginning, if you lose
yourself, you lose your ministry.
So that connection to the HolySpirit, like how John 15, abide,
(27:08):
abide, abide or remain, remain,remain.
We remain in him.
Without him we can do nothing.
So, avoiding the temptation tojust ride our gifts and be like,
oh I get, because a lot ofpeople aren't gifted enough but
eventually their leadershipputters out.
(27:29):
It's just not sustainable, youknow, like you will experience
some kind of burnout, justwriting your gifts on your own
strength and your own power andtrying to just keep up and like
it's just, it's your characterand your connection to the Holy
Spirit and your remaining inJesus and that relationship
(27:51):
being the source of everythingyou do, and that could be slower
growth.
Some people are kind of cominghot with these gifts and they're
a flash in the pan and theneveryone realizes that they've
got some hidden addiction orthat they are burnt out and they
had unhealthy work habits or,you know, unhealthy spiritual
(28:15):
habits or whatever it might be.
I want to be in ministry for avery long time and I want to
finish the race well and I lovewhat our senior pastor says.
He says I don't want there tobe an asterisk next to my name
and he's like when I'm done, Iwant it to be like he did it, he
finished well, and that hisfamily is proud of him.
(28:38):
His wife is proud of him andthey don't have to say, well, my
dad was a good pastor, butthere was this thing you know
it's like, but he had a good run.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's like he's like no like my baseball coach who
was the drug dealer.
It was a great guy, but he wasa drug dealer.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Except for that one time he dealt drugs.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Asterisk next to that .
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Yeah, do you want to be that guy that it's going down
in history?
It was like I had that youthpastor and he was so fun or she
was so cool, but then we allfound out it's like that's
they're gonna remember.
Like don't remember the goodtimes, but that will always be
the asterisk underneath yourname, like what a bummer you
(29:20):
know.
And not that we're all likeperfect by any means.
However, if there's a glaringcharacter flaw, it's time to get
real with the Lord and getright in that, repent of that
and for our ministry's sake, fora relationship with God.
(29:42):
for a lot of motivations.
But yeah, I just kind of wantedto do this episode so that we
could all just recalibrate ourheart toward, all just
recalibrate our heart toward.
Am I focused more on my skillor my character of where I'm
going or who I am, and justcoming back to the heart of, yes
, we need to grow our skills todo our job, but if our character
(30:05):
sucks, none of it matters, sothat's that we did an episode a
while back, the biblicaldescription of a youth pastor.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
It kind of goes deep on some of the things you were
talking about.
If you want to go deeper, makesure you check out that episode.
Question of the day this isinspired by it's March, march
Madness, and maybe you'rewatching this in the future.
This question may still pertainbut who do you have on your
bracket as your winning team?
This one doesn't fill out abracket unless I force her, and
(30:35):
then she doesn't even know ifit's basketball or football.
But do you have a go-to team?
Bracket schmacket, bracket,schmacket.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
I always well, I'll always pick duke I was gonna say
I'm looking at whatever littlechart is on your desk right now.
I haven't filled out.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I haven't filled out all the losses that I've had yet
, but it's been pretty brutal.
Every time I try to pick anupset, I picked wrong, so
there's that.
There's gotta be something forthat, so I always turn my, what
was the one?
Speaker 1 (31:07):
that just there was something that was just this, a
fantasy thing or I don't know myintern football I don't know,
trevor entered it and won us apizza party so I don't know.
Good job, trevor, I knowtrevor's, one of my interns and
it was this like one at churchand he entered it and it had to
be fantasy football maybe Idon't know what we just did.
(31:29):
I didn didn't really ask, buthe's like oh, I'm winning.
I'm winning the contest racecompetition and he's like I
think I'm going to win.
And I was like yeah, right, youknow.
And sure enough, he's like okay, well, we have a database team
called the rock team, causethat's what our database is
called.
He's like the Rock team's goingto buy us pizza next week
(31:52):
because I won.
I'm like oh, that was the bestsports story I've ever had Go
sports, go sports.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
So put in the comments section below who's
your either this team you pickedthis year or who's just your
go-to team.
If Duke is in the tournament, Ipick Duke.
I'm not going to bet againstDuke, of course not.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
So one of our friends has a six-year-old who loves
sports everything sports, sports, sports.
And we did this Good Fridayservice and you had to do a
prayer request and put it.
We made this wailing wall kindof thing and then you would roll
it up and stick it in the walllike you do in.
Israel and someone pulled thisout and just said I pray sports
(32:38):
pray sports, you will.
I pray sports, that's what Ipray that the sports would sport
and they have and they will andwe called it all the time.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Now, like I pray sports simple, straight to the
point, and it's true, god knows.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
The Holy Spirit fills in the words we can't say.
Isn't that what the Bible says?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
All right Community comment of the day.
This comes from Jerry Ray, whosays Thank you guys for all the
info and the help.
Whenever I need games or advice, I look for you guys.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
God bless.
Well, thank you.
God bless you too, Jerry.
I love when people just see usas a resource like, hey, I need
this.
Let's go to the ministry coach,because that was the whole
vision of what we do.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Thank you guys, so much for watching and listening.
And thank you, Jerry Ray, andwe'll see you next time.
Welcome to the ministry coachpodcast, where we bring you
weekly tips and tactics techtactics as quickly as possible,
as quickly as humanly possible.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?
Do you see what I see?
So it's December and
Today, we're talking about how you can increase your
value as a youth pastor to thechurch that you work at.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
talk about all things youthministry.
My name is Jeff Laskola andthis is Kristen Laskola.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And today we're going to talk about how you can
increase your value as a staffmember at your church, and today
is going to feel a little moredevotional and encouragement
rather than here's some tips andtactics.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Less encouraging.
More beat you over the head iswhat we usually do.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I don't think so.
I think we usually give, like,some practical tips, and today
will be a little more heart thanhead, which I think we all need
once in a while as youthpastors, to make sure that we're
not missing the point.
You know, like it's sort of thatrecalibration, like we're
working, working, working,working.
Wait, what's the point?
(01:04):
Like, like, what's the mostimportant?
What should we be keeping ourtemperature gauge on?
What should we make sure is notgetting off?
Because here's the truth If youlose yourself, you lose your
ministry.
Lose yourself.
Sorry, yes, jeff.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I don't think I can hear that phrase without
thinking that song Lose yourself, and then what's the next line.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And always just sort of stops there.
Sorry, take two and go.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So everything comes down to this core, this center
of in order to be a good youthpastor, you have to like
everything starts with that likegodly character and integrity.
That's it.
Like that is like the core ofwhat we do.
If we lose our character, if welose who we are, if we lose our
(02:00):
integrity, we lose our ministry.
Like I feel like so many peopleget so good at their job that
they start relying solely ontheir giftedness and in the
midst of that giftedness, in themidst of that success and all
of those wins, they sort offorget who they were supposed to
(02:20):
be the whole time.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Do you think that happens more often, where
someone gets to that point orsomeone that starts that way?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I feel like people get to that point.
I feel like they start out withthe right heart, they start out
with the.
I just want to like, preach thegospel and touch these lives
and let everyone know how muchGod loves them.
And then somewhere along theline, something gets you.
It's like is it going to becynicism?
Is it going to be lukewarm,kind of just like vague
(02:52):
spirituality?
Is it going to be loss ofpassion?
Is it going to be a moralfailure?
Like these are all like CarrieNewhoff wrote a whole book on
all these different ways thatburnout manifests itself and
sometimes people are like justover it and cynical.
And some people get into reallybad habits and addictions and
some like somebody you all like,if you lose your yours, if you
(03:17):
start to lose your soul, itmanifests itself in like some
different ways you know.
So I think people become thatway.
I think a lot of times peoplestart out with the right
intention.
Proverbs 10, 19 states whoeverwalks in integrity walks
securely.
But whoever takes crooked pathswill be found out.
And that's just emphasizing theimportance of our character and
(03:41):
our integrity, like no matterwhat we're doing in ministry,
like we are part of the message.
You know it's like we'repreaching the gospel, but we're
the medium for that Like.
So if the gospel is comingthrough us, like, does our
integrity match up with ourmessage?
You know, and you always wantto make sure that you're not
(04:04):
just becoming like a ministrybot, like I just go through the
motions and do the things.
Jesus loves you and we'replaying games, but that it's
coming from who you really areand what.
God has is currently doing inyour life, not what he once did
a long time ago, but is yourrelationship with God continuing
(04:25):
to be dynamic?
So the question we shouldconstantly be asking ourselves
is not like where do I want togo in ministry?
I think youth pastorsespecially are always like
what's my next step, what's mynext move, what's my next area?
And you know I love what DougFields always says, like, well,
(04:46):
I never wanted to be a seniorpastor, even if I had the
opportunity which I'm sure hedid it's just like this is what
I was made to do.
So we're not always trying tolook at where am I going, but
who am I becoming?
That's a much more importantquestion.
And in your station of liferight now as youth pastor,
(05:08):
instead of looking for what'sthe next step, what's the next
move, where's the next role,where do I go next?
How do I build this?
Like just having that answer inyour pants thing is just
continuing to look at whateverI'm doing now is my resume for
what I'm going to do in thefuture.
Now is my resume for what I'mgoing to do in the future Like,
if I do this well and keep mysoul and character and integrity
(05:30):
intact.
That is the prerequisite forwhatever might be next.
Because I always look at it asI didn't see myself in youth
ministry.
It wasn't like an I shall be ayouth pastor.
It's like God had set this pathand like kind of just led me
down it.
So, whatever the next move is,don't you think he might do that
again?
(05:50):
So just stay here until he saystime to pack up and move it.
You know you don't always haveto be like yeah, yeah, yeah, but
but when I get my real job?
or something like that.
So not where do I want to go,but who do I want to be.
So when we start to dive intoscripture, if you want to know
what qualifies a youth pastor,you know we talk about that kind
(06:14):
of stuff all the time on thepodcast Like what does it take
to be a youth pastor?
So today, instead of just likeour opinion and experience, what
is the true definition?
Like what is the?
What does the Bible say about?
What are the qualifications ofevery youth pastor?
So I'm going to read from firstTimothy three, and it says this
(06:36):
here's a trustworthy sayingwhoever aspires to be an
overseer desires a noble task.
Now, the overseer is to beabove reproach, faithful to his
wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able
to teach, not given todrunkenness nor violent, but
gentle, not quarrelsome, not alover of money.
(06:57):
He must manage his own familywell and see that his children
obey him.
He must do so in a mannerworthy of full respect.
If anyone does not know how tomanage his own family, how can
he take care of God's church?
He must not be a recent convertor he may become conceited and
fall under the same judgment asthe devil.
(07:17):
He must also have a goodreputation with outsiders, so
that he will not fall intodisgrace and into the devil's
trap.
In the same way, deacons are tobe worthy of respect, sincere,
not indulging in much wine, notpursuing dishonest gain.
They must keep hold of the deeptruths of the faith with a
clear conscience.
(07:37):
They must first be tested andthen, if there is nothing
against them, let them serve asdeacons.
In the same way, the women areto be worthy of respect, not
malicious talkers, but temperateand trustworthy in everything.
So these are descriptions ofpeople who want to be overseers
in the church, who have aleadership role in the church,
(08:00):
and it's really interesting thatwhat the Bible deems as
qualifications has a lot more todo with character, not skills.
So I think there's one skill onthere and it says able to teach
.
That's it, and other than that,every single other thing is a
(08:20):
character issue.
So when you're like, what doesit take to be a youth pastor or
an overseer in church leadership?
I think 1 Timothy 3 gives us apretty clear indication 99% of
it is character, 1% is skill.
And then, if you go to 1Timothy 4.
There is another list in thereand it's very similar, and then
(08:45):
I mean I'm not going to read allof these.
And then Titus 1 also talksabout since an overseer manages
God's household.
He must be blameless, notoverbearing, not quick-tempered,
not given to drunkenness, notviolent, not pursuing dishonest
gain.
Rather, he must be hospitable,one who loves what is good, who
(09:05):
is self-controlled, upright,holy and disciplined.
He must hold firmly to thetrustworthy message as it has
been taught, so that he canencourage others by sound
doctrine and refute those whooppose it.
That's again that teachingpiece, that theological piece.
And the elder qualificationshave a lot to do with the way
you run your family and you know, faithfulness in your marriage,
(09:29):
children who are obedient, allthat kind of stuff.
So let's boil that down to sayGod cares much more about our
character than our skill.
And I can't help but think ofthe example of King Saul, to
where the people really likedhim.
They saw him as a skilledleader.
(09:49):
I mean, I don't really knowwhat he had going for him,
except he was tall and handsome,I guess you know, like just
classic magnetic.
Well, you're good looking.
You must know what you're doing.
You know, I feel like peopleare.
I feel like in college Iremember them bringing up
studies that if you'reattractive, people automatically
think you're more interestingand that you are smarter, like
(10:13):
you know what you're talkingabout.
So they must've looked at KingI mean, human nature hasn't
changed, I'm sure.
So they looked at Saul andthey're like yeah, well, please
lead us.
You're, you're tall andhandsome, but there was no
substance, there was nocharacter and he led Israel and
his own household horribly.
You know, thank God for his son, jonathan, who had like some
(10:35):
common sense and love the Lordand all of that kind of thing,
but Saul didn't have the godlycharacters.
So I feel like we can besuckers for leaders that look
good on the outside but they'remissing the whole character
issue of how do they run theirfamily and how do they run their
(10:57):
own life and it's all.
Character, character, character,character able to teach
character, character, character,character able to teach
character, character, character,character, character.
So skills and character are notequal.
It's always character isgreater than skills, and I've
heard some people say you canteach skills but you can't teach
(11:17):
character, and I almost wrotethat down as a point because
I've learned that so many timesin different leadership settings
.
However, I think character is ahybrid kind of thing, like I
think it can be taught.
We teach our kids character allthe time.
Yeah, like you lie.
Here's why we don't lie.
We break trust and that showswhat kind of person you are, and
(11:39):
we break relationship when wedo that, it's the more difficult
thing to probably change thanlearning a skill.
Like, my character has changedfrom being around people with
great character.
It's like I look how they are soencouraging and I'm like I want
to be that way and I adopt that.
So I think character can betaught.
It's harder to teach and itboils down to it has to be an
(12:00):
act of the Holy Spiritultimately to change.
But I feel conviction in mycharacter when I watch other
people do things that I know Ishould be.
So I think character can betaught.
But when we're examiningourselves as leaders, it's not
so much as well.
(12:21):
I'm the best teacher and I'm,you know, throw the best events
and I'm just really good at myjob.
Like we want to be more thanjust good at our job.
That's important.
We have to be able to workafter all, we're getting paid to
do this some of us but yourcharacter outweighs that.
(12:43):
If you can do the job but yourcharacter sucks.
Like the book of Proverbs saysit's just going to catch up with
you eventually.
You know people will only likeyou.
Just hear of those pastors thatare like these weird geniuses
and they come up with like allthis amazing stuff but they're
verbally abusive to people andthey're toxic and it's like
(13:05):
people can't put up with thatforever.
You will be found out by youractions, no matter how smart you
are now, no matter how muchtheology, you know how good of a
teacher.
And I think people can hidebehind their skill to say, well,
because I'm so smart, becauseI'm such a good teacher, because
I can grow things, because I'msuper cool, everyone likes me.
(13:26):
You fill in the blank ofwhatever your superpower is as a
pastor.
They hide behind that andpeople enable it because they'll
excuse their behavior because,well, they're the golden child
of teaching and wow, look atthem, they're so good.
Let's just let this other stuffslide.
But inevitably that stuffalways catches up and will bite
(13:50):
someone somewhere.
It'll either bite themselves oryou'll get bit by them, or your
students or a parent.
Like it will get found out, itwill come out in some ugly way.
So, teaching, was this liketeeny, tiny part of it, like,
yeah, able to teach?
Also, let me tell you aboutyour character.
So don't excuse your badbehavior by saying I have other
(14:13):
gifts that make me worth it,because and that's a good,
that's a good word for when youhire someone like, well, they're
really good at this, yeah, butif their character sucks, it's
going to ruin everything and itwon't be worth the gift, you
know.
So that's why it's alwayscharacter is greater than skill,
(14:36):
because it's just, it can'tpull its weight.
You know what I mean.
So never, ever, overlook thoseglaring character flaws in
yourself or in other people.
Again, that's like the lens ofSaul.
It's like he kind of didwhatever he wanted and God just
eventually took his favor off ofhim.
(14:58):
Of like you don't do anything,I say like you just do whatever
is convenient for you.
you know, like a toddler reallywell, he acted like a toddler
when he was hurling his spear atdavid, when david's like
playing a little melody on theharp and he's like I love this
song, spear.
I'm like whoa.
You went from like, oh, this,this is so soothing.
(15:20):
Thanks for the song too.
I'm going to kill you, likewhoa, I just would love to have
been a fly on the wall and watchthis drama play out.
Like yeah, it is like a toddler, so what does that look like?
You know us.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
we're always going back to practical and couldn't
go a whole episode without goingpractical.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
True, but I want to help you.
I want to help you know like ohgreat, that sounds good, my
character matters.
Okay, let's get a little morespecific.
So what does that look like?
We're going to talk about fourthings, and the first thing is
honesty.
So if we want to have characterthat holds up and integrity and
make ourselves more valuable toour church and to our ministry,
(16:03):
it starts with honesty, andhonesty in the sense of do you
own up to your mistakes?
You know we're all going todrop the ball sometimes and
being honest with who we reallyare of like, yeah, I, I didn't
do what I said I was going to do, or I made a mistake, or nope,
I shouldn't have done.
Like, just honest with failureand not deferring it or blaming
(16:27):
others or hiding it or somethinglike that.
Just being very honest showsour character time and time
again, and along with that,another way to say it is
trustworthy.
But that means more like do youdo what you say you're going to
do consistently?
Like can?
(16:48):
Sometimes I've worked withpeople that I've given them like
all right, this is your thing.
And then weeks and weeks andweeks go by.
You're like so did you justdecide you weren't going to do
it, did you not get around to it?
And then the next timesomething comes along, I may or
may not ask you.
(17:09):
You know, like you might not betrustworthy that you say you're
going to do it, when you'regoing to do it, or like, if you
can't, then the honesty comesback in to say, hey, I know, I
said I could do this in twoweeks.
I don't think I can.
Would it be cool if I had fourweeks?
Of course, but don't just likeghost, like my biggest pet peeve
(17:30):
in life right now is beingghosted.
Don't just say I can't do it orI'm not interested, or I had
something come up, but justceasing.
Communication is so rude.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I think we had this conversation just the other day.
But I think the new generationit's almost like ghosting is
more accepted, like nobody lovesit, but it's more accepted in
the sense that it's like it's aresponse, a non-response.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
It is so weird and it's.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I hope that trend changes because, yeah, I think
like no one's like I don't mindbeing ghosted, like there was my
answer, but I think sometimesthe younger generations, that is
just their answer, I'm just notgoing to answer you, so you'll
kind of get the point.
It's like wow, that's rude andinconsiderate.
I will never accept it.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It like makes my blood boil.
It's so disrespectful.
I hate it, so don't ghostpeople.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
It's so awful.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So honest, trustworthy and tolerant is a
big part of this integrity pieceand this character piece.
And by tolerant I mean how doyou deal with frustrations,
irritations, inconveniences andI think we mentioned this on a
podcast recently.
But I was in a meeting with oursenior pastor and he said I
(18:50):
don't know why people, likesomewhere along the line, felt
like it is unacceptable foranything to irritate me.
Like all irritants must beaddressed and removed
immediately.
And I can't, and it's likehaving a tolerance, for there
will be people that frustrate me, and I am okay to navigate them
(19:12):
, it'll be all right, and I'mmature enough to cohabitate in
this space with them.
That is inconvenient, but areyou flexible enough to be like
well, I can find a way aroundthat?
This is not an ideal situation,but I can bend and mold and
flex and I can be tolerant ofless than ideal circumstances.
(19:34):
But instead of that demanding,entitled attitude of like this
has got to change, this has tochange, it's like or can you
flex that makes you valuable toyour church, that that is a
value that is making youpromotable.
(19:55):
You know, if that comes up, issomeone who can like look at
something, go, not ideal, butlet's keep going.
And some people are so good atthat they just like don't even
let it get them down.
Like, well, this sucks, allright.
How do we solve?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
it.
What's next?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, because just throwing a temper tantrum isn't
going to solve anything and youlose respect, like even if
someone accommodates you of like, oh yes, right away we will get
that irritant out of your way,like you lost respect with them,
you know.
So my advice is, if you can putup with it and navigate it in
(20:33):
maturity, then do unless it'sunhealthy or toxic or abusive.
Of course there's always thoseasterisk caveats, whatever fine
print, but for the most part,can you just deal?
Can you deal?
Can you build your tolerancefor annoying things?
Can you increase your capacityto deal with less than ideal
(20:54):
situations, like some of myleaders or interns that have
come through in the past.
I think I share this one wherethis guy came with us to winter
camp and he goes oh my gosh, Ionly got six hours of sleep last
night.
I'm like six hours the firstnight of winter camp, hallelujah
, that's something to celebrate,you know.
(21:15):
But it was just like oh my gosh, you know, and I get it, I love
sleep and it's very importantto me and I just thought it was
so funny.
It was like buddy, you ain'tseen nothing yet, you know, like
, so just increasing ourcapacity through tolerance, and
then lastly, how are younavigating the ghosters?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
are you tolerating them?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
um, I have no choice.
You know, I have given themevery opportunity to respond and
they don't, so I show up attheir house.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I need an answer right now.
You know I got to go.
It irritates me.
Actually, I'm going to ghosther.
I'm coming, here, I come.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Well, I don't know what you do, you just have to
accept it.
It makes me very frustrated,but and I would like to know the
reason Do you have?
A good reason, because I'm OKwith you ghosting me.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Just tell me why you ghosted me exactly, and then
I'll let it go.
I see how that sounds ghostingme again.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's a double ghosting.
Well, boo boo well, yeah Idon't know, it's hard not to
take it personally, yeah, but Idon't.
It's like well hard not to takeit personally, but I don't.
It's like well, nothinghappened.
You just decided you were done.
I guess Done before we even gotstarted.
(22:56):
And then, lastly, teachable.
So staying teachable meaningpotential criticism Do you even
ask?
And staying teachable meansthat you are well aware you may
get it wrong and it doesn't meanyou're bad or awful, it just
means like, do you expect tolike get a hundred on everything
you know?
Yes, said the three type Apersonality.
I do so sometimes.
That's hard, but I have triedto learn the art of not taking
(23:21):
feedback personal, but seeing itmore as you're wanting to make
me better or you're helping mewith my work.
You're not saying you are bad,but have you thought of this
with your work?
You know, there was a guy todaytrying to give me some feedback
on something he goes you know Ilove you and I said just say it
(23:44):
, what do I need to do?
I just say it just.
I can take it.
Just give me just what it is.
You know, and I've.
I feel like I can handle that alot better than I can handle
being ghosted.
But yeah, feedback like are youteachable of?
Have you ever thought of like?
A long time ago, our campuspastor said you know, I think
(24:06):
you should really highlyconsider taking an element out
of your programming, because wewould always do an icebreaker
every single night plus a game,and he's like it feels really
congested.
And I'm like you're right, weare always running out of time,
so we just do the impossibleshot and that's a lot quicker
(24:27):
than a full icebreaker.
And now we have time.
And and another thing, I thinkinstead of your program being
seven to nine, it should be six,30 to eight, 30.
And I thought, oh yeah, you'reright, and it's so much better
and my leaders love it.
So having an open, and thensometimes people will give me
feedback and I'm like man, I seewhy you'd say that and I
(24:50):
appreciate it, but I don't thinkthat's going to work.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
But here's why you're wrong.
Here's why.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I can't be teachable right now, but I'm like, ah,
that won't work and I and I knowbetter in that situation.
But the point is, is being openof like, could something be
better?
Like, how could you knoweverything you can't?
So being open to what's youridea.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
What do?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
you have.
How can, how could I be better?
I did a presentation tonightand I asked one of our higher
staff members like if you haddone that presentation, what
would you have done differently?
You know, and he's like I don'tknow, it was really good.
I said no, like if it were yournight and your job and you did
it, how would you have done it?
And what would you have saiddifferently?
(25:35):
He's like all right, I wouldhave done this.
I'm like see, that's so good, Iwant to do that next time.
So removing the personalelement is harder for some
people than others, but justkeep that in mind.
Those are four areas, butreally the power to do this, all
of this, our character andintegrity, doesn't come by our
(25:59):
own will or our own trying orour own whatever disciplines.
It comes from connection andsubmission to the Holy Spirit.
Like that's just the way that itis.
For me, another like elementthat comes in is the fear of God
.
Like I know, I'm going to haveto stand before God someday and
give an account of my ministryand the way I led.
(26:21):
And our senior pastor alwayssays as leaders, we're not held
to a different standard, we'rejust held to the same standard
more strictly, because the Biblesays not many of you should
become teachers, my dearbrothers, for in doing so you'll
incur stricter judgment.
So, remembering that the healthof your soul and your
relationship with God is reallythrown onto you as the
(26:44):
individual rather than on theorganization, like well, it's my
church's job to make sure.
No, it's not, it's your job tomake sure.
So, seeking to have that heartof knowing God, pleasing God and
then communicating truth.
But remember, like we said atthe beginning, if you lose
yourself, you lose your ministry.
So that connection to the HolySpirit, like how John 15, abide,
(27:08):
abide, abide or remain, remain,remain.
We remain in him.
Without him we can do nothing.
So, avoiding the temptation tojust ride our gifts and be like,
oh I get, because a lot ofpeople aren't gifted enough but
eventually their leadershipputters out.
(27:29):
It's just not sustainable, youknow, like you will experience
some kind of burnout, justwriting your gifts on your own
strength and your own power andtrying to just keep up and like
it's just, it's your characterand your connection to the Holy
Spirit and your remaining inJesus and that relationship
(27:51):
being the source of everythingyou do, and that could be slower
growth.
Some people are kind of cominghot with these gifts and they're
a flash in the pan and theneveryone realizes that they've
got some hidden addiction orthat they are burnt out and they
had unhealthy work habits or,you know, unhealthy spiritual
(28:15):
habits or whatever it might be.
I want to be in ministry for avery long time and I want to
finish the race well and I lovewhat our senior pastor says.
He says I don't want there tobe an asterisk next to my name
and he's like when I'm done, Iwant it to be like he did it, he
finished well, and that hisfamily is proud of him.
(28:38):
His wife is proud of him andthey don't have to say, well, my
dad was a good pastor, butthere was this thing you know
it's like, but he had a good run.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's like he's like no like my baseball coach who
was the drug dealer.
It was a great guy, but he wasa drug dealer.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Except for that one time he dealt drugs.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Asterisk next to that .
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Yeah, do you want to be that guy that it's going down
in history?
It was like I had that youthpastor and he was so fun or she
was so cool, but then we allfound out it's like that's
they're gonna remember.
Like don't remember the goodtimes, but that will always be
the asterisk underneath yourname, like what a bummer you
(29:20):
know.
And not that we're all likeperfect by any means.
However, if there's a glaringcharacter flaw, it's time to get
real with the Lord and getright in that, repent of that
and for our ministry's sake, fora relationship with God.
(29:42):
for a lot of motivations.
But yeah, I just kind of wantedto do this episode so that we
could all just recalibrate ourheart toward, all just
recalibrate our heart toward.
Am I focused more on my skillor my character of where I'm
going or who I am, and justcoming back to the heart of, yes
, we need to grow our skills todo our job, but if our character
(30:05):
sucks, none of it matters, sothat's that we did an episode a
while back, the biblicaldescription of a youth pastor.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
It kind of goes deep on some of the things you were
talking about.
If you want to go deeper, makesure you check out that episode.
Question of the day this isinspired by it's March, march
Madness, and maybe you'rewatching this in the future.
This question may still pertainbut who do you have on your
bracket as your winning team?
This one doesn't fill out abracket unless I force her, and
(30:35):
then she doesn't even know ifit's basketball or football.
But do you have a go-to team?
Bracket schmacket, bracket,schmacket.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
I always well, I'll always pick duke I was gonna say
I'm looking at whatever littlechart is on your desk right now.
I haven't filled out.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I haven't filled out all the losses that I've had yet
, but it's been pretty brutal.
Every time I try to pick anupset, I picked wrong, so
there's that.
There's gotta be something forthat, so I always turn my, what
was the one?
Speaker 1 (31:07):
that just there was something that was just this, a
fantasy thing or I don't know myintern football I don't know,
trevor entered it and won us apizza party so I don't know.
Good job, trevor, I knowtrevor's, one of my interns and
it was this like one at churchand he entered it and it had to
be fantasy football maybe Idon't know what we just did.
(31:29):
I didn didn't really ask, buthe's like oh, I'm winning.
I'm winning the contest racecompetition and he's like I
think I'm going to win.
And I was like yeah, right, youknow.
And sure enough, he's like okay, well, we have a database team
called the rock team, causethat's what our database is
called.
He's like the Rock team's goingto buy us pizza next week
(31:52):
because I won.
I'm like oh, that was the bestsports story I've ever had Go
sports, go sports.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
So put in the comments section below who's
your either this team you pickedthis year or who's just your
go-to team.
If Duke is in the tournament, Ipick Duke.
I'm not going to bet againstDuke, of course not.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
So one of our friends has a six-year-old who loves
sports everything sports, sports, sports.
And we did this Good Fridayservice and you had to do a
prayer request and put it.
We made this wailing wall kindof thing and then you would roll
it up and stick it in the walllike you do in.
Israel and someone pulled thisout and just said I pray sports
(32:38):
pray sports, you will.
I pray sports, that's what Ipray that the sports would sport
and they have and they will andwe called it all the time.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Now, like I pray sports simple, straight to the
point, and it's true, god knows.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
The Holy Spirit fills in the words we can't say.
Isn't that what the Bible says?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
All right Community comment of the day.
This comes from Jerry Ray, whosays Thank you guys for all the
info and the help.
Whenever I need games or advice, I look for you guys.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
God bless.
Well, thank you.
God bless you too, Jerry.
I love when people just see usas a resource like, hey, I need
this.
Let's go to the ministry coach,because that was the whole
vision of what we do.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Thank you guys, so much for watching and listening.
And thank you, Jerry Ray, andwe'll see you next time.
Welcome to the ministry coachpodcast, where we bring you
weekly tips and tactics techtactics as quickly as possible,
as quickly as humanly possible.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?
Do you see what I see?
So it's December and
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