Stay ConnectedWelcome to the Youth Ministry Booster podcast! The most honest and hilarious podcast in student ministry. Hosted by Zac Workun and Chad Higgins. We are the biggest fans of youth ministry leaders like you!
We are here for you with the humor and the help to engage, entertain, equip, and encourage.
Youth ministry is better together. Learn more @ http://www.youthministrybooster.com
In episode 198 of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast Zac sits down with new author and new mom Heather Quiroz to talk about her book "First-Century Youth Ministry: Exploring Our Jewish Roots to Reclaim Discipleship."
About the guest:
"Heather loves Jesus, youth ministry, laughing at silly things, and eating at Indian lunch buffets. She’s the wife of Rodrigo and is a gifted teacher and speaker with over fifteen years of youth ministry experience. She and her husband recently welcomed a baby girl to their family. Heather is learning to speak Spanish (hola) and is the student ministries pastor at Shelbyville Community Church in Shelbyville, IN. She also works as a staff consultant with Ministry Architects and holds a master’s degree in youth ministry leadership from Huntington University."
Check out more from Heather here.
In episode 197 of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast Zac and Chad break it down as real, struggling, pastors, and humans. This is a difficult and unprecedented time. It requires muscles and leadership that we have never exercised so we lack the endurance.
However, there is a hope, there is a faith stronger than ours. We turn to that in this time of increasing weakness to find promise beyond our current circumstances.
Show Notes:
Everybody answers to somebody. In the world of youth ministry this usually means your senior pastor, leader, or direct report. No matter what size church you serve there is someone senior to your youth ministry leadership and that person and your relationship with them is vital for your ministry and for you.
It's true. Better working relationships with senior leadership is the number one improvement metric for most exiting youth ministers.
In this episode co-host Kristen takes the driver seat to ask her senior leader Chris Brown about leadership and the importance of youth pastor and senior pastor relationships.
Check the show notes and quotes for some goodies about humble leadership and teaming up for better ministry.
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Website: https://community.youthministrybooster.com/
Show Quotes Notes:
"The bridge that truth travels over is relationship. Ministry is always incarnational."
"There was not one moment of leaving, there was a constant feeling of those thoughts of leaving."
"If there is anything else you would rather do, pursue that first. When it is absolutely clear that you cannot be satisfied doing anything else, then come back and do ministry."
"Don’t commit to this for a job. Get another job and do this for volunteering."
"The greater you can lead is directly parallel to the thickness of your skin."
If you are not good with people being frustrated with you then do it a different way.
If you don’t feel called then become the high powered volunteer who is praised.
"Leadership means living with low level of frustrations toward you"
“Senior pastors remember back... Do you remember when you were an intern? Do you remember when you were in youth ministry? How important was the investment of the senior leader in your life?"
My teaching gifts are not alone to draw and keep the crowds. Families will come to church if their kids are loving church.
"Your senior pastor is probably feeling more insecure than you are feeling right now."
"Your senior pastor is you, just 20 or 30 years older. None of us feel like when have what it takes."
"Do the job your senior leader should be doing relational. Ask them out to lunch, coffee, or soft drinks."
"Shared leadership is better than your leadership.
It's alive! It's alive! Well Zac is at least back alive and healthy (after Flu B and some quasi-tragic recovery).
In this holiday recorded episode Zac and Chad talk about the necessity of the practice of silence for the the lives of youth pastors and their youth ministry.
Check the show notes and quotes for some goodies and let's have a conversation about the things we aren't saying. Hit us up on social!
Connect With Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthministrybooster/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ministrybooster/
Facebook:.https://www.facebook.com/youthministrybooster/
Website: https://community.youthministrybooster.com/
Show Quotes Notes:
According to Chad you have gotta read the Starlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
"Only guy I know in Eddie Bauer button-down wearing Sunoco brand undershirts."
Why do we fear the silence?
1. It exposes our worries or anxieties
2. We fear of what could happen in the unexpected
3. We worry that we didn't fill enough time
"We are missing out on the neutral space of contemplation"
Have you made space for silence in your ministry, in your life?
The importance of Silence for:
"Youth ministers love to subvert MTV and Disney culture. Silence is a way to do that."
"Youth ministry is cultural when it emulates where it makes sense and subvert and push back where it is not right."
"There is a truth in the silence that your sermon words will never convene."
"Silence will free us from having to say everything all the time."
"We speak and ask for response but we never allowed silence to speak in between."
"Youth ministry is most formative when it helps students do things they can’t do themselves."
"Your students are longing for peace."
“The Presence Is More Important Than the Program” A.W. Tozer
“If the Holy Spirit didn’t show up would we even notice?” A.W. Tozer
What's up everybody! This episode is an important word of care for both your students and you the student minister. Hear the encouraging words of our new friend Dwight Johnson share about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and how being more informed and trained about trauma will better serve you to serve your students.
Connect With Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthministrybooster/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ministrybooster/
Facebook:.https://www.facebook.com/youthministrybooster/
Website: https://community.youthministrybooster.com/
Connect With Dwight
Facebook
Instagram
Email
Show Quotes:
Resting isn’t sleeping.
Resting is your work ethic.
Resting is worship.
We made it y'all! 4 years of meeting, interviewing, and recording and we are here to high five and kick the tires for at least 4 more!
Thanks for all the support, encouragement, listenership, subs, ratings, and reviews! They mean the world to us.
Whether this is episode #1 for you or you have hit all #193. Thank you!
Join up with collaborative and caring youth ministry leaders @ Youth Ministry Booster
"I'll see you at the moo oovie movies" #FYP
Just in case you haven't heard there is a brand new app that more than just the kids are in to nowadays. It's called TikTok and it's making us question everything we thought we knew about social (in a good way!).
Whenever we want to talk about leading edge tech and social media we turn our eyes north to Brady Shearer and his team at Pro Church Tools. They have been creating great content and apps for churches of every size to rethink and level up their interactions online.
Join up with collaborative and caring youth ministry leaders @ Youth Ministry Booster
Pro Church Tools: https://prochurchtools.com/
Brad Shearer on Instagram
Show Quotes:
Chad is back and we are talking everything #NYWC19, YS In Tampa, and this month's theme for Youth Ministry Booster "Culture of Worry." Our students are more anxious and worried than ever, and we think that Student Pastors are too!
Youth ministry leader you must address the balancing the emotional and relational load of ministry creates within you. The cup of stressors has to overflow eventually but where will you put the spill?
Your family? A regrettable habit? An addiction to video games, Youtube, or Netflix?
We all find ways to self-medicate through the strain that ministry creates. Where are you going to put all the stress, exhaustion, and desire to do good?
Show Notes:
"Social is the multiplier for our insecurities. We were always insecure but now we just reach our maximum capacity quicker and on an almost daily basis."
We are just broken down faster and faster.
"Facebook comments can collapse around those who are really in need."
“We are far too quick to offer answers instead of listening for wisdom.”
“There is pain on my face that I can’t always speak with my typed words.”
“I need to see your face to help you heal in your faith.”
“Comments are not good for counsel and care.”
“Care stems from relational investment.”
“Face to face conversation holds us to a level of integrity
“Anxiety often comes from feeling over-worked or under-worked. It is related to how we feel about what we have or have not accomplished. Better big picture plans usually facilities better day to day feelings of worry.”
When is it time to "make a change?" What does it mean to "make change" in your youth ministry?
If leadership for youth ministry is important then a measure of change is always necessary.
Hear from Kristen Lascola and Zac Workun as the discuss what it means to navigate change as a process and lead through change as a leader!
Live Episode 200 Party @ NYWC 2019. Join Party Join The Fun
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Show Notes:
“When is the change necessary?”
“We need this move to be smooth.”
At a leadership level change is happening all the time. It may not always be huge, but there is always something to be changing towards improvement.
Some times the most important changes are not significant but subtle.
Where are you putting your relational energy?
Change Management is simply doing it what it takes, or making the changes to remove the friction to make ministry better.
Who you are and is directly related to your characters and capacity to lead.
You have to know what you are best at, we can’t mis-guess this quality.
You know you need to recruit more help when you are utterly dependent on the wireless mic.
The minute you can go wired on your
Stop trying to be the Swiss army knife of your youth ministry.
“We all have been there, stop trying to stay there.”
“You could be all things to all people, but it doesn’t mean you should be all things to all people.”
“If you have to be everything you are really a less version of who you are.”
“There is a critical point in your leadership where I am I no longer the touch point for everything in the ministry.”’
“Your role, your position, give so much value and authority to what you say to the leaders who show up to help you.”
“Your adult leaders are your small group to lead.”
“The mark of the great is your ability to produce a great leader.”
“We are emotionally attached to some of our ministry tasks.”
“We are really protective of our titles.”
“Leadership preys on your insecurity.”
Inviting Folks Into The Process Helps To Make Leadership:
Less Scary
More Fun
Strengthening
Hey-oh! It's time to talk about the important work of connecting with students just outside your door!
At Youth Ministry Booster, we believe that there is really important student ministry work to be done just outside the walls of the church. Campus ministry in multiple forms is an invaluable asset to the ways in which students can become connected into the life of a church community. It will always look a little different everywhere, but one thing is always true, schools are full of students who need the gospel of Jesus!
Learn more how you can connect and collaborate with youth ministers nationwide and in your neighborhood.
We wanted to talk with someone who is leading out and has learned a lot about it.
Meet Matthew Swifty Perry
Connect With Swifty
Matt on Facebook
Matt On Instagram
Show Notes:
The Story behind “Swifty”
He really likes Taylor Swift, like he is a “fearless” Taylor Swift fan!
“You’ve known about God, but now know about me!” - Jesus
“I knew that God had called to me to church plant one, so I knew I needed to leave home to go learn what I didn’t know.”
“Sometimes you get interns because you go out and recruit them, other times you get them because they recruited themselves.”
“Don’t wait around to get asked, go and invite yourself to see how you can help and learn.”
"What did you learn in the first 6 years. Serving."
Your chance to lead is when you pick a vacuum after the service.
Learn how to serve without being asked.
Leadership 101: taking the initiative to start serving.
My job as a leader is to learn. I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room.
“Everyone has something to teach us.”
‘There is nothing I can plan that will have better production than what students can see on TV or game on their phone.”
“My competition wasn’t another church but it was all of the activities of downtown San Diego: food, concerts, and bands.”
“It has to be student-led.”
“Campus ministry is encouraging and empowering students”
“We have 15,000 students within a 15 mile radius of our church.”
“I don’t want to reach 10% of my church, I want to reach 10% of my schools.”
“I don’t want to just reach my church people, I want to reach the people of my city.”
3 Roadblocks To Developing On Campus Ministry:
Roadblock 1: Staffing and Resources:
Have a prayerful, written plan for your senior leaders.
Communicating the Vision of Campus Ministry To Senior Leadership
Finding fresh volunteers Recruiting moms, college students without Wednesday classes
“School campus time of 30 minutes is the best way to connect with new students.”
“We moved everything to Wednesdays. AM into PM, 8am-9pm on Wednesdays.”
“When it comes to spending your time and their finances, have clear communication on the front end and not the back end.”
Roadblock 2: Mobilizing The Students: What Comes Next?
“How do you get the students excited?”
“It was more important to have a club and a presence and be on campus
“We have 7 churches that are ready to be a part of this thing together.”
“Campus ministry can be good for the hype, how do we make it good for the church?”
Roadblock 3: What Has This Done For The Student Ministry of Your Local Church?
“Don’t be afraid to partner with what they are doing!”
4 Things We Want To Happen For Every Student
In Through Our Aux Clubs
Connect With Our Midweeks
Deeper In Our House Growth Groups
Led Into Our Daily Missions of
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