Encounter 2024 LC Pastors Sean Moore, Rod Windham, Josh Pancher

well awesome leadership Collective hey how many of you guys have been joying the session so far how many of you are thankful for the leaders that have been pouring into us so far at this leadership Collective come on it's been so awesome uh I know I've been gaining so much information and so much knowledge um so I hope that you guys can take this back and apply it um if you haven't noticed already this panel is going to be a lot of fun all right it's going to be a lot of fun it's going to be awesome uh and so we have Pastor Shawn Moore here from Victory Family Church to happy birthday yes it is his birthday goodness all right leadership Collective here we go ready I need you guys to sing Happy Birthday to Pastor Sean ready one two three say happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Shan happy birthday to you and I know he hated every moment of that but it's okay we love you Pastor Sean uh also here we've got Pastor Josh panser from Faith Family Church come on and then none other than Pastor Rod wendam all the way from Alabama come on let's go awesome but hey it's going to be an awesome time so I want you guys to just dive in get everything that you guys can from this it's going to be really awesome Pastor Sean take it away all right sounds good thank you Adam aome hey welcome everybody we're ready to get this chicken kicking as I like to say it's going to be fun uh this afternoon uh I I don't know why you're so short over there Pastor Rod but I want my feet on the ground that's right he's grounded he's grounded in the word man I like it I love the word picture fantastic awesome well friends this session is is all about uh about fostering strong faith building resilience and essentially uh how can we instill some principles some practices some things within the lives of our kids and the students that God has entrusted to us uh what can we do to ensure a a long-term fruitfulness long-term walk with God I'm sure many of you be familiar with the different stat statistics uh around students particularly once they they leave the home they graduate high school and those different patterns and they can range uh the Bara group study uh estimates that somewhere around three at 10 students that may have grown up grown to church uh and would identify yes I'm a Christian uh only three out of 10 of them actually sustain that beyond the home is basically the typical stat that you'll see and that's seven out of 10 it can vary it doesn't necessarily mean they don't no longer identify as a Christian it might just mean they just don't go to church anymore but if you ask them they would say yes I'm a Christian or maybe they're just in that spot where they've actually begun to assimilate more into the culture around them than the culture they grew up in and so it's becomes more of a blend and they don't know how to walk that out and of course the other group is man that I'm not even Walking with God anymore and so obviously we want to be able to prepare them for for that walk prepare them for that future and so that's really the topic we're engaging with today and kind of Kick this off I'm going to start with uh with Pastor rod down there uh to get us going there's so much in each of our hearts with this with this but Pastor Rod if we were to come to you and say and what what can we uh instill within the students uh something that's going to help them have a faith that's resilient a faith that lasts Beyond just the their days and times in youth group wow well I mean firstly let me say uh thank you and congratulations and I appreciate you how many serving student Ministry in some way or you have some way wave your hand come on come be don't be ashamed okay how many are pastors you you youth pastors or youth directors okay let me tell you something you are probably some of the most overworked and underpaid people in the church today there are two little amens on that okay we got to do more we got to do better than that uh you are some of the most overworked and underpaid people that serve in Ministry today amen so I want to tell you if you don't have a clear sight on the reward that God has for you in heaven I'm G to give it to you right now great is your reward in heaven great you're not looking at somebody who hadn't done there been there and done that I've I've I've been there done that and been through therapy and I've made it so I'm going okay I'm I'm still and I'm still loving Jesus today but but I'm telling you let me a let me just apologize for the people who've hurt you the parents who don't appreciate you the leaders above you that really don't see your sacrifice let me tell you something if you serve with a willing heart I am honored to be in this place with you I'm honored to serve with you and thank you if I was right up next to you don't think I wouldn't hug you and kiss you right on your cheek I love getting in people's spaces I know I shouldn't I know I shouldn't my wife's right over there she'll tell you but thank you thank you for what you do and the wisdom that we pray to impart to you today to help you with and listen to what I say it's not not it's not as important sometimes exactly what I'm saying or what Josh what Shawn are saying but it's sometimes about what the holy spirit says about what we're saying okay so today these points you know points we believe the Holy Spirit has a has a natural organic feel right now that what he wants to do and he knows what you need so we pray today that this time would be a time where the Holy Spirit could speak to your heart and hug you and put fresh life and fresh and renew the strength that's on the inside of you because he's proud of you okay he's proud of you so uh so my first point for some reason it just don't feel right right now so I'm gonna go to my fifth Point um or I don't know Sean you do a point you do something I'm just sitting here thinking I don't know what I want to do right now you said Sean but you touched Josh like oh that's right I'm sorry sorry sorry Josh do you want Josh to go or I'll go I think I think starting with the word I think the word is so important in fact in um Romans chapter 10 verse1 17 a lot of us know the scripture but it says then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God there's something about hearing the uncompromised word of God and the word of God is alive it's active it's powerful it's God speaking to us and the same Holy Spirit who inspired it can reveal it to your students if you'll commit to teaching it and I think there's um something about I'm all for like honing your craft and getting better at at speaking and and preaching and teaching I don't like the word communicating because I think we're teachers and preachers of the word of God and I know that's semantics but a lot of people have gotten so caught up in the communication that they've forgotten that they're preaching and teaching the anointed word and it was anointed without us and so all we have to do is really present it in a way that's engaging and doesn't mess it up and so I think in an effort to be entertaining um some in some cases you can lose your potency towards it and I'm all for again hone your craft get good at preaching get good at communicating and preaching the word but not at the expense of having the power that it contains within it I've seen people entertain and it's like where was the substance of the word if we get into entertaining without the substance of the word then we've missed it if we've drawn them to ourselves in our communication style instead of to God and let and leading him into experiences and Encounters in the power of God that's why I love what Pastor Alyssa did uh this morning what Pastor Bubba did last night they engaged students they preached powerful messages they shared their story of what God has done in their lives and then they allowed students to encounter God at the altar there's something about allowing the word of God to speak for itself and then having signs wonders and miracles that accompany it Jesus gave us the model of it right he always had signs wonders and miracles following the word that he preached and so I think first it's letting the word read you right and you living out what you actually say you believe preaching it with conviction preaching it with Clarity preaching it with boldness and be engaging yes but don't act like you're an Entertainer when you're called to carry the most important message that has ever been we have a message that is so important and we have a faith that if it's authentic in US you you can you can say what you want but you'll reproduce who you are and if you're dedicated to the word and you're dedicated to preaching the word you'll build students and you'll build leaders who are dedicated to the word preaching the to that are dedicated to living the word and dedicated to to reading the word and then eventually some of them will be dedicated to preaching the word too because they have it so in them that they can't help but but want it to come out so I always start with the word I think the word is so important that's good good you want you want me go are you are you iy I got something that that that flows my a point that I have today is do you lay hands on your students and pray for them you know because there's one thing that I found so much in Ministry uh sometimes we schedule out Ministry time at the end of our end of our message because what does the word promise God promises that he'll confirm the word with signs following so if if you don't have a time at the end of your message where you can say hey come on up let's pray what we what we preached let the Holy Spirit do a work inside of you there's something about not just praying for but documenting where you've come from what God's done in your life so laying hands you know make it an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to actually do something in their lives because guys listen how many you how many of us know the Holy Spirit can do in 30 seconds yeah well we'll take we'll take us years to do I mean the Holy Spirit can do it quickly and so that's why we draw on the power of the Holy Spirit hey if if you don't if you don't have memorize or understand the working of the word of wisdom the word of knowledge Discerning the spirits it will save your whole youth ministry from a major tragedy when all of a sudden you can realize that somebody is there to cause trouble and the Holy Spirit goes hey that's uh you know that's that person's out to to mess up something right now and you just know it and you can keep that from happening or but however but there's something about something powerful about displaying to your leaders as well as your students that we believe this we believe Mark 16 that says these signs will follow them believe we'll lay hands on are you sick hey guys anybody sick tonight you know why do why do our own kids do this because we've been laying on laying hands on them for how many years right in our house I I mean that's what the that's what cooking oil is up in the counter for listen I've I've had people Pop the trunk and ran my hand down the dipstick so that I get some oil the scripture doesn't say what kind of oil I had to got healed of incredible migraine right on the spot because but that's the only oil I could get Josh I mean Sean for real I mean the Bible don't don't say what kind of oil but I mean but but the thing is them with Castoro right let's go hey y'all but they've got to see the power of God working they got to know it's not just it's not just words on paper it's got to come alive and you and if you're and like Josh said if you're passionate about what the word of God says when you lay hands on them they got to they connect their faith with your faith and you know God's got to work because y'all there's there's a bunch of times in youth ministry if God doesn't move tragedy's right tra tragedy's coming something terrible is going to happen so you need it we need it yeah know one of the the big things and I'll ask a question for us along this line in a minute cuz I know all of us have grown up up in church around Church like all that good stuff and we'll ask a question for us along those lines but I know one of the big things that for me made a huge difference that ties into all this all at once is just the idea of just one of the biggest things that made difference for me is just models were everywhere just growing up people that modeled and lived lived the word of God right not just taught it right not that just had the lesson that they took and spoke and like all right guys here's the lesson you know and just taught a lesson but something that came out of them so whenever as a church you know you just constantly surround I was so fortunate to grow up in a church that really championed children's ministry and youth ministry and so I just I just grew up in that went to church on the move down in Tulsa there and just which they were really kind of known for children's ministry down there and so I was fortunate to be surrounded by people that championed that it was fun like they did a lot of fun things but I can still remember when I was in somewhere between 1 and third grade because that was the ages that were in that room I don't remember exactly how old I was but I remember even at that age remembering they were going through Ephesians 4 five full ministry gifts so we're talking like six seven 8 maybe nine years old and they're teaching us the Apostle the prophet the Evangelist Pastor teacher and I still remember how they Illustrated they had five seats up there volunteers a kid each for that and they would call every time they said Apostle the Apostle you know kid who volunteered for that office stood up you know the Evangelist they stood up right so they made it interactive and made it fun but I can still remember stuff like that that I'm just so grateful for that foundation of the word of God like preached and taught that it wasn't like Junior Church you know that it wasn't like Gospel Light or like and obviously it's got to be understandable relatable to where you know again we're talking kids we're talking you know High School Middle School all that good stuff like it yes it has to be relevant to them language all that good stuff but it but it's no less what it is you know it's still about them in the meat of the word of God brought in a language they can understand so I just encourage you not to feel like and I don't know if you are ever tempted by this but you don't have to give them the light version you don't have to give them the well you know well they're young and depending upon your age you may not feel that as much but like but they're they're still they're people in a few short years they're leaving the house uh so so so I just encourage you to man believe big in God in them believe big in a Holy Spirit who reveals truth to them and believe big in that and and and to lean in to that because and then just being surrounded by people that that modeled that not just taught it but model I mean constantly I mean for me obviously we know like the biggest thing is if Mom and Dad are walk in it and liveing it that's what's going to make the biggest difference and sadly all of us have students that are in attached to the youth Ministries that they they don't have that right and and and and you're you're it like that's you and so I encourage enage you that if especially if you see and know that Gap I would just encourage you to take up that mantle know you can't replace mom and dad but you can fill in a gap that you can be a picture for them that they may see nowhere like they've never seen someone who's actually I'll say it this way forgive the metaphor that's smoking what they're selling when it comes to Walking with God and so I just want to encourage you with that man that it's a genuine real thing I just remember so much being so impacted it was just everywhere people that were stable because they walked with God so there's evidence by life and it helps them experience it right it's huge thing hey where are some other point I know you guys have like five points each to to run down here and I I mean Pastor Rod can you give us a little bit more man you're talking about laying hands and ministering man what else would you encourage us with to continue to help students well I think this is this is probably U underrated but your integrity yeah you know we've talked about it we we hear about it we've we see people who fall because they don't have it you know we see it's it's never it's never been more important than it is now Integrity you know this this is everything it's really everything if you don't do anything else if you've got Integrity God can God can work with you because you know what I mean by that is you know do you make promises and keep them do you show up on the time that you said you would those are just simple things because if you don't show up on time you're a liar just goad and tell that person beside you say hey if you don't show up on time hold on we're in this room right everybody just look if you don't show up on time you're a liar okay now I didn't say that my father-in-law said that okay so so but but uh here's the thing now it it's different if you didn't say I was going to be there now that might be different but if you know you're supposed to be there a certain time of course that's that's thing but do you show up on time why because you have some kids that are potential leaders that pay attention to what you say great we've got leaders we've got that we grew up that are in full-time Ministry today but they're the kind of people that wouldn't have followed us if we were Liars if we said I'll come to your game I'll be there for your graduation oh you're I'm sorry your your grandma's in the hospital I'm gonna come visit her and then you say I'm sorry I got busy no no no you said you were going to do it so be careful don't make a promise that you can't keep you know don't overpromise cuz you know KS that we know today are way over promised by so many people in their life you know and so that's one Integrity that way um are you in love with your spouse you know if you're married man you it's got to come out it's got to come out to your kids your students are going to see it they're going to know it do you talk about them do you talk about date night do you talk I mean probably all of y'all probably already do this okay but but that this is part of Integrity you know are you in love with your spouse does Ministry come from an overflow in your life you know and I know we've all you know struggled at times you know with with certain things in Ministry but it's y'all if it's if it's not an overflow in your life it's going to kill you it's going to hurt you and you're going to end up hating it okay it's got to be an overflow of your life so that Integrity that that you that you say yes and you and you show up and let's see another one um do your students really believe you love them do they believe you love them I mean sometimes all a a kid don't need much a student doesn't need very much sometimes they just need a hug sometimes they just need you get in their space sometimes they just need you to sit down beside them for a couple of minutes when they come to student Ministry or youth group and you just sit down there and talk to them you know what it's done you know the difference that it's made another one here um you know uh that's basically I was going to say are you on time but but um you realize you can fool just about anybody in your life except teenagers you can children you can you can pull the wol over there and adults yeah you can but teenagers they'll look you straight in the eye and they'll walk away and say they're full of crap you know they know they know it already so I just think Integrity is such a big thing and it's so easy to miss it you know but but we build everything that we do in Ministry on on telling the truth and doing what's right and and so be quick so when I want say that um please don't get yourself worth wrapped up in being right okay don't don't get it wrapped up within being exactly right or or having all the details right every time be quick to apologize please don't get apologizing connected to your selfworth okay because if you can get get it get it already set and while while I'm there let me just say this U if you don't separate a student's worth from their performance when you're correcting them they will feel like a failure when you're done with them because you have connected who they are and what they're worth to what they just did you've got to separate that okay separate Hey listen I know this ain't you okay so I'm kind of shocked by this behavior I'm I know this isn't you because I know how you are but I want to tell you and you just separate separate it so they know you believe the best about them cuz y'all listen it ain't the person I believe in the most who has the ability to influence me is the person who I believe Believes In Me the most see that's great it's the person who I believe Believes In Me the most so you iner a a strategic position to put Faith in them when sometimes they don't feel like anybody believes in them some they don't sometimes they don't feel like anybody cares so they're like What's the heck why why should I even try because nobody believes in me anyway that's so good G to take a moment just pregnant pause that think about it for a moment um I think what you said is so important when it comes to they'll hear what you say but they'll watch how you live and if the two don't add up they snuff it out really quickly if you say you care but you don't live you care it does more damage than actually it does good to your point you can do more damage to students by not having actions we all know the phrase actions speak than words but not having actions that uh do kind of back up what we're saying because we have the opportunity to speak to students a lot if you work with students whether in a group setting we have the opportunity to say a lot to students and do they see us living out what we say we value do they they see us doing that I wanted to reemphasize that and then I think they need to hear us talk about the faithfulness of God if we really have an active and authentic Faith then our lives are going to be filled with the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God and um I always think it's interesting when I talk to church leaders and they're they cynical and they're negative and they talk about things like this is just the way it is and I'm thinking do you talk to your students that way too um because they'll catch the spirit that you carry so even if you're not saying it like you've got to be filled with that yourself and how does that come same way that Sean just mentioned being solid just being solid in your faith he had leaders and I was the same I grew up in church I've been in the same church since I was two years old I had leaders that were just a solid example to follow they loved Jesus with all their heart and the faithfulness of God was continually on their lip they were talking about how faithful God is all the time how good God is all the time so there was no space to believe like God isn't good because God is good and so be careful about your negativity um I think it's so important that we actually have uh just I wanted to read this verse uh in Psalm 37:3 it says trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness what are you as a leader feeding on are you feeding on negativity what voices are you listening to most are you listening to the voice of the enemy because the enemy wants to come and he wants to undo everything that you're trying to do in student Ministry so when you look out at your student Ministry or you're in that group what what do you say about it in your own time when you look at your life what do you say about it um what influences have you allowed in because if you're not feeding on the faithfulness of God you're not going to be ready to give them what they need there's this statistic um you mentioned a statistic earlier Barner group did a statistic that 68% of Americans identify as Christians but only 6% have a Biblical worldview I think that's wild and I wonder how much of that comes back to just the importance of us having I know I keep going back to this but I think what you said is just so vital a solidity to them you're talking about integrity you're talking about solidity I don't think it gets any more important than that if we're living this life where we're going to call ourselves a leader we lose the right to think about ourselves we have to often think about the people and always think about the people that we're leading and say if you follow me where am I going to lead you am I lead you to closer to God am I going to lead you to be positive or be negative am I going to lead you to a faith filled life speaking of the faithfulness of God or am I going to lead you to maybe a a so so like yeah maybe sometimes God's faithful but there's some negativity mixed in too I I don't know I've always just been convicted by that that everybody's watching what I'm doing what I'm saying uh everybody's listening they're listening to what I'm saying they're watching what I'm doing and I have to be so careful that I guard my own spirit because whatever is in my spirit they're going to catch what I'm carrying yeah well that's awesome man that's good work you know because I think about to the especially when well there's a couple different things kind of come in my heart like one of them even we're talking about these things I think about the parable the sewer as well so you have the different types of ground there you got the Wayside ground um which is the hard ground basically then you've got the the Stony ground you got the Thorns you got the good ground and the results of that but even before diving heavy into that because we know the good ground is the only one where it turns out good right that actually produced at all um but even as you engage in this conversation and this might be more felt like it depending upon how long you've been in student min Ministry and youth ministry and you've been because if you've been in there long enough where you've seen kids or maybe you moved with a group of kids from like served with kids and then you kind of moved up through the years and then you saw them in student Ministry and then you saw them move on and move out and the ones that you saw where they went or where they landed afterwards that you're like oh man I I did not want that for them where things crashed and burned or maybe if it's long enough you've seen them maybe marry wrong uh you've seen them get around wrong influences they went to whatever they went to a a college and made some poor decisions with people that got connected to I mean you can fill in the blanks right of different ways in which and so or if you're especially if you're a parent too The Fear Part of things can kick in pretty heavy too um with this I just want to say even from a premise a foundational standpoint of the lens through which we look at this issue of the longevity of a student's faith that we basically have two options we got faith and we got fear and so you can look at that through the lens of the fear of like man how do we help these guys hold on because it's a big bad world out there trying to eat him it's all going bad and there's plenty of wonderful Christian voices giving basically broadcasting the enemy message over the airwaves and just saying like let me just forecast a future for you where God is basically absent where you look ahead and you go like man it's getting bad out there and it getting bad oh it's getting bad out there it's getting bad you know there's just so many Christians I get to interact with that they're just like they just love that they love to talk about what's going wrong kind of like how you say like what are you feeding on and a lot of people rather on the faithfulness of God fearing on the fear of the world and there's wisdom of course I me even the Book of James says pure religion looks like caring for Orphans widows and their distress and keeping ourselves from pollution of the world so there is a defensive mechanism that we should pay attention to to limit the negative influences that's a positive thing however Jesus also said that the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against my church now growing up in church I for whatever reason I heard and saw that through the lens of like seeing the Church of this visual of like this gate attacking the church like it will not Prevail you know you got your Shield of Faith up and whatever else like like it's not going to Prevail against this church and but you think about it like we you don't get attacked by a gate right gates are defensive not offensive and so the Assumption of that is Jesus is saying hey you guys are on offense like you're assaulting ground that the enemy has as Jesus himself came to do right he said I came to destroy the works of the enemy and so you're preparing students this is the faith lens to do some damage to the kingdom of darkness not just to hold on till Jesus comes back and I just hope they're still going to church if they just could be going to church still and like let let's let's Elevate how about a faith goal that like man no they're going to be spirit filled man led by God and they're going to speak Faith they're going to talk Faith they're going to be L grounded in the word of God and they're going to pass it on to their kids and their kids are going to pass like if you had a faith lens from the get-go it would change the whole way you function and so I just want to encourage you with that Foundation as a premise to walk that out so that when you hit those things because what you can also help you do you'll challenge students with a confidence of God in them because one of the reasons why one of the grounds failed it says was because of the rocky soil so they sprung up quickly they're like yeah so this is like the downside of hype in a youth ministry is it's like yeah like one of the seeds fell in Rocky you know soil it Springs up quickly but because it didn't have the roots man the roots in the word of God right we talked about that like because it didn't have the roots it Springs up it gets Suns scorched through basically the trials of life or persecutions of life and it snuffs it out which is I to me one of the most challenging out of the four different types of ground it's so revealing because it's like they were excited they even produced technically for a short time and we've all seen that somebody's like amped up maybe coming out of like a conference like this so this is where my default message and thing with students in this environment or Kids Camp type of environment is pretty much the same thing every time it's like hey this is awesome what about 10 years from now like that's my default fault I always go there especially growing up in church I just have that thing or like I want to push you a little bit and not just live in the hype of today so that's where I encourage you men to help them realize like hey guess what uh bad stuff's coming and I want to prepare you to to fight that CU you're more than a conqueror through Christ like it's coming like you're going to have to resist the enemy with the word of God can you do that can you share your faith if you had to do it if you had to pray for somebody could you actually step out and do it so you're man let's live this and to prepare you for the challenges and the days to come because it's coming right so there's a whole lot more we can say with that that's enough out of me I've gone long enough so can I just asked the question for you guys and then we'll maybe hit some Q&A I forget when we started but um there's a clock but I don't know what that's counting down to so we get I heard we got an extra hour anyway right I mean so yeah two hours um but uh the question I think of because this is true for all of us we've grown up around church and God and all that kind of stuff here's the question like why are you still walking with God I know we probably hit some pieces of it but why are you still in it with maybe a lot I know I can think of a bunch of people that had similar experiences same settings as I did but they they're not still they're not still walking with the Lord in whatever level that might look like right now so why are you still in you want to kick us off Mr Rod yeah yeah thank you Sean uh what brings me to a point that I have and it's um are you continually aare aware of God's extravagant love for you I mean continually aware of it because it's like Jude Jude 1:21 passion translation says this fashion fasten your hearts to the love of God um and it says and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives eternal life fasten your hearts to the love of God so you know we know Ministry can be draining and if you're not constantly aware of the love of God you will you will get you know everything about the Bible that keeps you alive that sustains you that fires you up will be only for preparing for a Ministry preparing for Ministry time preparing for a sermon did you know most pastors I don't know what the stat is but I read this years ago I mean it was definitely an overwhelming majority of pastors only study the word for preparing messages guess what same with youth pastors why because you have to and there's one thing if if I could tell you the one thing that's caused me to be sustained was was knowing always knowing and being aware and reminding myself all different ways of how loved I am of God I am God's favorite turn to your neighbor and say Pastor Rod is God's fa no I'm just kidding uh but but no I'm I'm God's favorite and why why do I know that listen I can tell you now right now it's on my lips now why I'm God's favorite why because Isaiah 49: 16 says God has tattoos of Me In His Hands why God says a mother will a mother forget her nursing child that might happen but I'm not going to forget you I've tattooed you Isaiah 49:16 in the palms of my hands you have to have a daily a moment by moment Revelation why why because the enemy's always coming to take the word that you hear before you walk out of here the enemy's going to come and try to snatch the word that you got in this room out of you so that will keep from producing fruit so you got to constant listen I'm constantly aware of my wife's love for me hey Jill wave your hand over there Jill our you know what our favorite date every month is we have two favorite times of the month that's the two date nights we have one every other week and every two weeks we have a date night and it's like a little mini vacation we even go to the next town over no no for real we don't we don't do that but but we listen we we forget our responsibilities we go out of town we have a blast we we we fall in love with each other again we sit across from each other at the table we we have a we have a blast we don't come home till late we make sure the kids are taking care of we you know we you we're not those kind of people but anyway but I mean all that all that okay but I'm telling you we look forward to it it's like a mini vacation why because we are in love but I promise you those love feelings wouldn't always be there if we weren't doing that if we weren't constantly investing we just went to a marriage intensive last week in Phoenix so what I'm saying to you I'm saying that to say this what are you doing to keep that love alive alive that you have with Jesus what are you doing to keep that relationship alive you I mean listen you got to be reminded we know what first John says it says love is not you loving God why because that's like this love is God loving you real love is that God loved you and gave himself for you so guys if there's a better there's no better therapy than keeping real truth alive in your heart of how much God loves you because you got to live out of that love you got to I mean there's nothing like being in love there's nothing like being in love come on now somebody should have said amen somewhere just then when I said there's nothing like let me say Let me give give you another chance you won't get credit for it but let me give you a chance anyway um how many know there's nothing like being in love yeah some of you husbands still missed a good chance to get some points right then but listen there's nothing like being in love with Jesus nothing and it's y'all it's it's every minute it's having a song on your heart it's singing in the shower you know it's saying saying some thankful fearful moments with Jesus right before you go to sleep and the first thing you wake up don't lose it don't lose it and if you lose it it's so easy to get it back yeah so good so good I think for me it was I'm a product of parents that love God raise me in the things of God and a product of the local church really believing in the Next Generation and um I think there's something about being a part of a church that is teaching kids and and acting like it is ministry as opposed to just having fun and not just acting like it but embodying that I think I'm a result of that I had a great um kids Pastor who she just taught the word she was passionate about it she duplicated leaders who taught the word and were passionate about it had powerful moments and I had parents who lived it and had me in church all the time I was uh you know back in the 90s I'm a 90s Church kid so it wasn't just church like twice a month on Sundays it was church four or five times a week and so I was submerged in it and I I love the church and I I love God and I was aware of his love for me had a foundation in the word my parents would play like scripture tapes while I was falling asleep the whole time until I was like eight years old and then I'm like could we just not have the noise because I I liked it but right I'm trying to fall asleep and so I can't listen I can't do two things at once I'm a man I can't do two things at once I can either sleep or I can listen but what was happening was that was getting in my spirit so not only am I in church four or five times a week but I'm having the word just submerged in my heart so much and so there's something about that I also watch my parents when I say I watch them live it my dad and my mom they were the first generation to really say like we're going to serve Jesus all out and we're going to go after him and my dad left a 23y year uh just career in radio he had gotten and achieved where he wanted to get and what what he wanted to do he was there and there was no reason for him to leave other than God said go I want you to stop I want you to go to Bible school so we left everything his career he went from a nice salary to zero we moved out to Broken Arrow Oklahoma and he went to Bible school out in broken ARA Oklahoma both of my parents did and I watched them say if God says go we're going to go no matter what it costs us and they blazed that trail and made it really easy for me to follow in behind because I got to see them I remember my dad like he's working midnights at Walmart his second year of school he's working midnights at Walmart and every morning he would wake me up he's a morning person I am not do I have any people that aren't morning people and maybe one of your parents were a morning yeah you feel my pain he would wake up every morning singing thank you thank you Jesus you're so good to me you fill my life with gladness you're so good to me thank you thank you Jesus you're so good to me I can hear it why because he's working all night and he's going to school all day and then I don't feel it as his son all I hear about is the goodness of God all the time and so when I'm talking about these things it's because it's what happened for me and there's something about watching your parents leave everything and then come back and you watch God be faithful and then they're Family Care pastors my dad's been a family care Pastor for 25 years I've watched him love people and love the local church and model it for me but there's something about having parents that are are pursuing it and a church that will partner with them that's powerful they say that kids Bedrock beliefs are built by age 14 the strongest beliefs that kids will have are built by age 14 and I just think I'm a product of uh a church that came alongside and partnered and resourced and helped and it's really cool to be a product of that and to know I love um Alyssa mentioned this in the last session Pastor Alyssa me mentioned that uh Victory family has a family road map for where they want to see families and help walk families through each stage that's exactly what we're talking about because parents are with their kids what uh 1,500 hours a year is that what it is or whatever and then we may have them 50 hours a year if they come every week which how many of them come every week and so it's a both and right it's the local church partnering with parents and and I've been a product of that when he said the gates of hell don't Prevail I almost start running because that's one my favorite verses I love the local church and I believe that when people say they serve Jesus but I love Jesus just me and Jesus I don't love the local church I'm like impossible like you can because I saw both modeled so well um by my parents and by my church with partnering and and good pastors that have integrity and a pastor that's just been committed to teaching the uncompromised word for 35 years so yeah awesome awesome and I do want to just reemphasize again just the marriage and family road map that we have as a as a church the next nextg team that what they've done cuz it yeah it get starts man as kids all the way through high school um it's on the website I don't know if you already referenced that Pastor list as far as where they find that if you don't know if you want more information about that because you can just steal it okay like if you want to create a version of it yourselves that maybe better fits like what you guys would like to do um fantastic you can just contact the church we can get you in touch with somebody so that and you could man talk to the those that help build it and put it together and um all that good stuff so there it's a great resource for parents it's always there on the website and so um just encourage you if you don't have something like that or you want to be inspired by it and make a a version of that uh for your church family I mean please feel free to do so and please feel free to reach out to the church about that but I notice um something last thing here and we'll go to kind of the Q&A side of things because that's not counting us down to the end of the session right that's just the end of this because we go till 2:45 all right cool um I'll just kind of say like the the other piece of it that was so helpful to me well I'll give one other little thing one thing occurs you on a very practical practical level since we talked about the road map side of things it's just as a practical step is just getting students involved in serving just get them involved in serving it's one of the primary markers um as you if you were to research all this kind of stuff is a practical marker is are they serving get them involved in a Hands-On way even if you're like I'm not sure if they're saved yet just don't entrust them with a small group okay but just is there something that they can set their hand to at some level and I know Jordan and I were talking about a story of just that he was sharing with me of just a student within uh within the youth ministry that like they're connected to the youth group simply because Jordan was like hey love to connect with you how about you come back next week show up a little bit early we'll set up together and it just became a getting to know you so it was relational but it's also Hands-On right they're involved and correct me if I'm wrong Jordan basically he was like Hey I'm I'm coming because you just gave me stuff to do and that's why he got connected his family doesn't come to the church right it's just him and so it all happened it was relational but it was also it's giving them involvement in a Hands-On way makes a tremendous difference I know I got involved early on as well so I mean I see that pattern so as a practical step that can be a great practical thing of man how can we move them to that step within our youth ministry a great thing and again personally big thing that helped a lot is just we talked about the word of God side the second big other Wing that really helped me personally was getting an environment like encounter conference so just going to a a big youth conference Camp thing and it's actually still going now um called Jack but it's just going to that and experiencing the presence of God it's wonderful to you see it in people and you hear the testimony May of others and you hear it from the word of God and that and that's all good and we need all that and then the other thing is taste and see that the Lord is good to that you get to experience it and go well Shazam and that was basically like the feeling for me like whenever got into a setting of of experiencing the presence of God ninth grade first being a part of this church going to the Youth Camp um and being in that environment it's like man people are worshiping like God is alive like everybody's all in hands up going for it not that the church I was part of before didn't have that but this was like next level and it was like man God is moving everybody's crying there's moments in worship where everyone's just silent for five minutes 7 Minutes however long it was just sitting in the presence just those moments where you just go and then you come back I mean I came back home that first year okay no joke come back home ninth grade come home from that first experience within that that youth camp and I'm in the car my parents just like it's hard to even explain to your parents at that point and obviously they've experience the presence of God too but in that setting and where we're talking I almost like felt like just funny being a kid right but just I'm like and my parents are just they're they don't get it like you know like like this this almost like these heathens you know like I remember like the TV was on Pastor Rod like the TV was on in the living room I'm like can we shut that thing off like it just annoyed me like give me a Guitar let's worship right now an alter call all of you need to turn you know like cuz you don't if you really love Lord you know so anyway but experiencing the presence of God firsthand um man when you experience that you taste that you see that you know it and it's never too early Never Too Soon uh to get on that it's not over their heads or or anything like man position them for that AB in your services environments like this which you're already here but it's encourage you to continue on that road for sure that's awesome come on that's awesome praise God awesome well friends hey we're going leave we got some time for some Q&A side of things um as well and so uh yeah all right so hey questions around this topic I I guess we could open it Beyond it but generally speaking we'll keep it on the topic or about Pastor Rod's fashion sense I mean there's a lot of great options oh oh yeah we can bring that back at the end yeah yeah um super simple just wondering what each of your devotion time looks like all right um I it's it's funny because because uh Jack Camp years ago uh gave me a better pattern I was I'm gon tell you for years in Ministry I was sporadic I would go through deep times of study and then not do it for three four days and I was sporadic but Jack Camp years ago taught me soap you know you've probably heard of that soap s oap scripture observation application and prayer and so that changed now to about a 30 minute devotion time every morning if I when I'm if I have to get up and have an appointment at 7 I'm getting up 30 minutes early you know B beside what it's going to take to make coffee and get a shower get ready get my clothes ready or whatever uh I'm I'm I'm allowing I'm packing 30 minutes into my morning just for my own personal time so I read I'm doing a a devotion Now by a guy named Nikki Gumble and his wife pppa Gumble a guy famous Gumble yeah it's baby do you know what that's called I can't what he calls it but it's Nicki Gumble you can just pull him up anyway he has a devotion it's a a year Through the Bible in a year but but it's great he's out of the UK but what's incredible about it is I have that time with God y'all y'all Y listen it's whatever I'm going through you know how the Holy Spirit does whatever I'm going through right then the holy spirit will speak to me from my daily Dev tion about what I need and it it's like the Bible's true can you believe it it's like the Bible it's like the Holy Spirit really can't talk to you about what you need and it's like you're going oh god really does love me he I really am you know anyway that was great we do something similar we use soap for years and uh as a church we switched just recently to a different acronym trying to get more people engaged called bread and so we have a bread Journal that our whole church goes through and I use that for my reading um I would say every morning um I look at I look at my devotion life not as just the reading though I look at it as a m multiple uh things and so when I wake up every morning I wake up with thankfulness that's something that for me is really important my natural drift will be negative if I don't start with thankfulness so I start with thankfulness and the Bible says enters gates with Thanksgiving enter courts with praise so I start with thankfulness thank God for everything that I can think of to thank him for and it does something inside of me and then I worship for a little bit I'll put on some worship music just be in the presence of God and then I open up the word and say Lord speak to me and we do something called verse 15 and so it's the first 15 minutes of every single day we do that we do five minutes of just uh prayer time five minutes of worship and five minutes in the word and we're encouraging others to do the same I may do more than that but I'll never do less than that and so that's kind of helped me stay and help other people around me um to be accountable to it we're all accountable to each other in it and so it's cool yeah awesome and I like I like the 15 as well like the 555 type of framework where it's five minutes in the word five minutes prayer um the one that brand don't worship that which one did I skip word prayer worship okay cool um the five each side of things as as like a like you said almost like a minimum like Hey we're at least going to shoot for just a quick like this you know sometimes honestly it's praying in the shower you know um so it's honestly for I think one of the things for me I've had times where it's more consistent and more structured because I do have that about my Bend um at the same time there's other times where it's like so here's my default I like doing it at night more like reading the Bible and that kind of stuff more but I like the benefit of starting the day because it like sets the day but my makeup is such that like if I really get in on something like I I don't like being cut off by the day like cuz I'll get into the Bible I'll like get on something and I'm obsessed now and I can't you know what I mean like I can't just stop like well it's been an hour you know what I mean like it's like I got to keep going in this thread until it's done and which in those moments for me it's just writing it down like that's another piece like maybe we have have or haven't said but just writing thoughts down within all of that as well and um but know be consistent I think like one important resource that helped me a lot on the prayer side cuz that was always the weakest part for me was the praying peace because it'd be more just like asking there the asking side but it wasn't always very lifegiving like candidly it would be kind of like okay like pray about the whatever's on my heart at the moment but I wasn't really experiencing the life in it like I experienced life within worship like I love that that was like a starting point of like connection with God for me so I love that worship leader did all that so like I have a naturally have a connection of like I see the life within that life within studying and reading the word of God like I had that connection but like prayer was like you know that's okay you know didn't quite feel it the same way so one big thing that helped me a lot is I just encourage you if that's if that's you and you're looking for what are some things to help bring some life or some ideas around that if you're not already familiar you can get the book pray first by Chris Hodges is good and it's has just a number of different prayer tracks prayer patterns whatever terminology you want to use they're taken from scripture so one classic one is The Lord's Prayer if you take if you kind of take it um The Lord's Prayer is like bullet point those different um things that Jesus says in there you can use that as a structure for your prayer time now if you feel overly boxed in fine but there is some wisdom to how Jesus prayed within that that you can use and take that into a structure and you don't have to stick with it it could just be how you start okay go where the life is that's the goal the goal isn't whoop got it all done it's man you might just worship the whole time and that's cool too and it's going to be different this is what we don't always talk about it can be different in different seasons like sometimes you got to spice it up it's like date night it doesn't always have to be dinner in a movie it doesn't always have to be like the same we we don't always have to take a walk like sometimes it's just different and you need the difference and that's okay but that book pray first Chris Hodes can give you some nice ideas of ways to structure your prayer time that area in particular so yeah questions there's there hey okay so I was just thinking about a couple different students that we have in our youth ministry who might be um maybe a little more difficult to love and what I mean by that is you know the I'm thinking of one student in particular that comes every single week his parents are really invested in the church he also has a sister that comes and he's just like a really tough nut to crack and we try our best to love on him and and to Speak Life over him and you know I feel like all of us here have like had different conversations with him we just love him so much and we just want to see the best for him do you have any advice for us on a student like that heck yeah baby um you know the thing is is there's always going to be those people that are challenged and you know Jesus had those people too you know so you got to realize it you know there's there's some things that will work for a lot of people some things that work for some people and some some people they're going to act you know they're they're just they're not going to act like they receive anyway so number one pray because basically you guys probably have got to the end of your own ability with how to how to really effectively reach him okay so remember that I I know I know this is Ministry and everything but y'all praying really does work praying really does work call his name write his name up on your wall baby right is sorry I'm not trying to I'm not I'm not I'm not being affectionate to anybody want to say baby that's you can call everybody that in the South okay so your your waitress will call you that so I mean write his name up on the wall and call his name out before God there may be a special gift he's probably who knows he may be holding off because he don't think you guys are real this is just a Ministry thing or he may be saying I can't wait to get out of here till I'm just out of these bunch of religious people there may be a gift you're supposed to bring that's going to crack open his heart there may be um who knows there may be hurt in his past there may be all kind of stuff but there is something or who knows you know that I had a youth group member like this he was part of the board excuse me his his parents were part of the board and he was just like he was already laying out a church and I took him that's why what you said while ago about taking your kids and you might have mentioned it too Sean to Jack Camp you know take or you going to jack Camp take your kids to a powerful youth retreat or or camp or whatever where they experience the power of God I took this guy his name was Herbert I took Herbert to a his first thing like this and it was I'm going to date myself here but it was called we just lost or something I ain't saying I need it but but it was called acquire of the fire he got so fired up that there were cool people who served Jesus and played in bands there were cool he said everybody looked like dorks in the church to him he was looking for some cool people who love Jesus who could sing and play you never know something's going to crack his shell something's going to crack him something's going to help him but first call his name out to God because one day God one day God's going to look back at you and say or he's going to come back to you and say thank you for not giving up on me see yeah I was just going to say that same thing some of the toughest ones in student Ministry that I thought you're not hearing anything that I'm saying because you don't want to hear anything that I'm saying and and it's we're not responsible for their response in the moment we're responsible for the seeds we seow and the way that we love them well and the way that we're an extension and expression of Jesus to them and they won't forget how you made them feel and so they'll go and they'll do whatever they want to do they'll search to fill voids in all of the wrong places but they'll know who they can come back to and I can't tell you how many students seem that way and then the second that they started going through something major they're in my office I thought you didn't even like me so if I'm in my Fields as a leader I'm going to be looking for their response and basing My Success on their response but if I'm gaining my confidence from his throne like you're talking about then I'm not looking at it like that I'm looking what seeds am I planning and then I'm going to be in my prayer closet for you because I don't know what you're going through I don't know what you're going through at home I know what your home life is like I don't know if there's hurt Dee rooted in you but the Holy Spirit does and I can even be praying in the spirit for that student and just believing that the eyes of their understanding will be enlightened we pray that for anyone that's under our Care at Faith Family we pray that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened and we pray those Ephesians prayers the colossian one prayer and so I just encourage you pray those prayers for him absolutely yeah all that right uh not a whole lot to add one thing I'll just throw in one honestly all this is the same for adults too the the tough adult cases are the same thing if you're just in position sometimes we think about it's what we do sometimes it's just being right place right time right moment like you're just in POS you're positioned yourself as hey I'm for you and whenever you're ready like you said when life hurts and that usually especially with adults like it's like cancer diagnosis something goes wrong with with a kid at home like it's some something goes bad and you're viewed as I think you're safe to share this with I think you you have a connection there's something and I'm willing to share with you that's often times the thing that does it position around the presence of God all that I have one very short story of uh there was a student that was man consistent issue and that um there's a friend of mine I can't remember if it was in a service or around a service but he just goes to this one kid and all he does he just speaks something over he goes goes hey so and so says his name like man you have like a leadership gift on your life and that was it that's what broke him that's it that's all he says like he just called something over his life and then the other friend of mine who saw a friend who spoke this over him and saw the change in his life from that week on like that that week on that that was all it was and we've been working with them you we always had to pull them out of service you know like all this kind of stuff and it was like like really dude it's like that that's it that's all they this whole time we've been try we've been like talking to him yeah come on you just made me think something you know all all the you know uh sorry Mark Luke and John they all record the story of Jesus and you know calling Matthew the tax collector Matthew's the only only one that said doesn't say refer to him Jesus calling him as a tax collector he said Jesus saw a man a man so the thing is is there's a Word of Wisdom that's what he's saying there's a Word of Wisdom word of knowledge that's what the gifts of the Spirit about sometimes you'll speak a word over him God will supernaturally give you a word and that's why you pray can you believe it I mean that's why you pray because the holy spirit will actually speak to you and I mean tell you something nobody else knows but that boy in Jesus yeah yeah and that's why you need the Holy Ghost because holy spirit will crack open the heartest heart oh man come on awesome awesome hey we're technically at 246 right now so I'm going to hand it over to to Reverend Adam can we hear it from Mr Adam right here come on Reverend