 All right, everybody welcome. Thank you guys for coming to this breakout. How many of you guys enjoyed our first session? already Well, I'm not gonna be up here talking a whole lot, but my name is Zach I'm the student pastor at our Richland campus and it's my privilege today to get to host Pastor Toby Kavanaugh Pastor Toby and he can tell you a little bit more about himself, but he is the pastor of our Radiant School of Ministry and It's just an amazing man of God, amazing pastor So we are excited to get to learn from him and his wisdom today So if you guys can give it up for Pastor Toby Kavanaugh Thanks Zach So This last week our family was on a family trip. We were going to a memorial service from my wife's grandma had passed away a few months ago and We were gonna start driving in the evening to Rhode Island from here and so we had to stop somewhere at night and I don't know if it's because I was a missionary for a lot of years or because I'm really good with money Or I'm because I'm a really bad dad, but when we stop at a hotel like that I have four kids. We're getting one room and we're all sleeping one room together and So up to this point my kids are like ten nine seven and four It's worked out good because you can talk the little ones into sleeping on the floor like it's some kind of an adventure for them It's like oh, and we got this nook over here for you You know and and then you share a bed right and do the thing But this time my kids had fallen asleep in the car before we got to the hotel And so when we had to wake them up to go into the hotel They were not having any of that at all and so they're screaming. They're crying. It's horrible It's a disaster and finally my wife just says it's okay. I'm gonna sleep on the floor And in that moment as the husband You know, you can't let that happen And so I'm like couldn't we have the little one sleep on the floor like he doesn't have seniority, you know like But I was like no, I'll do it. I'm like, no, honey. I'll do it I'll take one for the team and so I'm laying on the floor between the two queen beds We got like a hotel sheet beneath me, you know to save me from any diseases that are there And I thought that would be okay because I used to do this when I was younger And I just could not sleep for forever and You know, you kind of think you know, I'm a big boy that like it gives you a little more padding You know as you're laying down the floor, but that's not actually how it works It's just more weight driving your bones down into the hard floor And so I'm like just nap tossing and turning and as the hours go by That spirit of sacrificial agape love for my wife begins to fester into resentment, right? And you're just laying on the floor of like I'm the biggest person and I should not be on the floor I can't believe my kids are up in the bed right now. It's just horrible. Nobody loves dad I don't get any respect around here, you know, and then kind of what those thoughts running through your mind You finally fall asleep Until your kid has to pee in the middle of the night and steps in your head on the way to the bathroom And then you wake back up again So I have something else besides sleeping on the floor that keeps me up at night and it's this number 70% of all young believers walk away from their faith within their first semester on a public campus. I Find that number so arresting and so bothering It turns my heart inside out and that means just to make it real if you have 50 people in your youth group 35 of them are walking away from their Lord within the first semester on a public campus and It's not a problem with this generation The reality is the world has changed since some of us were in high school and college and our society is aligned against Against the lordship of Jesus and young people's lives in a way like it has never been before And that resistance ramps up exponentially when they go off to college And so we say to ourselves well send them to a Christian college then That doesn't really solve the problem even we include Christian colleges the numbers It's still 65% of young people are walking away from their faith when they go off to college It's like you ever put something precious like a ring or something in your pocket And you realize there was a hole in your pocket that place It seemed like it was a safe place you're putting it and all of a sudden it's gone It's like we're literally taking the future of the American church and we're putting in a bucket Just to realize there's a hole in the bottom and it's spilling all over the floor and that gets really personal when I step back and actually think about my own four kids and I consider the reality where three of them might walk away from the Lord. I Can't even engage with that idea however, I Don't believe it has to be that way The Lord has privileged me with a unique viewpoint. I've gotten to see a totally different path Over these last 15 years I've led a missions organization called campus target that sends young people into China for a year at a time on missions And I've gotten to see Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of young people that not only are they falling away from the Lord? Not only is their faith crashing when they step into those years of their life But literally they are chasing after the Lord with the zeal and a passion and a love that calls me higher a Few years ago I had a privilege out in Western New York to start a ministry training school called Ephesus and as we did and we saw these young People get raised up at that I'm seeing these young people that are chasing after the Lord with their whole heart and pursuing a lifestyle of holiness and Surrendering themselves to him with everything even as they go through this 18 19 20 21 22 these years of their life And they're actually heating up through those years And now God's privilege would be to come here to radiant and help start radiant school of ministry in the incredible young people That are the future leaders of the body of Christ that I get to work with every single day and be with every single day It makes me realize there is hope on the horizon and From this unique vantage point the Lord's given me I believe that 70% number is not our destiny in fact I believe the Lord is raising up this generation right now And they are going to be leaders and influencers and a great awakening of what God is doing in this nation fresh again I believe there's going to be a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and they're gonna be at the center of it I believe the church's best days are ahead of it, but man That's 70% number that keeps me up at night If I stop and actually think about it, it makes me a little sick to my stomach And if Jesus allows me to I'm gonna use my life to contend for that to change And seeing you guys here fill this room packed in here amazing during this conference right now I'm just guessing that if you're at this meeting right now There's something in your heart that is bothered by our present reality, too And there's something inside you that might also just want to lay your life down to see it changed And so most of my ministry has been with young adults in like the 18 to 25 age range and so I've gotten to see very close and personal over the years the results of what's poured into young people during their student years But I'm also gonna have Zach to share with me today Who's a student pastor right on the front lines right in the trenches of it right now, too And I wanted to hear both of those perspectives basically of those who are contending for it right now on either side of that Demarcation line as we're contending to see this reality change So today instead of focusing on what's not working We're actually gonna focus on what is working looking at through our personal experience what research is telling us right now What is working to actually help young people make that transition through to college and to stand strong and even grow hotter in their Faith during that time period and examining that from the different angles of what are the different things that it's happened in their Life that have come together to create the web that's caused them to have something to stick to And so one recess sort resource that's been super helpful for us is this book faith for exiles Does anyone here read this yet? Okay, if you are in student ministry right now This is an absolute must read for what's happening in the church right now It's by David Kineman who works with Barna and basis what's got the research and numbers behind understanding What's actually he takes the same view on of what's actually working right now if you are a student pastor right now Would you just lift your hand up? I want to give a couple of these way If you're if you're we're gonna do the youngest and the oldest in the room 22 21 Okay, if you are student pastoring you're over 30 ladies and gentlemen 35 40 So that that book has been super helpful for us as we've been engaging with that here We're gonna be super practical as we talk about this today. This is not gonna be all theory or anything like that We're gonna get down into what are we actually seeing work? What are them practices that are working and we're gonna draw out of our experience and the research that's happening right now five Practices that we see each of these is kind of like a line it works together to create a web Basically, that's helping young people stick through these transition years. And so our first practice will jump right in here is this Facilitate personal experiences with Jesus Facilitate personal experience with Jesus I'll probably spend my longest talking on this topic today And if I could emphasize any one thing that we talk about I feel like this is an absolutely crucial strand is that and how we do Student ministry we must facilitate personal experiences personal encounters with Jesus. What do I mean by that? I mean those moments in the presence of God when a young person feels them self connecting with Jesus in a personal way I mean those moments when they experience something supernatural and unexplainable healing a prophetic word that touches their heart a word of knowledge That's totally unexplainable. I mean those moments when they begin to experience something inside where they they hear God's voice for them self And I've spent more than a decade in China doing ministry among young people there And one of the things I've learned over their time in the secular Atheistic nation is that there is a chink in the armor of secularism and atheism That is wide open for the gospel to penetrate and it is this when they personally Experience Jesus because if somebody has been told their whole life God is not real or they're starting to wrestle with that in their own heart and then they Experience the reality of God the entire worldview collapses in a moment during the first weeks. I was in China I'm on the country. I'm coming to the country. I'm like 23 years old. I have no idea what I'm doing But I just want no I want to tell people about Jesus and so my buddy Matt who went over with me were Meet this guy named Ren. He's a student on the college campus and we're having lunch with them We begin to share with Ren just our testimony We begin to share the gospel with him and as we're doing it It was like you could see Jesus doing stuff in Ren his eyes start like watering a little bit And there's this feeling of like this is the first person I'm gonna lead to Christ in China. This is like amazing It's happening right now and in the middle of the conversation All of a sudden when that moment's happening Ren just interrupts and goes well by the way I just want you to know I'm a member of the Communist Party. Oh Okay Is that a threat? I'm not even sure what that was right there. I remember he literally met my buddy I squeezed his leg under the table. Are we in trouble? Are we going to jail? And so we kind of backpedal in the conversation a little bit and are just kind of freaked out And so we talk afterwards and we pray and we said we need to give Ren a few weeks to kind of understand what that meant And just happen and see what happens So a few weeks later it was actually the day after Christmas We're on that college campus and there's this English corner gathering where students are practicing their English And we see Ren on the other side of this huge crowd at this event He says hey, don't be mad a long time no see Ren. How you doing? He said guess what? I said what? He said I became a Christian You became a what? We didn't even tell you how to do that yet So I became a crowd what happened? So it's a serious story He said I was involved with a girl on campus and I found out some things So I went into the health clinic on campus to have some tests done and I came back HIV positive Oh, this is serious He said I felt like my life was over HIV had a huge stigma and shine at that time He could have gotten kicked out of college even and stuff like that And so he's just like my life's over and she's just walked around the campus numb He tells me he said all of a sudden it just hit me I just began to cry Toby and so I just ran up the the stairs to my fourth floor dorm room And I just went in and I just because laying by my bed and I was crying and crying and crying And he tells me it right here this English corner He says I looked up through my tears and on my roommate's bookshelf. I saw a Chinese Bible His roommate wasn't a Christian. He was a religion major in school. He said but I remembered what you told me about Jesus so he said I walked over and I I grabbed the Bible off the shelf and I Didn't know what to look at or anything So I just flipped it open randomly and I looked down and the words hopping off the page to me where I will heal you He slams the Bible shut, you know He's been told there's no God his whole life. He's an atheist through and through that doesn't make sense at all He goes over to the Bible a second time randomly opens it again. It says you will be healed a Third time he randomly opens the scriptures and it's a verse about healing So he said I didn't know what to do told me I just started making promises to God He says I told him if you heal me Jesus, I will follow you for my whole life I'm gonna tell my family and friends about you. He said I'm gonna change my birthday to today We even talked about being born again. He got that all on his own So I'm gonna change my birthday to today and he had a scholarship said I'm gonna give away my scholarship to someone who needs it more than me So the peace of God just fills the room and he falls asleep on his bed The next morning he goes back in to get the confirming test done on his HIV diagnosis and it comes back totally clean He's totally healed And so now he's at this English corner. He says told me I'm gonna tell my family and friends. I'm following Jesus for my whole life I got a new birthday. I just have one question. Do I have to give my scholarship away? I Said run we will let you figure that out Let me tell you something Ren who is following Jesus never doubted God again, okay? When you personally experience the living God it changes everything it breaks down every Stronghold or attack that can come against that belief that tries to push you away from your faith because you've actually Experienced it and as we work with our radiant school of ministry students here and I get their stories I've gotten to know them over the course of the year almost every single one of them There was some experience they had during their teen years where their faith became real for them He was at a bold conference in Kansas City where they were there and they experienced the power of God and all of a sudden that was the marking line of their life and they turn change and where they're going and now they're chasing after Jesus with all Their heart Each of them has around some of circuit riders came to Western University and and and while they Western Michigan while they were there Healing started happening a three or four of them gave their lives to Jesus as college students and now they're chasing after them with all Their lives and God does this where he gives his experience But it's not just what brings people into the kingdom the reality as these Experiences serve as anchors that hold us in the kingdom Others here very vulnerably from my own personal experience You know we started this China ministry and it blew up God's favor was all over we have 60 missionaries in China We're 25 years old. We have no idea what we're doing at all And in the midst of that my best friend who went with me in the beginning and founded the whole thing began to have a crisis of faith And he overnight basically quit his faith was falling apart his wrestling with all kinds of personal stuff He started blogging about it publicly so it impacted our whole group and everything like this and in that time I moved from being in China for a few years back to the States and for those of you that have worked with missionaries at all That move back to the States is often very very difficult and takes a lot of your resilience away And so as I'm in this vulnerable place I'm seeing my best friend walk through this crisis of faith and all of a sudden all this doubt starts to bubble up in my heart too and I'm wrestling with it and I'm probably a little burnt out. So I'm exhausted and just going through this really difficult season of wrestling in doubt And the thing that brought me out of that Was I was alone with the Lord and I was wrestling with all that stuff and I just came to conclusion I have seen and I have tasted too much. I Just began to review the experiences of my life the prophetic words that have been spoken over me the miracles that I had seen And it was just I just said I cannot deny this no matter this cloud of whatever the enemy is doing over my mind right now I have an anchor because I have tasted and I have seen and When we can help facilitate those kind of experiences for our students We actually are helping them put anchors into solid ground, you know It there can be a thing that says no experiences This is just summer camp stuff you you're high and then you're back in the valley and you lose the whole thing And yes, there is other things that matter too We'll talk about in a second, but you cannot ignore the holding power of having absolutely personally experienced Jesus Zach I just want to invite you up bro. Anything you want to share from kind of your experience on the student size of stuff Yeah, no, it's so good when a pastor Toby is saying and then just really practically I want to hit on how this has impacted me and even in our youth ministry today me and Pastor Preston's over there We had to leave it together So we grew up together in Colorado Springs, Colorado New Life Church David Perkins who's here. He's gonna be speaking. He was our youth pastor So it's fun now 15 years later getting to do ministry together and so being in touch with him, but For both of us me and Preston we grew up again kind of height of Mid-2000s youth ministry, you know, it's like fear factor nights and we're locking kids in a coffin and with crickets and eating like This crazy wild stuff in I mean in along with that like I mean massive conferences 10,000 students in a room our youth group was over a thousand kids a week for a time But both of us will tell you this is it was not the thousand or 10,000 kids at a conference that got us It wasn't the crazy hype nights that got us. It wasn't the pizza the air pods Whatever you're giving away that got us but for me even my story What the reason why I'm here today is because I met Jesus in a little tiny prayer room that they had open 24-7 in the church and it was called the red room. It was really creepy if you think about it Like it was painted red and like there's like red lights and people are writing prayers on the wall But I'm here today because in a dark moment of my life. I went to the red room But uh, and I met Jesus He walked in the room and he talked to me and it's like that's why I'm here today And I think I would bet money that most of us youth pastors are doing what we're doing today because of a moment like that So my question that I'm asking myself is why the heck do we spend so much time not making those moments? So does even my story again even in leading in student ministry a few years back I just had a moment where I started looking at my hours of my week my budget and Even what I'm thinking about and it's my thoughts and I'm like I'm spending Over half my time my budget and my thoughts towards these giant events Trying to get new kids in the door and invite your friends and we're gonna have pizza and here's some earpods And it's gonna be so it's gonna be the best night of your new life Like you know like we try to we say all this crap to try to get kids to come and I'm like why Again, and you know cuz you have those big nights and you know you have two three hundred kids in a room But it's like do you know any of their names the next day? Did any of them come the next week So for us we've just been in a process of where are we putting our priorities and it has to be encountering the Lord So few things that looks like for us. Just really practically is we build our youth ministry around a permitting We have weekly expressions of ministry that take place if that's a Wednesday night senior high Sunday Sunday morning junior high We build our prayer or our youth ministry around a Monday night permitting But we have 80 leaders in a room and we're encountering the presence of God every single week praying for schools Encountering the presence of God. That's a big one other one is just trips events and This is not even like flashy trips. It's not like hey We're planning a big conference and we're gonna have a competition and a giant slime war or whatever But it's like we're gonna get even two weeks ago We're gonna get 40 kids in a house and we're gonna get an acoustic guitar and a cajon and we're gonna encounter the power of God Doesn't have to be flashy. It's not complicated when we were planning that event, you know Easy it was is hey, we're renting a house and I get a worship leader And we show up in the power of God falls in kids are still talking to us a couple weeks later about like how it changed their life And I believe even seeds were sown in that moment. So just really practically it's like It's not complicated, but it's what are we and it's what pastor Lita's talked about are we more concerned About building our ministry or building the kingdom So it's all I got so all I have to say about that Yeah, you know those two things he touched on right one building into the weekly rhythm of what you're doing your student ministries Moments of encounter where they use the prayer meeting here is kind of center for what they're doing There's other ways to do that too. You got to have it in the regular rhythm of what's happening But then to that he mentioned to and I think this is so crucial is to invest Heavy in big events that will help promote those encounters. I'm not talking about the fear factor thing I'm talking about go into bold conference taking your students on a mission strip those things that basically are Super time-intensive and super hard work and they're very easy to talk yourself out to out of because of that Those things actually make a difference. I can think of mission strips I went on as a teenager that led to me being a missionary for 15 years I can think of encounters sitting in the back row of a conference that literally changed the trajectory of my life and Don't don't ignore those things just because They're not the complete package And then the third thing I would say though in this area and this is something I'm very passionate about is to train Your young people to spend regular unhurried time with Jesus What one of the interesting numbers actually in that book in the study is that 90% of those who make it kind of We're in that good group not the 70% They say when I read the Bible, I know how to encounter Jesus That was a statement they agreed with and the numbers like 30% for all the others that fade it fall away And so they basically learned at some point along the way how to actually meet Jesus in their quiet time And even though we could all in this room right now would acknowledge that spending time with Jesus is an incredibly important part of following him I'm incredibly important part of growing with him. I can count on one hand the number of churches and Families I've met in my entire life that actually trained their kids to do it. I didn't say teach I said train and so I don't mean standing up in front of them and saying here's four things You can do in your quiet time which that is also valuable, but I mean actually do it together Let them watch you do it Tell them what to do and then have them do it in front of you and then talk about it afterwards and Actually train them of those things that we're saying are the most important things and that how do you do that? You can take a part of your students time every single week for 15 minutes You just haven't every each kid do that or you do a special thing once every three months where you do that You train people you have a special there's tons of ways to do it But actually train them to do that because if they learn how to do that They will become a vehicle of themselves can having continual encounters with the Lord that put those anchors in their life Okay, number two second second practice here. I Think you know, we all know instinctively that those experiences are not enough on their own, right? We need to help our students be grounded in the unchanging reality of God's word and The specific practice though. I want to talk about today is this to contrast the Bible with culture To contrast the Bible with culture for many years what I did is I would teach is I would just stand up and I would just teach my students the Bible and You know, I found though that as the world has changed My methods needed to change and that what they are getting from other sources is now pushing hard enough Against what the Bible is saying in their life that I need to highlight for them the contrast between the two things So they can see that's different and those things are not having the ability to sneak into their mindsets Okay, and so Jesus we see actually do this in the Sermon on the Mount, right? What does he say you have heard it said? But I say unto you you have heard it said right You shall not murder whoever murders will be liable to judgment But I say unto you that anyone who is angry with his brother will face judgment You've heard it said you shall not commit adultery But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart You heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say to you do not resist the one who is evil But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and he's looking at the culture of the people He's speaking to an Israel and he's taking quotes from the Old Testament law even and he's showing the incompleteness of that perspective as he contrasts it with what he's bringing to teach to them and What I found is that I need to actually make that clear contrast as I'm teaching students And this was a shift that has to happen in your teaching that you actually declare What culture is saying and then show the contrast and so just you know in real short here, right? You've heard it said that you discover the truth about yourself by looking inside yourself But I say to you you discover the truth and the person of Jesus Christ and in his word You've heard it said you should pursue the things you desire the most. It's about you You do you but I say to you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you You've heard it said that love is love But I say to you God is love and he determines what it looks like You've heard it said that gender is a matter of personal choice But I say into you gender was established by God in the beginning as a part of his plan for all creation Okay, and so I'm taking things that they're hearing every day through every TV show they watch every video game They play every song they listen to is programming them with a certain perspective I'm saying you're hearing this and I'm telling you something different here right now and Being able to contrast like that. I had a cool experience my kids just recently with this Our kids they love the Lord, but it was like when we were in church and worshipping they just like we're not really worshipping They were just kind of like hands in the pockets and I'm like this is not what I'm raising my kids to be And so I was just wrestling with this a little bit and so my wife was sick one day So we were home from church and I just said we're not gonna watch radio online I'm a daddy's gonna teach today And so we did we did some worship and then I stood up and I just began to teach them from the Bible From the Psalms we see the seven different Hebrew words for praise. You've never seen this before it's amazing The different words you see praise in the book of Psalms, right? There's actually seven different words and they mean things like bowing down lifting your hands dancing around clamorously Different things like that and I just began to say in the Bible. This is how God tells us He wants to be worshipped. I talked about kneeling. I talked about lifting the hands I talked about, you know, just uproariously celebrating and these different words that are in the Bible shouting is another one of them and I said what you hear around you is people say you worship the God the way you want to worship him the way it feels good to you But what I say to you is that in our family we worship God the way he wants to be worshipped Right and I drew that contrast for them And so we kind of had our moment and we were shouting in the living room and we were dancing around uproarously You know it's the kind of thing but I'm like is that even gonna impact their life? The next week pastor Preston sends me a picture of my oldest daughter Maya in junior high church And it's a picture of her just kneeling on the ground with her hands like this worshiping God It's one of my most precious possessions now that he sent to me It was just this precious precious thing and what I realized, you know, I planted a seed that helped her engage with that Okay, and it's those kind of messages that help our students Zach, anything you want to share practically on this one? Yeah, I think really practically Language that I've used as I've been talking to my kids about this is first Corinthians to wisdom of God versus wisdom of the world we have to recognize that there is a wisdom of the world and But challenging them to again use cultural discernment from the word of God to engage those things So I think one thing practically that we need to do is we cannot shy away from hard topics We have to talk about the difficult things and I know sometimes like as a youth pastor you're coming in you're like I'm 22 23 like am I qualified to talk about this like I just think We don't have to be experts, but we have to join the conversation on these things. So even the other week I um, I preached on racism to my students I'm like we need to understand what the word of God says about racism Let's have a theology for the the one people of God Let's have a theology for celebrating diversity and the people of God Let's read the bible and realize I read revelation four five and six and we see every nation tribe and tongue Worshiping Jesus in their own language Like we have to get that and but even more even though I think it's so significant to have a theology That addresses things like racism. I think the more important Message I didn't even talk about that night was the bible is relevant to the world we live in Right like don't go get discipled on tiktok or instagram The word of God has a worldview for these things and I think so often youth pastors You know, we're like just talking Jesus loves you and like how can you have good friends and those are good things But I think it gets the therapeutic Theology we have this idea that God it just exists to make me feel good But then for real real problems in the world. Okay, I got it. I'm gonna go to tiktok I'm gonna go to now this I'm gonna go to Prager you as opposed to the word of God So we can't again our kids are being discipled with the wisdom of the world We have to Give them language to know that but then um and again some other ways we're doing this We do red hots pastor Lee does them. Where's this live q&a? We do not do live q&a with students Gosh, we do not do live q&a with students. Even our Texans are pretty uh pretty crazy But um, but we say hey do q&a series. We're doing a series called raw this next month We're just talking about raw conversations about sex raw conversations about Gender raw conversations about whatever they want to talk about like we're digging into these hard topics I think as youth ministries again, we've got to teach cultural discernment In the world of word of God we have to teach God's version of wisdom And recognize that there's a worldly wisdom that seems wise. That's the last thing I'll say about that Like it's the world's wisdom seems wise to the world It seems wise to our kids and if we don't give them a biblical reason if we just say hey, that's wrong We don't give them the actual reasons if we don't engage it theologically Our kids are going to get torn apart in college Good Zach It's a really good idea We're working on what we're going to hit on even parent involvement. That's kind of our next point. You're you know where we're going As someone who over this last year came into the radiant movement from the outside One of the things that is so precious about this movement And it flows from pastor lee Is he loves the bible Like he just loves the bible like when I first came here like pastor lee has like his real nice expensive bible And that's like the gifts he gives like these really expensive bibles and like me i'm coming from new york I'm like this must be like a midwest thing like this like like at first I was like I don't get really what the deal Is here like the midwest thing your expensive bibles always spent 20 bucks on mine. I'm not really sure what the deal is here But as I've been here, I've realized it's just a manifestation that he loves the bible And it bleeds through this church and it bleeds through this movement And for those of you that are part of this radiant movement lean into that because you actually just loving the bible will ooze out And multiply in your students a love for a bible because here's the deal you teach what you know But you reproduce who you are Okay, and who you are if you love the bible and you have this inside your heart That is actually going to get caught by your students and that will give them one of these strings in the web That holds them close to christ through the most difficult times Okay, number three and our question did go this way Practice basically helping our students not be in the 70 percent Involve parents and mentors in their discipleship Involve parents and mentors in their disciples discipleship One of the markers as you look at the studies of those whose faith is making it through the transition to adulthood Is that they have multi-generational relationships in the church Uh, they're being poured into and loved by those who are older than themselves They're they're twice as likely those those who stay are twice as likely as those who fall away to feel valued by And get input from believers who are older than them They're much more likely to have positive emotional experiences with people at church I saw tweet that said it this way the teenager who looks over their congregation and thinks these are my people I belong here looks up at the heaven and says this is my god. I belong in his presence And basically as that these relationships happen like this We as student pastors and leaders can help facilitate that and actually I feel like these guys are doing an amazing job here at the church With that, so I just want to let Zach share about this a little bit more um Yeah, so with with family and I think it's kind of the two part again multi-generational Discipleship bringing in older people but also the family element and specifically the family Element has just been something the lord's really burdened me uh for specifically in in this Kind of post-covid world. Um, there was an interview with again david kineman um talking about again current statistics and Basically what he said is like we're at a point of no return for our culture when we look at biblical worldview church attendance Whatever like we're at a point of no return for our culture. He's like unless two things happen He's like the first is we need a awakening revival move of god and he I mean he was encouraging He's like hey, there's been points in us history not just world history us history Where church attendance? World view has been worse than it is today, but each time god sovereignly moves. There's an awakening There's a revival of love for god love for the word of god So he's like we need to pray for revival And I think most of us in this room would be behind that is we need to see revival The second piece is really what hit me hard. But he said with that we need a radical re-emphasis of family discipleship In the past 50 years, we've seen the nuclear family be deconstructed in our country and In a lot of ways, but Parents no longer in our churches parents no longer see the see hold the responsibility of discipling their kids And I'm sure even in this room and how many times does a parent say hey will you come mentor my kid? He's really struggling But I'm like I can't again I can say this because it's room of youth pastors But I'm like I can't fix in an hour and a half what you broke in 15 years Just being real I can't fix like I can't fix your kid like And obviously like again, I'm gonna meet with that kid. I'm gonna pray for him I'm gonna give him wisdom steps to like get help, but I can't fix that. I think Again, here's here's my thing. I think we have viewed youth ministry as a department in the church We need to see next gen ministry as a mission of the church in the church congregation In student ministries and in families I think church congregations need to change their thinking Student ministry is not a church amenity to get families to come and tithe We don't exist to like make parents comfortable in on sunday mornings that they can show up and tithe That's just not it. We can't do that anymore. We have to see it as again the mission to make disciples is the next generation 2016 66 of christians except The lord before they're 18. This is the biggest mission field of the church young people Second student ministries. We need to become a discipleship machine not an attraction a little bit We're not here to just to get butts in seats. We need to make disciples But then the third part is families. I think we need as student ministries. We have a responsibility to equip parents We need to train parents and again, we're wrestling with this. This is a conversation We're having as a church currently, but like how are we equipping parents to disciple their kids? And not just saying like hey, here's a book or like pray for him Like how can we really have a training process for parents to make disciples? I think that needs to be holistic I think again that can look like a lot of things if that's older people on your volunteer team We bring in A church elders to like pray for our kids for our seniors from the graduate That's a really cool moment like even creating relationships intergenerationally in the church There's I think a lot of practicals that we're still working out I'm sure some of you guys would have great ideas for that But but the biggest thing that we're feeling is like we need to re-emphasize the family's role to make disciples If people in your church think it's your job to disciple their kid, you've already lost Like parents have to get that it's their responsibility to disciple their kid And even we talked on this me and pastor Preston a few weeks ago and just just even challenging parents. It's like parents And there's a lot of parents that are more concerned about their kid's baseball scholarship than their eternal salvation And instead of us just complaining about that with our kids we need to disciple the parents so that they can disciple their kids So just some thoughts. I don't yeah, we're working it out It's good number four here Create a missional environment Create a missional environment One of the most powerful things you can do to help your students be in the world But not of it is to help them see their place while they're in the world That they are here as ambassadors of christ And that when a student begins to embrace mission it literally flips a switch and changes the way they view everything I've gotten to experience this so powerfully over the years because of the work I've done in china where I take young people 18 19 years old over to china for a year with me And they step into actually being a missionary in china reaching other college students there with the gospel And I've just seen time and time again that when the student takes that step To change their mindset to think of themselves as a missionary Something switches inside their mind and heart all of a sudden a new energy and urgency for their own pursuit of god Comes in because they actually need him for what they have to do that day They begin to walk into each day not being influenced by their environment But with an intention to be an influencer in their environment think about it for a second When I think of myself as a missionary I think of myself as someone who is outside of but influencing And when a student a young person and then you have to be going overseas But when they begin to get that mindset about their life here in the states Switch flips inside and they shift from being basically Influensible and passively receiving messages all the time to now being basically an active part of that process And then if you can help your students flip that switch it changes everything in this issue that we're talking about There's an aspect of a young person's heart that only comes alive When they're living for something bigger than themselves And god himself put that in the heart of every young person And the world is happy to grab that place if you're not going to give them a mission And so they will find their bigger than themselves thing out in the world somewhere if we don't actually share the mission of the church with them You know building a missional environment means that in our student ministries Everything we're doing is imbued with this idea of we are trying to reach others for christ that great commission mindset It's a challenge to invite friends to come to events. It's a training on how to share the gospel with their friends It's preaching on the great commission and evangelism. That's the statistic Only 10 percent of millennial churchgoers know what the great commission is The parting words of jesus before he left this earth One of the things that is like the crowning scripture verses in the bible only 10 percent of millennial christians know what it is 50 percent say they've never even heard the phrase Wow Another 40 percent they've heard it, but they don't know what it means We have not shared with these younger generations who have this hole in their heart looking for something bigger than themselves The gift that jesus gave them if they have a purpose and something worth living for And so it's very very important And so the evidence is very clear across statistics that those whose faith makes it through that college transition Have some kind of missional dna in them. Here's some statistics of what they say 75 percent strongly believe I have a responsibility to tell others about my beliefs It's less than half of that for every other kind of churchgoer 66 percent are excited about the church's mission in the world. It's less than half of that for every kind of churchgoer There's something in this group that makes it that says I have embraced the mission of god for my life And it's really cool seeing how in the regular things we can do in our student ministries. They'll actually catch it So my oldest daughter mai is 10 and she's in the junior high ministry at porridge We're pastor Preston is the student ministries pastor and I don't even know what all he does with her But the other night I'm putting mai to bed and i'm laying next to her in a bed and we're talking as I get ready to say good night to her And she goes oh just a second She gets up climbs out of her bed. I'm just sitting there by myself in the bed now. What's going on? She walks over into her closet She gets on her knees in her closet And I didn't know it but there's this little calendar in there that's like unreached people groups of the world My little 10-year-old mai just starts praying out loud for the uberus bekistan And that god would bring the gospel there and they would come to know him What's happening? Something has been planted inside her heart through what she's experienced. I didn't buy that calendar for I don't even know where she got it from I didn't tell her you should have a daily habit of praying for unreached people groups of the world Even though that is something important to me She caught that from others that were influencing her and if we can create an environment not just foreign missions But where people begin to think of their life as having a mission it changes everything One of the ways that both repressed and zak and myself when we talk about this is we talk to our students about Viewing themselves as missionaries to their school Okay, that is a phrase we use all the time We talk about all the time and it turns upside down their mindset for the life It takes the great commission away from being some kind of future radical reality for some people to something That is real for me today and it takes the concept of a missionary one who's giving their life for a mission And calls them to step up to the plate now And so when I preach to young adults all around the country I use that language and concept and I'm seeing young people step up into that give their lives for that So many times I speak at conferences hundreds and hundreds of young people are offering themselves up for that mission Why because there's something in their heart that Jesus created too long to be a part of something like that And when I put the challenge out there There's an echo in their soul and they're stepping into that And if you would challenge your young people to be missionaries to their high school Something gets activated them beyond what is happening otherwise Zach, I know you guys are doing this real just tell us what it's about Yeah, just a quick testimony without I want to share Preston's testimony. Um, I don't share mine. I'll share his but um But again, this language be a campus missionary was drilled into us as young people was hey Like go start a prayer meeting on your school evangelize pray for people on your school campus We talked about it every week. Um Part of Preston's testimony again in that language even being a campus missionary like it was always like hey praying god What do you have for me at my school? What are you leading me to do at my school? And um, what's so cool again about Preston's stories as he was praying He felt the lord tell him to change the school that he'd been going to for 10 years 13 years and go be a missionary to a public school in our city He had been again He'd grown up again It was a charter school really great school top ranked test scores or whatever But the lord said go change schools and be a missionary to another school I think that is such a powerful testimony of the fruit of Again campus missionary culture do your kids see themselves as missionaries to their schools Even my story again my senior year. I ended up rallying my campus run a prayer meeting where we would pray three times a week we would go on parent teacher workdays or whatever like Conference days and we would pray from like 6 a.m. To 6 p.m. On our school campus like we'd have shifts And it culminated with uh calling my campus to pray and fast for a move of god at the end of our school year again And that dna that's in us. It wasn't there an accident. It didn't just happen But it was uh leaders like david perkins Steph and david saying you are a missionary to your school today Your christian faith doesn't begin when you turn 18 like you are the church today So those are just some testimonies again. I think getting your kids to start a prayer meeting on on school campus It's it's got to be it's a metric of engagement even what pastor lee was talking about How are your students engaging? Are they praying on their school campus? So good Preston you're cooler every time I hear a story about you Okay, uh last one here. Then we'll do a little q&a number five Make the investment to lay their foundation deep Make the investment to lay their foundation deep I believe that their environment and the world has changed over these last couple decades But that our advice and as parents and pastors for what to do when they graduate high school has just stayed the same And for many of our churches and families their plans for our young people are something like this Go to college get a bachelor's degree get a job get married And in my opinion the advice we're giving our young people is too small for the hour in which they live It's like in sports, you know in sports the clock determines the play right Like if you think of a football game or something like that and in the first quarter of a football game Like you're doing certain kinds of plays you do a little three-yard run up the middle to establish their run You're thinking through things like that But in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter you don't do that same play the clock determines the play the hour of the game It's not appropriate to do the run in that kind of moment It's not the right play in that situation And for many of us in the church we are still calling the same plays as we have for the last 40 years when the world has changed Underneath of us and we have to think differently about the plays We are in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter right now the play calling has to change And so for in my mind we must encourage our students to Invest in their faith and that strategic moment of leaving home after high school For those of you who've walked through students with this or you've done any kind of campus ministry at college at all That moment when a student leaves home for the first time their heart And their life become wet cement for a season And over that next season it is going to be molded the the habits they have for their life The values and the way they think about things and the trajectory of where they're going is going to be molded during that unique wet cement season So why during that wet cement season are we sending them into universities where every part of the situation is built to draw them away from christ We're calling a play from 40 years ago. That is no longer appropriate today This is the advice and challenge i give for every young person today for every christian parent for every student pastor that wants to set the precious person They've invested so much in on on a path that is going to actually lead them where they want them to go Take a gap year And invest it into some kind of discipleship environment Get them into that wet cement season of leaving the house for the first time and let it be in a discipleship environment That molds that wet cement for where they want to go for the rest of their life Okay, and so have them go to discipleship school or school ministry for a year have them go with yam Have them be an intern in your church. I'll bring with my team to china if you don't know what to do with them Okay, we'll get them over there. We'll do crazy stuff But do something that sets them up in a discipleship environment. I don't mean a christian college. That's not the same thing That's the play from 40 years ago. Okay, no longer sufficient today They put them in a discipleship environment that is forming them and shaping them for what god's called them to do Over this last year I moved my family across the country here to start radiant school of ministry because I believe we need stuff like that here And so we have shaped every part of this thing to try to help develop resilient disciples of jesus christ And so whether it's the week to week stuff or the big events we do we're helping to facilitate encounters with jesus Where they meet him in ways that become anchors for their whole life as the director of the school One of the main things I do is I'm with them at eight in the morning and we open the bible together And we talk about how do you read the bible? How do you pray? Let's practice it together Let's talk about it afterwards and training them how to spend a regular unhurried time with jesus We're contrasting the bible and culture and talking about that stuff together We're putting trustworthy mentors in their lives that are having regular one-on-ones with the help making it real And we do regular out. I haven't I had a fight for this when we designed the thing I get them out for six weeks into the mission fuel as a part of the program because I think it's so important That they get that missions thing activated in their life We are building a booster shot To come into the disciples of it's already happened in the family in the local church to set them up for the hour in which they live Okay, and so that is my challenge to you as student pass. You cannot use the plays from 40 years ago Come to youth group go to college. Everything's going to work out fine It is not appropriate for the fourth quarter and that's where we are right now You have to call the play that works now and so make the investment in their faith And as to me it starts even with this group right here that are working with young people Because you're not only having to disciple the young people in this idea. You have to disciple parents too Okay, some parents in some ways are going to be the biggest challenge and changing this new way of thinking Is they want their kids to succeed? They want their kids to not fall behind or anything like that And so there's they're on that 40 years ago play that seems like it worked in the past It is not working today 70 of our kids are walking away from their faith things Must change and we have to embrace that reality disciple the kids and prepare the parents for it too Don't keep calling first quarter plays in the fourth quarter So those five practices facilitate personal experiences with Jesus Contrast the bible with culture involve parents and mentors in discipleship Create a missional environment and make the investment to lay the foundation deep the gap year Those are the five things that we're serving what we're seeing right now is we're looking at research They're so important for changing our present reality and seeing the church step into its finest hour Okay, I want to open it up as we finish up here just any questions on this idea any of these ideas and what we'll go right there If I see you on that Yeah, I think you got to disciple the parents that you have You know, if you're not discipling the parents you don't have Or you won't if you're not discipling the parents you have you'll never disciple the parents you don't have So it's like if it's not even a value in the families that go to your church Like it has to start there and I think after that it can be something you bring to other parents But um, again, and I think practically kind of what we've seen is how you interact with parents changes over the years Again as like when you're working with kids ministry It's all parents junior high kind of start string to a hybrid Senior high is parents giving the credit card to sign up for a treat Kind of thing and you know, and there's some senior high parents that are more involved and that's awesome And I think we got to lean into those relationships like whenever parents like hey, I want to get lunch with you It's like clear your calendar and make it happen Um, but I think you got to disciple the parents you do have just some ideas that we've been thrown around It's like what would it look like to have a parenting conference? Uh, a church that's doing this really well is um, john tyson in a church of the city in new york. He has like a Parenting Webinar thing every month where he talks about spirit led parenting like what are we doing in our churches to empower parents? That's good And just to speak hope into this many times once a student gives their lives to christ Their family is just a domino to follow later and especially if you're creating that missional environment I think just our students here at rsm this year We have multiple students that have led family members to christ one girl led both of her siblings to christ another girl Works at a like a home for older people She's led 10 people to christ at that home over the course this year Once they begin to catch this stuff it will spread to their families that that's it's unavoidable Good other questions Talk for a second about what you guys do to kind of get that campus missionary thinking and actually happen happen become real Yeah, um, you got to talk about it a lot I think that's this language like from you got to preach on it You got to talk about it But for moments again, I think that moments in the presence of god encourage mission to people again It starts in prayer it starts in counter and then it goes out So again, I think again investing into those encounter moments One thing that we do for our seniors specifically again even hitting on that mission We're planing it right now, but we do a prophetic Presbytery for our seniors each year so more than it's like saying hey, we're going to like throw a party and like Here's a bible like we have a prophetic presbytery We reach out to pastors elders in the church and we give them each graduating senior and they pray for a month And then we have a big banquet and they prophesy over our seniors and they're prophesying purpose calling Whatever again, it is powerful. It's such a it's a marking moment and what's so cool, too Is then that encourages discipleship we have seniors that got prophesied over By elders in our church and they've been mentoring them for the past three four years So it's like stuff like that so again encouraging having prophetic culture using it in your language In faith for exiles they talk about creating a culture for vocational calling So understanding like following Jesus for some people looks like ministry, but for a lot it looks like Ministry not in the church Right like having that language like maybe you're called you you have a gifting for engineering. Hey go be a disciple maker in the engineering field One of the things I believe really strongly and that is a little less in favor today Maybe then it was in the past is having moments of response to a challenge in the presence of god And we consider like altar moments maybe Because that acts, you know They live in a culture that every message is that you should be driven by your emotions And when I bring them to a place of making a decision I'm teaching them to be a wheel driven person not an emotions driven person And and so when I create those moments of I'm responding to something right now lord The call's been out to offer yourself up as missionaries to your high school. I've now come to the front I'm on my knee saying lord. You can use me however you want to use me. I'm I'm yours Basically those moments as they experience the spirit and that is going to have because their will is involved too Is going to have directional impact on their life It's good Any advice basically to create a culture of training which is on me Let's just be honest because it starts with leadership How could what can I do to best train the students to have just Thirst for god and like just to be able to go out into the mission field into the world and just run like wildfire These two guys have done an incredible job on that one once I can see that Get your leaders in your home encounter god with your leaders You know don't like you're not there to show your leaders how to encounter god like encounter god with your leaders Have worship nights in your house. Honestly like starting off Um, it's such a cool opportunity because you don't have to rebuild anything So even one thing, um, even pastor presson Um, can he two years now? He's been here But um, we we were kind of in a season of kind of a reset two years ago And he came in and really led so strong just against simon simon cynic start with why Which our mission statement is we exist to make resilient disciples And we say it again and again and again like we're preaching on I don't even know friendship and we're like throwing that in there Like it's like every single time we talk every time we meet with our team. We're hitting that y We exist to make resilient disciples and even like pastor toby as we were prepping for this He asked me it's like do you what's your program for discipleship? And it kind of it honestly kind of confused me for a second. I was like it's like we don't really have a program It's just what we do it's who we are it's culture You know in having a culture that knows your values and knows who you are more than do you have a discipleship program? Do you have a discipleship culture? Yeah, and culture is caught by being close to you You guys have been amazing for those joining us online. Thanks so much for being with us For those you guys that are here come on up. I see a couple hands still in the back come up We're happy to chat and answer questions And then for those of you that have young people that you feel like something like that next kind of a Step is important over this next season talk to us about radiant school ministry Anything we can do to serve you guys and have an amazing rest of your day