Vitals for Youth Ministry
Welcome to the Vitals for Youth Ministry Podcast. Vitals for youth ministry is a biblical framework based out of Acts 2:42-46, developed by Lead The Generation that trains youth leaders to build a local church youth ministry focused on developing students into healthy disciples.
In this podcast we will focus on the topics and issues most relevant to leadership in Youth Ministry. The Vitals for Youth Ministry Podcast is hosted by Eran Holt, founder of Lead The Generation & Caleb Leake, Youth Pastor at Allison Park Church in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Vitals for Youth Ministry
The Troubling Level of Biblical Literacy in Students, Bible Study in Small Groups & Praying Through Scripture
What if the most effective youth ministry strategy isn't flashy, innovative, or complicated—but actually stunningly simple? In this revealing conversation with 20-year youth ministry veteran Elisha Garcia of Grace Church in Houston, we uncover how returning to fundamental practices is transforming an entire generation's relationship with scripture.
Elisha opens up about the intentional shift his ministry made two years ago when they realized many of their students couldn't identify basic Bible stories. Their solution wasn't a new technology platform or engagement strategy, but something far more powerful: quantity and quality of scripture exposure in every ministry environment.
The practical tactics Elisha shares are immediately implementable: having students physically stand during scripture reading to increase focus and reverence; shifting from purely topical sermons to more expository teaching that lets scripture speak for itself; redesigning small groups to study entire books of the Bible over a semester; and the game-changing practice of teaching students to pray scripture back to God.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is how Elisha addresses the tension many youth pastors feel between creating attractive, engaging experiences and prioritizing biblical fundamentals. Rather than presenting these as opposing approaches, he demonstrates how his ministry continues to excel at creative, high-energy events while ensuring biblical literacy remains the foundation. As he puts it, "I don't think that you have to sacrifice the creativity, the fun, or the attractive...but if that is the only substance that you're giving people once you get them in the door, it's a flash in the pan."
Whether you're a solo youth worker with limited resources or leading a large ministry team, these battle-tested strategies will help you equip teenagers with the biblical foundation they need for lifelong faith. Ready to move beyond surface-level engagement to true spiritual transformation? This conversation will show you how to start right where you are.
You know, one of my favorite prayer moments that we've had in the last month was we all pulled out our Bibles at the very end and I said I want everybody to get a scripture. Something could be prophetic, could be encouraging, whatever the Holy Spirit leads, you're going to go grab scripture and I want you to pray through that. And I modeled that. I said here's the scripture. I opened it up and, line by line, I preached or, excuse me, I prayed through it and prayed through it, and I showed them what it looks like to pray the scriptures.
Speaker 1:I want to show them how this affects their prayer life and, um, how the, the most powerful prayers are not even necessarily our words. They're God's word through us, back to him, right and um, and Jesus prayed this so often and I, I, I'm, I'm trying the best of my ability. Remember, I said that it was about quantity. How do I get as much scripture in front of them as possible? And so I kind of look for every spiritual environment that we have, whether I'm up in the pulpit and I'm teaching, preaching, or we're intimately, just a few of us together praying where nobody sees it. Scripture in that as well, and so teaching how to pray the scriptures has been a new discipline that's in our rhythms and I've started that from the top down and that will be something that will make its way into the whole of the youth ministry as well.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, Welcome to Vitals for Youth Ministry podcast, a resource of lead generation. My name is Aaron. I'm one of your co-hosts. I got this incredible guy right here, Caleb.
Speaker 3:Caleb, I'm a youth pastor and that's about it. And a new dad. You are a new dad, yeah, since starting the podcast Since the last time we recorded an episode you have added to the family. Okay, let's be just real quick, tell us oh real quick, tell us, tell us, oh, uh, yeah, his name's elliot david leak and uh, he doesn't sleep, as I think most babies don't uh but no, it's been fun. It's uh, it's crazy when you know your son comes into the world.
Speaker 2:It's like oh my gosh, like everything changes instantly.
Speaker 3:So yeah, it's been, it's been real fun adjusting everything and and and, just doing great too.
Speaker 2:So absolutely amazing. That's so good. Hey, we got a special guest with us today. We're so excited to introduce to the podcast family Alicia Garcia from Grace Church in Houston, Texas. Thanks for joining us. My friend, Tell us a little bit about yourself real quick.
Speaker 1:Thank you, fellas, for having me on the podcast. Let me just start by saying I'm loving what you're doing, aaron. I think I told you this the other day, but I, man, I so wish that I had what you're producing when I started in youth ministry so massive assets, everything from the digital stuff to the coaching. So thank you for what you're doing for youth pastors. But just to give a little bit of background, this is my 20th year of youth ministry.
Speaker 1:Whoa, I've served yeah, I've served 16 of those years in two houses, and so I really believe in being rooted and the fruit following that faithfulness. I'm a father of two and I am a husband of 11 years, and so my kids got a almost two-year-, then a six year old and they are the best and they're at that age where they're loving, like playing together and getting along and you know, you got a big sister trying to be mom and little brother like emulating and so it's a really beautiful time and I'm trying to cherish it as much as possible because you know, we see the movies and the siblings fighting and the whole thing so.
Speaker 3:I'm loving their dynamic right now yeah, dude, that's so great I can tell you, as a sibling, I did fight a lot.
Speaker 2:It does end, oh yeah well, yeah, you got a lot of older siblings yeah, I'm number four or five.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I was getting beat up on a lot, but I had one little brother to you know, kind of yeah, give it to him, try out.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, my older brother did this to me. I'm gonna try this on the little guy here. Here we go yeah, you know I didn't have that. I was just the baby, the family, I just, I just.
Speaker 2:I had two older sisters and you don't know bro just you got the most leniency of your parents too, because parents like as the younger ones get older, it's like, well, it's kind of do sleepovers, my older brothers, it's it's the most leniency, but I think the baby, the family you also experienced, hopefully, the best version of your parents, because they kind of know what they're doing at this point right, which is the most important version.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're on the expense already and they're just going.
Speaker 2:Whatever we got left. Whatever, do your thing, man the remnants oh that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Do your thing, man oh that's awesome. Well, dude, every time we're on the podcast, we love to ask youth pastors for that youth pastor story, because I feel like that's one common thing we all share is like either something dumb we've done- or that we've witnessed a middle schooler or leader, do so. Yeah, dude, this floor is yours.
Speaker 1:We'd love to hear about your story that you would share at a table of youth pastors. I've got one. Well, I got several and I think anybody who's been in ministry you know, two decades, probably a few. But when I was just starting out as an associate youth pastor at my home church, we were taking a road trip and the church had bought a people mover. You guys know what a people mover is like a small bus basically.
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't think I know what that is A people? Okay, so think about, just think of bus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like when you go to the airport and you're being shuttled from like parking to like a rental car bus.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 3:Understood Yep, I didn't know that was called a people mover.
Speaker 1:School bus. But anyway, we had a people mover and we were taking a road trip and you know, one of my jobs was, when we stopped, you fill up the people mover. So you know, my boss, who was my youth pastor, grew up through the youth ministry and came on staff, hands me the credit card. I hop out, you know, do the thing, put the gas in, run and grab snacks. Everybody hops on the bus and about 15 minutes later the bus just starts to like slow quite a bit and uh, we're trying to figure out what's going on. Going on. And uh, we're in a New Mexico. So there's not like, once you leave a big city in New Mexico, there's not a lot going on.
Speaker 2:There's nothing.
Speaker 1:Desert, which is why the government, you know, explodes bombs in the middle of New Mexico, like we're moving. 10, 15 minutes later, bus starts slow. Then there's like this puff of white smoke, just you know, following us and it's getting worse. And my youth pastor's, like you put gas in. I'm like, yeah, look, you can see it's full. He said what gas did you use? And I'm not thinking what gas, like gas is gas. You got unleaded premium. You know, just it's gas. And I was like I put unleaded in, what are you supposed to put in? He said this is a diesel engine. Oh man. So yeah, I did about $12,000 worth of damage. I selected a long gas in the pump and we had to dude, we had to come and get a tow. I mean, we were like stuck on the side of the road and it was a mistake you make one time.
Speaker 2:Did you keep your job or did they take?
Speaker 1:the 12K out of your check. Yeah, I was. You know what I was thinking this morning how many times like the grace of God has fallen on my life to keep my job. I'm just grateful, man.
Speaker 2:Every youth pastor should echo that statement right there.
Speaker 1:The grace of God for me to keep my job right. My father-in-law just at some point with teenagers. That doesn't make that 19 years old, but you know thank god for the past.
Speaker 3:My father-in-law just put flex fuel in in my my wife's car over the uh, christmas vacation and was like bro. So yeah, you know I make mistake about that. Mistake once, because it totally ruins everything. It's not good when you do the wrong thing, yeah, so. I know nothing about cars outside of that now, and it's because I made that mistake, so there we go.
Speaker 2:That's one that's so good. Oh man, that's horrible. We all got them, I've you know. Your story reminds me um, I, I had like my first trip as a youth pastor. I'm hanging, we're filling up the van with gas. This is another gas station story, filling up the van with gas. One of my college buddies has his van and his youth group and he decides that we're gonna have to race to see which one of us can fill our van up with gas the fastest. And I got, you know, I I got a head start on him, so I'm gonna win. It's kind of pretty simple math at this, and so this is already such a guy story.
Speaker 3:It is such a guy story, okay, making complication.
Speaker 2:Out of nothing, two 15 passenger vans loaded with students. He jumps on my back while I'm trying to pump gas and we start wrestling and I decide to throw him up against the side of the van to get him off me and his rear end goes through the window of the van. Glass shatters everywhere, all over all of the students, and the only thing I'm grateful for is that I'm so old. This happened before kids had cell phones and it's not on video.
Speaker 3:So yeah, broke the window with his booty. Yes, he did. Yes, he did.
Speaker 1:I thought this was about to be like a Zoolander moment you take a gap out and start spraying.
Speaker 2:No, not that bad. Not that bad, but still bad. It was a really fun. I had been on staff at that church for maybe two months and I have to call my pastor and be like so we broke a window. Let me tell you how this happened. Not a good moment, Not a good moment. Not a good moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not a stupid moment, Like we did the youth pastors.
Speaker 2:Yes, the youth pastors did it.
Speaker 3:You're also when those things happen. You're like dude. This does not help the reputation that youth pastors have.
Speaker 2:It's true, You're like darn it it's true.
Speaker 1:They're already fighting against the you, the assumptions.
Speaker 2:Well, elisha, we're so glad you're with us, and anytime we can get a veteran youth pastor on the podcast to talk to us and coach youth pastors that are listening, it's always a treat. So we're honored that you join us. We call this podcast Vitals for Youth Ministry podcast because it's based off of a free resource that Lead the Generation has on our website called Vitals for Youth Ministry. It is a resource library of over 70 training videos to help youth pastors build their youth ministry around the framework of Vitals. All five Vitals biblical truth, spiritual transformation, healthy community, missional living, leadership development are found in Acts, chapter two, and so youth pastors, youth leaders that are listening. If you haven't checked out vitals yet, go to the website, check it out. It's all free, amazing resource.
Speaker 2:This podcast goes along with it and, caleb, you and I like to say we do a deep dive with our guest on one of the vitals. And so, elisha, with you today, we're just going to kind of do a deep dive on the vital of biblical truth and we just want to pick your brain and have you coach us and coach youth pastors and leaders that are listening on how do we increase biblical truth in our youth ministries, how do we increase biblical literacy? Talk strategy with us, talk, practice with us, all that good stuff. So let's just jump in. I'll just I'll just kick us off with a real broad question. Elisha, you know what? What does your strategy look like when you think about your current youth ministry? What does your strategy look like for increasing biblical literacy among your students?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it starts with um, obviously exposure, but you know quantity I I want to do as much biblical teaching and exposure to scriptures as as possible and I'll say, about two years ago we started to get really aggressive with um being intentional. You would think that as pastors this would just kind of be inherent, but I think that we feel the programming of what we do with a lot of stuff and being intentional with Bible specifically, about two years ago we really started to get intentionally aggressive and it really stops. It starts from the top down and whether it was, you know, within the leadership, prayer times, our interns, our volunteers, you know, pushing that in front of and with them. But practically how it started to flesh out is, you know, we actually started to read, slash, preach, teach line by line from scripture. Frequently, you know, and every youth pastor should be preaching scripture. But I think that sometimes we, instead of reading scripture or really diving into, really diving into, like you don't have to pull out a lexicon, you know, or uh, uh, uh, a, a, a preaching um, uh, you know, your your library, from college, from seminary, like you don't pull it out every time you're you're teaching or preaching, but I think we do a disservice to students when we aren't opening the physical word of God and reading together, preaching, teaching from the book and you know I'm a big fan of using technology and leveraging creative ideas and all of that but I just started to find that we were losing something with teenagers when we weren't putting the book in front of them, reading in front of them, teaching in front of them. So I'll give you some things that strategically, we do now.
Speaker 1:Every time I get up and preach, before I get into the reading of the word, we actually have students stand as we read, which feels a little old school. But I found that the focus of reading the word together, having students stand and me actually read through, give some comments and notes as we're reading through what it does is it really does focus the student on the scriptures. A lot of times, as soon as they hit their seats, the cell phone comes out, they start talking. But when you change their physical posture, it allows them to kind of focus. The other thing that it does is it teaches reverence for the word of God and I think that we to kind of focus.
Speaker 1:The other thing that it does is it teaches reverence for the word of God and I think that we've kind of lost some of that. Honestly, as the word of God has made its way to our cell phones and you know it's accessible, it's kind of all around us. We've become too familiar almost with it, where the reverence piece has been lost so nine times out of 10, when we're preaching. Now we'll actually have students stand, we'll read, I'll talk even in that moment why we're standing, but we'll read through and then as I teach and preach, I'm referencing back to those scriptures again and again. I will tell stories and I'll give scriptures from memory and things, but pointing to the scriptures and I would say for any youth pastor who is in preaching scripture, and what I mean is let the scripture teach what scripture is teaching, as opposed to stories and opinions and then trying to get scripture to fit into that we got it backwards and I'll say I've been guilty of this as a communicator where it's like man.
Speaker 1:I feel like I've got this really great idea OK, what scriptures align with the idea and we've gotten aggressive with going OK, this is the idea of where we want to go.
Speaker 2:Let's take entire chapters or paragraphs and let the points and then shoehorning scripture in. So would you say that you're doing more like expository style, preaching line by line, versus like topical, or are you kind of trying to do a hybrid where you're still maybe branding like a topical sermon series, but really kind of like diving deep into a section of scripture?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have started to work into the rhythm of the preaching calendar where we're taking a book of the Bible and we're actually preaching, teaching. In fact, back in November, december, we did a series called Five Chapters. It was on the book of James and we preached through. I think it was a seven week series that we ended up doing and we preached through and read through line by line and that really did come from the heart of students don't know the scriptures and you know FEED actually does phenomenal resource but they do all kinds of studies about Gen Z and now Gen Alpha and they talked about how Gen Z 10% of Gen Z reads the Bible on a regular basis. And so it was like alarm bells were going off that when students walking into our youth ministry not knowing Jonah and the whale, the walls of Jericho, david and Goliath, these things for us were the warning signs that we have got to do something to teach. And the only way that you can do that is literally opening up and teaching, preaching.
Speaker 1:And so not every series is line by line, but even in topical I'll take chunks of scripture and I will read through and teach through principles from that, and I found that, first of all, it's way more succinct. You know the context holds together. When we cherry pick you can kind of lose. You know some of what scripture is saying and that's how I got my start in. Preaching was topical. Here's some verses that line up with the point. So no shame, no shade, I've been there right. But I find that there's just way more strength when you're grabbing entire whole paragraphs or chapters of scripture and you're being from that. Um. So yeah, expository has has become a new fun, secret little weapon to get more biblical literacy in front of students.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I think there's as a, as a youth pastor, I think there's almost a fear of if I don't do topical, I'm going to lose them, like they're not going to be interested, they're not going to care, and so, and it's like you can even, maybe even these pastors will try to preach I know I did and it's like I can see they're not, like they're on their phones and it's like dang it, am I losing them? So there's almost just like, oh, if I give up all topical, then the relevance factor how did you notice the shift happen? How was the shift from your previous model into this newer model where you're doing more expository, like from the student and maybe even leader side of things? How did they respond?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, I haven't completely let go of topical. For instance, we're in a series right now called Hard Launch, where we're talking love, why we need the real, true biblical form of love and how this shows us the type of love that God has for us. And so I don't forsake preaching topics, but I use more of an expository style to to hold up said topic. Yeah, and, and so I, like I said I love, I love to be very creative, and so there is a, there is a, a push pool a little bit. God's a creative God, so I think that he wants that for us as communicators. God's a creative God, so I think that he wants that for us as communicators, as youth pastors, you know, as ministries like use creativity, but the moment that creativity takes the foregrounds and scripture takes the background, we've got it out of balance. That's good, but for me, as a youth pastor and a communicator man, I've just started to fall in love with scripture again and I find that when youth pastors are pastors in general, ministers in general, when they are passionate about the word of God, when they're being fed by the word of God and they get up, students want to know that you're passionate about what you're speaking about. So it's not about how creative can I be, it's how excited and passionate can I be about the content that I'm about to communicate to you with. And so if I'm just getting up there excited about an idea but not about scripture, I don't know that students are going to be really leaning into list anyway. But Gen Z and Alpha, they want the truth not to sugarcoat, which is so fun to preach this way. You know, in in previous generations, um, kind of that uh, into the millennial, like as I was preaching to those guys, there was still kind of that seeker, sensitive vibe in churches and so you kind of had to be kid glovey.
Speaker 1:I love preaching now because students, even if they don't agree with you, they still want to know that you stand on conviction. And when I can come to biblical truth and go, this is what the word of God says. And here's the words of Jesus, not of a man, not of a church. This is what Jesus Christ is saying and this is how it lines up with your life. They're way more apt to lean in.
Speaker 1:I just let a small group last night with juniors and seniors and we sat around and we read Hebrews, chapter 10, which the book of Hebrews is not easy to digest for the publicly illiterate, but we read through line by line, and when I tell you that 22 juniors and seniors in a room having deep thoughts, having connection points with Hebrews, chapter 10, about who Jesus Christ is and the ultimate sacrifice, and how this applies to my life, these people didn't go to seminary but they're connecting with scripture because we're reading it together, line by line, discussing and understanding, and so this is another practical angle that we've started to take, even within our small groups.
Speaker 1:We don't take small group content and teach topically anymore. We teach a book of the Bible the whole semester so that by the end a small group is able to go. We read through a whole book together, and if a teenager never reads another book, at least they've read one book together when they're in that small group. And so it's back to that idea of we're going to do this as much as possible in the environments that we have them. Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 3:I love that model for small groups and what's cool about what the way the preaching is is you're subliminally teaching them how you're reading scripture, so they're picking that up Right. I'm like, oh, that's how you got there.
Speaker 2:Which is one of the weaknesses of if you only do topical preaching, you're not really modeling for your students how to read the Bible, how to interpret the Bible, how to ask the right questions.
Speaker 3:You're almost modeling like a you version, like I need a verse about peace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're actually teaching.
Speaker 1:It's a great shot in the arm, but it doesn't build discipline.
Speaker 2:It doesn't build discipline and no one reads the Bible topically, right. We read the Bible line by line, verse by verse, and so typically people don't pick up their Bible and say, today I wanna read what the Bible has to say about joy, let me find, you know they don't see. You know you, just you don't do that. But if all you do is teach topical, like the old school seeker model that you kind of referenced there, elisha, you know that is one of the weaknesses of it. It's great, it can be great at times, for you know like we need to hit very specific topics that are happening in our culture with this generation and we need to unpack. What does God's word say about this issue, this question, this challenge that culturally we're facing? But I love what you're talking about there. I mean I almost grabbed my Bible, started reading Hebrews 10 real quick because I was like let's just do Bible study right now. This is great.
Speaker 3:So okay, when it comes to being in your groups, this is now just me, as a youth pastor, nerding out a little bit about your model because it sounds awesome, and I'm trying something similar, where we're reading through scripture as the main focus rather than being topical in small groups. Yeah, how do you train your leaders to be able to handle those conversations? Because wrestling through scripture is really tough and sometimes I don't want to put a leader in a place where they're like dude, I am like drowning here, like what are you doing? So how have you trained your leaders to handle, you know, walking through the messiness of scripture with students?
Speaker 1:The. The format of the night is set up really beautifully. So typically the first hour is community fun hangs games right, eating, whatever, uh. And then the second hour is where the learning, teaching, reading all happens. But before we even open the Bible and read, we have a video that we kick out for these small groups and it's typically two leaders and they will be discussing that chapter that we're about to read together. And this format has changed a lot of different ways. In the first iteration it was a collection of leaders popping in, you know hard cuts, and it's like and this is what the Bible is saying here. And then Abraham walked in and it was like very funny telling of the story. And we've kind of morphed over the years a little bit. We now have kind of made a little bit more of a podcast format and this year it's become kind of a comedian in cars getting coffee situation.
Speaker 2:So two leaders. My wife loves that show. It's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, some of the best conversation takes place just two people driving around in a car and we were like this is a great format. So put a couple of GoPros in a car and it's like okay, we're discussing Hebrews chapter 10 this week. You're just shoot for half an hour and we're gonna edit it down to 10 to 12 minutes and you're gonna kick that out to small groups and so students and leaders will watch that. Well, leaders typically get our resources a week in advance. So they know in the semester, like here's the book that we're doing, read through the semester. Like here's the book that we're doing, read through the book. Like do this study? Students are looking to you for conversation. So they have that well in advance. But then, even a week in advance for every small group, they've got all of the questions. They got the chapter that we're discussing as well as the video that's going to go out, so we warm them right.
Speaker 1:It's not just grab your Bible, teach Hebrews 10, and I hope everything goes well, but the resources that we kick out to them. There's a digital talk sheet that goes to every leader and we got this from Feed. Feed is brilliant, but their catechism curriculum, where it was what's the big question, and then what's the big answer? And it was leading through questions. We took that it was leading through questions. We took that idea of leading through questions and we applied it to what scripture was saying. So, as we read through line by line, you know we're asking questions, and so leaders no longer have to be the biblical scholar in the room. They need to be educated about what they are teaching.
Speaker 1:What they need to do, though, though, is facilitate conversation. We believe in kind of a 70-30 principle 70% conversation among students, 30% of the leader teaching or asking questions, so that leader's not getting up and for an hour teaching about Hebrews 10. That's not the goal. Goal is to read together, together, discovery through conversation, for them to facilitate those questions and to know the content to be able to hold those conversations. But we also arm our leaders that if you don't know the answer, that's okay. In fact, some of your students need to hear you say you know, I don't know that answer, but between now and next week, I'm going to learn and I'm going to find that answer, and we're we're going to come together, we're going to discuss that, and I just I find that it's way healthier that way than expecting a leader to come in front of 10, 15 students and teach for an hour on Hebrews 10. That's not the goal anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's intimidating for any leader. I mean that's intimidating for a lot of youth pastors, right, but for volunteer small group leaders, you know, I mean that's like wait, I didn't sign up for this.
Speaker 1:Five hours of prep?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't have that Well, and it doesn't even work. I don't think, you know, I think when students, when they walk away with stuff, it's because, like, the best stuff they walk away with is stuff that they've like processed through, not with is stuff that they've like processed through, not even stuff that I've said. So it's like it's like this is what I want, because it's actually better than anything I could say right, you just tweaked your small group model.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just unpack it real quick, yeah. So the way way we've been doing it is again, I really want to just, I really just want to read scripture together as the main basis, and so we do groups on our wednesday night, um, and so we kick off the night with our groups. 15 minutes of it is just hanging out, and then the 15 other minutes are just kind of digging into scripture.
Speaker 2:It is kind of like Bible studying.
Speaker 3:It really is a Bible study, and we use the same four questions every week. Which is what sticks out? What's the context, what do you get, what's the main point and then what are you going to do about it? Those are the same things every week. I provide like a little context guide. It's like, hey, here's kind of what gets you through it, but really everyone has a supercomputer in their pocket. It's like, dude, let's research this together.
Speaker 3:You can figure out what the context is and the historical details and who's speaking to who, and then my message kind of comes in and cleans up anything that might have been messy from that. But they kind of do the wrestling and even if it's not perfect, it's like that's okay, cause we can learn through the mess of it. And we're a few weeks in and it's been going really well. It changes the way I have to preach, cause they've already read. So it's like I have to get up and I have to preach in a way where I'm more focused on what the scripture causes us, like the tension that we feel, how it makes us feel uncomfortable. I love it, because they already found really the main point. So then it's like okay, well, let's really dig in though, because it's not as simple and clean, as you may think it is.
Speaker 2:The last two or three years that I was youth pastor and we really started to dial in on, like this, this question of biblical literacy. What are we doing to increase biblical literacy? I think I was. I had my own kids in the youth ministry at that point, like so I was really feeling the weight, not only as a youth pastor but as, like a dad, like I want my kids to know scripture.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things we did and this again sounds totally, you know, old school, but we we went out and bought paperback versions of NIV Bible, put a Bible at every single chair and then whenever we preach, we preached as well from that same Bible, so we could read scripture together with a physical copy of God's word in kids' hands. And I could even reference the page number we were going to be on for the kids who just are so illiterate they're like I don't even know how to navigate a Bible. And so I would just be like hey, we're all on page number 882 or whatever you know, get there. And when we first started doing it I didn't know how it was going to work. I was like I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2:And I remember a couple of weeks in and I had this, one of the one of our kids came up to me and they were like, hey, I hope it's all right, but like I know we read like two or three verses together, but like, like, while you were preaching, I read the rest of the chapters. Is that okay? I'm like, yes, it is. And then. But then we would tell students at the end of the service, like, if you don't own your own actual physical copy of a Bible, you can take that one with you. That's your gift from us, you know just take that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there is power in a physical copy of the Bible. I've noticed that too. It's different. It's even different in the way you interact with it, the way you read it, because it's not a search engine, it's a book that you're reading and a narrative, a story that's being told.
Speaker 2:And then it's a lot easier to tell kids if you need to. Hey, put your phone in your pocket or under your seat or whatever no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I spoke about this at the beginning, but that idea of being top down and every Wednesday morning with our staff and our interns, our college practicum students, we all gather for about an hour hour and 15 minutes and we spend time praying just for the day self services. The things that we've started to teach and implement is praying the scriptures. You know, and I think that a lot of times people think the only application of scripture is to read. You know there are so many other applications. You know memorization and reciting, but scripture and prayer are the tent poles this year that Grace Youth is being and it's not revelatory, right, it's not new or this sexy big idea, it's just foundational man. And so when we went, the next big move is going to be predicated on prayer we knew that it had to be backed, you know, with biblical literacy and so teaching our staff and our practicum students how to pray scriptures. You know, one of my favorite prayer moments that we've had in the last month was we all pulled out our Bibles at the very end and I said I want everybody to get a scripture. Something could be prophetic, could be encouraging. Whatever the Holy Spirit leads, you're going to go grab scripture and I want you to pray through that. And I modeled that. I said here's the scripture, I opened it up and, line by line, I preached or, excuse me, I prayed through it and I showed them what it looks like to pray the scriptures. And so our interaction with the Bible and with text is not just let's read this together so that I can preach it in front of you. I want to show them how this affects their prayer life and how the most powerful prayers are not even necessarily our words. They're God's word through us, back to him, and Jesus prayed this so often, and I'm trying the best of my ability. Remember I said that it was about quantity. How do I get as much scripture in front of them as possible? And so I kind of look for every spiritual environment that we have. Whether I'm up in the pulpit and I'm teaching, preaching, or we're intimately just a few of us together praying where nobody sees it. I'm also going to bring scripture in that as well, and so teaching how to pray the scriptures has been a new discipline. That's in our rhythms, and I've started that from the top down and that will be something that will make its way into the whole of the youth ministry as well.
Speaker 1:Like you said, aaron, the idea of giving physical copies away at the end of every service. We tell students if you do not have, and we're putting physical Bibles in as many hands as possible. Our young adults ministry just the other day they gave away something like 1200 Bibles. I mean just, we're trying to get the word of God into as many hands as possible, and I think that it was a time where I just went. You know, if you have a phone, download the Bible, make it digital.
Speaker 1:But, like, this is all the time, everywhere with them, and I think that to put this in your physical hands, um, it does something. It does something to an individual, you know it's. It's the difference between picking up um a stylus and drawing something on your iPad or, uh, like real paint and ink and putting it to paper. It's. There's just something different that happens to the, to the brain, to the head, to the heart, to focus them in a different way. Um, and it's hard for students, it's clunky, right, like how do I, where do I? But teaching them is, is um has been so important, but that praying of scriptures, man has been something I'm really loving right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay. So I'm curious, cause I think a lot of youth pastors maybe are in a similar place, where disciplines for you and yourself as a leader, when you're saying it starts top down, can be so tough, um, but it's also so important, like to be spiritually leading the way, and so what are things that have helped you or transformed you over the years? You've been in youth ministry for 20 years now uh, spiritually, you kind of set the tone and lead the way. What are things that have really been foundational for you? You?
Speaker 1:kind of set the tone and lean in the way. What are things that have really been foundational for you as of about three years ago? Steve Svoboda, I don't know if you guys know him he's at the national office now with the AG. He's served in several different local churches, but he invited me to a. It was a Bible reading plan, a one-year Bible reading plan, with about 15 or 20 other dudes around the nation, and I didn't realize how big of a impact that would have on my life.
Speaker 1:Just the daily discipline of reading through specific scripture and then discussing what it is that God spoke to me and then seeing the observations of other guys. I mean it takes about 30 minutes out of my day. But that small discipline has been a game changer and I really do think has given way to scripture becoming new and fresh and alive in me, which then rippled out. You know, as a leader goes, so goes the organization, and so if the leader isn't in love with scripture, with Bible, it's never going to happen in his students. It's just not. And and so something changed in me, which changed in our staff, which has now changed in our youth ministry and um, and something that small has has been massive for me is just daily specific, not just reading of scripture, but discussing that with other people is dude, is is a game changer and I think if a lot of other youth pastors could get into something like that.
Speaker 1:And it's not even hard. You know, go on the Bible app, read a Bible reading plan, invite friends. It also has a sense of accountability to it. If I'm not reading and I'm dropping out, somebody's knocking on my door going hey bro, you haven't posted in a few days. Is knocking on my door going hey bro, you haven't posted in a few days? So I would just say something as simple as that is the accountability and community of reading scripture together amongst peers would be massive for a youth pastor.
Speaker 2:I had. When you're talking about praying scripture, I mean that's an incredible strategy because you're not just helping increase biblical literacy, but you're helping increase students' prayer life. Right? I mean, if you're so blessed as a youth pastor to run with the same group of kids for seven years, take them from sixth grade all the way through 12th grade. What are some of the goals that you're going to want to have at the end of that run? Man, I want you to have biblical literacy and I want you to have a prayer life. Those two are probably right at the top of the list, right?
Speaker 2:One of my small group leaders, a guy named Gene, I discovered when he started volunteering with us that anytime you would ask Gene to pray, or if I would say, hey, gene, will you close us some prayer or whatever, he would pray or quote more scripture than any other thing. And I just I was actually so convicted as, like the, the pastor in the room, cause I was like he can pray and like, and, but it was all scripture, you know, and just one you know declare this, promise this, this promise this. Again and again and again, and again and again. And it's so moved me. It actually was like for me as a leader. It encouraged me to be like I need. I want to learn to pray like that and I want my students to learn how to pray like.
Speaker 2:That Cause most most students, if we're just talking about prayer now. Most students struggle to pray because they feel like I don't know what to say Right. And then they and then and then. One of the mistakes that we at times make as as youth pastors, is we do all the praying and they listen to us rather than us in creating opportunities for them to pray. I love what you're doing, elisha, because you're basically saying um, you're going to hear me pray, but when you hear me pray, you're going to hear me use God's word, which that's attainable. If I just get into God's word and then if we create opportunities as youth pastors for kids to to pray themselves and pray God's word, I mean that's just. We create opportunities as youth pastors for kids to to pray themselves and pray God's word, I mean that's just. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that you're focusing yeah, yeah you go, we do a part If we do a part two. Uh, like in tandem about prayer, like call me back, cause I, I, it's something that we're excited about as well. And and there are some easy, practical, low-hanging fruit things that doesn't matter if you're running 1,000 or 10.
Speaker 2:Go ahead and give us a couple, give us a couple.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'll give you our top three right now. Yes, we do pre-service prayer, which I think that most youth pastors or youth ministries probably do. Yeah, but we've started to open up pre-service prayer, not just to leaders and volunteers. It wasn't just a touch point about ministry strategy and let's get motivated and let's pray over the room. We've actually opened it up to any student who wants to come and be a part Week one. That we and it was like a soft launch. It wasn't even like a. This is what we're doing as Grace Youth. It was on social pull up, if you want to. We added another 40 students to the room who just came early.
Speaker 1:Come on, guys, for prayer, not for free food, not for gaming and hangs which we still do, by the way, yeah, but for prayer. And to see students kneeling at the altar walking around the room. Um, I remember going to james river and, um, this was man, probably 12 years ago, scotty Gibbons. Shout out, scotty, you ever see this? Oh gee, I pulled up to one of his camp services pre-service prayer and for the first time as a youth pastor and I think I was probably seven or eight years into the youth pastoring at the time For the first time as a youth pastor, I went. This is what I want my youth ministry to be Like the amount of pre-service prayer energy. They hadn't even gotten to service yet I went. That's what I want as a youth pastor. Come on, and I feel like over the last decade I've just been trying to get to that place and so all that to say.
Speaker 1:Pre-service prayer is one of those things we're steadily growing. What pre-service prayer looks like in our small groups? When it comes towards the end of the night, we're taking prayer requests. The leaders will kind of book in the prayers, but we actually divide all of our prayer needs amongst students. We give them the opportunity and when I tell you that we get everything from students who are so great at praying, like it's bringing tears to my eyes to a student who dropped an F-bomb in the middle of his prayer.
Speaker 2:You get the full gamut, so be ready for it. We're learning how to pray.
Speaker 1:We're learning how to pray? Yes, yeah, I mean, if we're going to teach them. And God spoke this at a worship a few two years ago. He spoke this at a worship night few two years ago. He spoke this at a worship night and it was such a simple phrase let them pray. And the moment that I heard that, it changed everything, because it was like, if we can just pray hard enough and if we can just get them to the altar through our own intercession and that's true you need to be doing that.
Speaker 1:But when I heard that man, we have been fighting for students to get into environments where they are praying and in prayer and um, so there's even a moment in our service where we welcome a student to come on and they pray over service in front of their peers and um, and, and so we're trying as much as possible to just push the availability, the exercise and the practice of prayer. It's just like scripture. If I want them to know scripture, I have to give them opportunity. But when, when God spoke that let them pray, I was like, okay, we have to, and we got to find environments to to allow that to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, a kid. Dropping an F-bomb is like the the craziest but also best thing in the world.
Speaker 2:You're like it's adorable, it's like dude. I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 3:Like even if it's like a little messy, and like maybe we don't say that next time.
Speaker 2:It's like oh you just gotta be so bummed about it, that's discipleship.
Speaker 3:It is yeah, that's the fun part of youth ministry too is like we're in that part of the mess. So, and I love basic things, like it really isn't anything complicated of just prayer and reading the scripture, and even I think it can be intimidating of like, oh my gosh, there's so much I have to do. But like I love Elisha You're talking about like over the past 10 years I've been working towards this thing because youth ministry I mean I'm only I'm about to be five years in it's so much of the long game, it's so much of like the things I've been dreaming and hoping for like are just starting to, like you can see the breakthrough, because fruit just takes a while to grow and so allowing it to be, you know, a long game, faithfulness, commitment to the basic things. I think that's why vitals is so important. I think we're tying it all the way back in, yeah, yeah. But it's why it's good to have a framework, because you can look back three years, five years from now and be like what have we been doing?
Speaker 2:Well, when you look at the five vitals in Acts 2, and again, if you're new to the Lead the Gen fam or to the vitals podcast, you got to go on our website, leadthegenerationcom.
Speaker 2:Check it all out there, it's all 100% free. When you look at the framework of the five vitals in Acts 2, what most youth pastors will discover is they're probably good, naturally good, or very passionate about one or two of them, right, and then you're probably not as good or not as gifted or passionate with the other one or two, you know. And so you end up, by default, if you don't have a framework that helps you stay balanced and healthy, you by default end up being really strong in some areas and really weak in other areas, which doesn't produce the level of disciple that I was like. I love that raw, raw, inspirational. Let's create a great moment, a great camp, a great altar. You know that, that, and it's funny to say that because and you kind of joked about it at the very beginning of our conversation, elisha like, like, it sounds funny to say I need to be really intentional about the Bible, right.
Speaker 1:But? But we all have strengths, right? No, that's not the big event, that's not Instagrammable. You said it the long game, that is the thing that will bear the most fruit over years.
Speaker 2:That's what we want and that's what I mean. If there's one thing that you should want as a youth pastor is knowing that when my kids graduate from high school and from our youth ministry, that years down the road they're a lover of god's word and they have a prayer life and they got a good you know rooted system of faith, and they're continuing the spiritual independence, yeah, yeah, like we're not dependent on me or an event or anything like that.
Speaker 3:You have the tools, yeah, so you got it yeah that's what. That's what I want for my kids yeah, and we not.
Speaker 2:We're not like trying to throw tons of, you know, shade at at like the attractional youth ministry model that we all grew up in and as students or did I did for years as a youth pastor. There's a lot of really great things that came out of that model of a level of excellence, the level of creativity, the desire to be relevant, like there's some really good principles.
Speaker 3:And those are all good things, yeah, and those are still good things, but it did.
Speaker 2:it did cause us to shift really hard that direction for decades in youth ministry and and shift away from some of these basic foundational things that we're talking about here today, like Bible reading and prayer. What's that been like for you? Because you're 20 years in and so you you have. You probably grew up in a youth ministry that was really attractional by nature and maybe even started youth pastoring in that way, and now it sounds like you're evolving or kind of shifting into a real centered, healthy view of, like creativity and relevance on one side, but good, like I'm too old to really associate with or too young maybe to associate with millennials, but too old to really get into Gen Z.
Speaker 1:So I'm in this weird gap of carrying the ministry methods of the church that came before us. Right, you're United Live Basement, hot Rock, you know like Music, ministry, danger Games.
Speaker 1:Great music, though Great music, yeah, oh, phenomenal, yeah. So I'm halfway between that and then what we're kind of in now, and so I've kind of had to lead through two really big, stark contrasting cultural norms within the church. But I will say I don't think that you have to sacrifice one for the other. I mean, if you go and look at our ministry page you will see like nobody loves to throw a big event more than me. Like dude, I love that to. In fact, just what? This past September we did something called battle of the schools. We literally hung mascots from the ceiling of our church and they descended during the thing. Man, I was like this, this is amazing.
Speaker 1:You better believe that when worship came, amazing, you better believe that when worship came, um, we, dude, we spent time hands raised, declaring who he was like. There was a time early on in my youth ministry where we were playing like kings of leon and then like, maybe, a worship song, because we didn't want to ruffle any. If you want to say yes to jesus, then maybe come forward. But now, dude, I don't pull any punches. You know, we've got something called Youth Fest coming up and is an outdoor music festival vibe. This was one of our big outreach events that we did back in last April and we kind of tested it and we were trying some new things. But one of the most beautiful moments of the whole night was not everybody dressed in white or the music festival vibes or, you know, the DJ spinning stuff. It was when there was a thousand teenagers out in the open blue sky like worshiping Jesus and like. That was the highlight of the night.
Speaker 1:And so I don't think that you have to sacrifice the creativity, the fun or the attractive, um, but if, if that is the only substance that you're giving people once you get them in the door, um, it's a flash in the pan. You know it's. It's not going to be lasting. I just I now know we're really good at getting people there, so let's get really good at giving them this and applying that to their life in a way that they go. I need that. I'm not not an experience, not an emotional. In fact, that's become a part of our. Our uh prayer template is God, let this not be hyper emotion, let this be transformation and um, and so I I don't think to anybody who's going how dare he try to take the creativity or the big or the attractional? Keep it, but make sure that you're not sacrificing what is most important for what God wants to bring transformation through. I love it.
Speaker 3:That's why I loved church growing up is because it was so much fun. I had a blast going, a blast being there and then, along the way, is where I encountered Jesus through that and through loving leaders.
Speaker 2:So I love both.
Speaker 3:Both are so good, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey, I want to highlight real quick Elisha, your ministry people that want to connect with you reach out to you. Maybe they got some questions and they just love the dialogue a little bit with you. What's the easiest way for someone listening or watching on YouTube to connect with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you want to check out what the youth ministry is doing, it's Grace Youth Official on IG. If you want to connect with me personally, it's just Elisha J Garcia on IG and you can just DM me. And anything that we have hear me, kind of like Vitals anything we have it's yours and we've got some of our resources on Vitals now and I just believe if we can help you get there faster, then you know we want to do that, yeah absolutely and we're grateful.
Speaker 2:We say thank you for that. For those of you that are familiar with the Lead the Generation website, if you click on free resources, you punch in Grace Youth, you'll find a bunch of sermon series that Elisha and his team have donated Some really great graphics. Your stuff is really awesome. I've had a lot of people comment like man, whose stuff is this? And I'm like that's Grace Youth. Man, that's Elisha, and so some great graphics that you can write your own sermons to. And there's also some sermon series there that you're providing notes for as well, and so some really great stuff there. You go to the free resources page on Lead Generation's website and you can check all that out. Man, this has been great. Thanks so much for just pouring into us and coaching us.
Speaker 2:I love the fact that you're kind of. I mean, I'm listening to you and I'm thinking like for every leader who's listening, whether they find themselves in a church as a vocational youth pastor, and maybe they have a little bit of budget, it's like I can be inspired by your creativity and excellence. Maybe you find yourself listening as a volunteer youth leader with five or 10 kids, and it's like I can be inspired by your love of God's word and your love of like teaching kids how to pray scripture. You know there's just something for everybody to take away from this episode, so thanks for joining us. If pray scripture, you know there's just something for everybody to take away from this episode. So, um, thanks for joining us. Um, if you love what we're doing with the podcast, leave us a review. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe and um, be a part of the all the future episodes that are coming out. Um, elisha, thanks for joining us today. Um.
Speaker 1:Caleb for co-hosting, even though you didn't get a lot of sleep last night because you got a newborn buddy.
Speaker 3:Hey, we're working through it. Hopefully you couldn't tell he's actually still awake. He hasn't gone to bed.
Speaker 2:Yet that's true. That's true, yeah. So thanks for joining us friends. We'll see you on the next episode of Vitals for Youth Ministry Podcast. Thank you.
