Making the Gospel Tangible, Turning Moments into Eternal Impact, & Inspiring Everyday Faith

We sit down with Reggie Dabbs to explore how presence, scripture, and bold invitations move students from passive listeners to active disciples. From back-row handshakes to altar calls, we unpack a simple, focused path to help students live on mission every day.

• Making mission normal in daily life
• Earning trust with presence and integrity
• Using scripture as the engine of change
• Writing messages backward from response
• Leading clear, bold altar moments
• Staying tender by avoiding green rooms
• Modeling testimony without losing depth
• Encouraging discouraged leaders as tag changers
• Practical tips for prayerful preparation

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Transcript

Handshakes Over Green Rooms

Reggie Dabbs 1:15

I'm out five minutes before when that five minute clock starts ticking. I'm in the back four or five rows. My name's Reggie. I'm your guest speaker. And they're like, what is this? Why? Because it's about people. And the more you realize it's about people, you can do anything, you can go through anything, but you know, it's about people having an opportunity to know Jesus. And for some reason, Jesus let them hear me today. Hey, people want to shake your hand. They've already seen you on the front of the daily bulletin that they handed out. Guest speaker, Reggie Dabbs. Then you're like, hey, my name's Reggie. I'm your guest speaker. Oh, this is you right here. Like, oh yeah, that is me. And what's the big deal? The big deal is when you start speaking, they're like, dude, he shook my hand.

Caleb Leake 2:01

Yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 2:02

And he he gave me time. I think sometimes speakers or leaders would take for granted that people are giving them time. What you do on stage is one thing. Who you are off stage is a good thing.

Welcome To Vitals And Reggie’s Intro

Eran Holt 2:23

Hey everyone, welcome to Vitals for Youth Ministry Podcast. It's a podcast from Lead the Generation. My name is Aaron, uh, director of Lead the Generation. I got Caleb Leak in the studio with me, the one and only.

Caleb Leake 2:34

Dude, just trying to keep up with Aaron and all the cool Christian merch he has.

Eran Holt 2:37

Co-host ever.

Caleb Leake 2:38

And you got the cool Christian merch. I'll just I'll got the hair.

Eran Holt 2:42

That's all right. It's all right. The real the real special thing today, Caleb, is that we got the one and only legendary Mr. Reggie Dabs in the studio coming in via Zoom. Reggie, what's up? It is good to see you.

Reggie Dabbs 2:57

Let's go here. Come on. Let's go, man. Wish I was Aaron Rogers today.

Eran Holt 3:02

Yeah, we're feeling good here in Pittsburgh.

Caleb Leake 3:06

This is great.

Eran Holt 3:08

We squeezed it out. Yeah, old men still got it.

Caleb Leake 3:11

It was yeah, they were recording this after the first game where we're still delusional that it's gonna be a great season for us. That's true. Right. That's true.

Eran Holt 3:17

And the hope hasn't lost yet. When the opening drive happened, we were like, we are so back. And then the rest of the game, we're like, we're terrible. And then Boswell puts in the 60-yard and we're like, we're going to the Super Bowl. Let's go. That's awesome. That's what it's all about. That's it, man. It's it. Um, man, Reggie, we're honored to have you on. You uh gosh, just again, just such a voice of influence in the youth ministry world. Um, and uh my my life personally as well. So this can be a this is gonna be a fun conversation. But um, I don't know. I'm assuming everybody in the podcast audience will know who you are, but just in the event that there's somebody out there that hasn't had the chance to be around you, Reggie, tell us a little bit about yourself, uh your family, and what you're doing in ministry.

Ministry Journey And Family Snapshot

Reggie Dabbs 4:01

I am um during the week, I'm a motivational speaker in public schools, and on the weekend, I'm an evangelist. And uh six times a week, I'm the teaching pastor at Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas. So that's what that's where I live, and that's it's a sunny day. It's it's gonna be nice. Uh, but uh I I love doing schools. My wife, Michelle, my son, is uh he's an airplane mechanic. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, worked for a Department of Defense, and um we're just living life. It's kind of fun, it's really fun.

Caleb Leake 4:34

Heck yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 4:35

And a Cowboys fan.

Caleb Leake 4:36

Oh, you you and my wife get along then. Heck yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 4:40

Yeah, he just went quiet. He just went quiet on us. You know what? It's the first time we lost, and I was like, okay, I can live with that.

Caleb Leake 4:52

They didn't look bad at all. So not at all. You never know. Man, my wife was crying, she has a bike Micah Parsons jersey, so that was a that was a tough trade for her.

Reggie Dabbs 5:00

Yeah, you gotta sell that. You it's not worth much. No, it's not.

Caleb Leake 5:07

No, it's not, man. Well, dude, we're pumped to have you. And uh Reggie was at one of our camps this past year, and it was an absolute blast. And uh, how many years of ministry have you have you how many uh yeah, yeah, have you been in about 39. 38, 39. Yeah, bro. Well, over those years, we know that if you're around youth ministry, whether youth pastor, evangelist, or whatever, uh crazy stories just tend to follow everyone in youth ministry like a plague that you can't escape. So I'm sure you have a collection. We ask everybody to share a story, so I'm sure you got one for us today.

Wild Road Stories And Lessons

Reggie Dabbs 5:43

The question is which one? Yeah, yeah. It's uh I've I've been where I get picked up at the airport, and the guy is telling me that I led him to Christ, and we're going the wrong way down a one-way. And I'm like, look, man, we're going the wrong way. And it was like Starsky and Hutch back in the day. He hit the brake and turned the wheel, and in a church band, we did a 180 and we're heading the other way. That was just beautiful. I could do the one where I'm doing an assembly program in a high school, and and I'm like, man, that is an orchestra pit. Make sure I don't get too close to the edge. And near the end of the program, I said, Hey, thank you for letting me come. Have a great day. And I bowed, took a step forward, I was gone. You fell right in. And and I stuff goes in slow motion, y'all. And so I'm literally, I step off, and I remembered when I was on stage before it started, thinking, dude, where am I at? And and as I was falling, I'm like, there was only three things down. There was only three things in the orchestra pit, and there were three timpani drums. I hit I hit the one on the left. Do you know those are five hundred and fifty-five dollars and eighty-seven cents?

Eran Holt 7:10

I love that you know that. No, yeah, you know, you know, because that was the check you wrote out. Yeah, yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 7:19

Then you try to put it in the deductions and they don't work out too well. So I just let it go.

Caleb Leake 7:26

Did you go through the drum? Like, did you go?

Reggie Dabbs 7:29

Dude, it was like aluminum foil, it folded up like it was like done. It was done. And the band did guy, you want to keep it? I went, no, I don't want to keep it. Yeah, that's like a Looney Tunes thing. That's like Tom and James. Dude, it's it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. Oh, all I could say was, I'm all right, I'm okay, Mr. Principal. You can take the microphone. Everybody was laughing.

Eran Holt 7:56

Yeah, there's you can't be off covered. Those kids, those kids never forgot that assembly. They were like, no, you just it end with the grand finale. Right. Nope. Love it, love it. Um Man Reg, again, excited to have you on. Um, you spent so many years of your life in ministry just being on the road, being in schools, um, helping students get themselves on mission, right? Whether that was in a what you're doing with uh in a public school setting, you know, getting kids on mission with Jesus, or, you know, as an evangelist, speaking to camps, speaking at conventions, speaking to churches, helping students, you know, learn how to live their lives on mission. I remember a couple years ago um you came and spoke for Lead Generation Conference, and uh and I still remember a lot of your message. It was about like getting kids being on mission, right? We got a mission, we got to finish the mission. So we wanted to kind of have a deep dive on a conversation on that topic with you. It it fits really well into Vitals for Youth Ministry and that resource. And for those of you that are familiar with it, you already know missional living is one of the five vitals. If you're not familiar with vitals for youth ministry, go to leadthegeneration.com, um, check it out. Five vitals found in Acts chapter two, Biblical Truth, Spiritual Transformation, Healthy Community, Missional Living, Leadership Development. So, Reggie, let's just jump right in. When you're um when you're thinking like, how do I get kids to live on mission? Um, talk to youth pastors, talk to youth leaders, small group leaders that are listening to the podcast today. Um, what are some of your thoughts on what we can do to help this generation live their life on mission?

Reggie Dabbs 9:27

I think the first thing is the Great Commission. You know, with without a definition, you you're just wandering around aimlessly. So, what are we here to do? What were we called to do? You know, Matthew 28, 18, uh it's just site when Jevas said, All authority I give to you. And what are we going to do with that authority? Go and make disciples of all generations.

Why Mission Must Be Personal

Reggie Dabbs 9:50

And and what do we how do we do that? It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, you know, we're teaching them how to live this life. And the main thing after that is you're not alone. And it's almost like if you're doing mission, you also have to put community in there because our mission is to make community with people to bring us together. And that's what the church is all about. That's what this whole thing is all about. It's like that. So, my first thing is number one, uh, let a kid know they're a part of the mission. Yeah, they're not, they're not, they're you are a part of the mission. There are people that a kid can reach that I'll never reach, that a kid can lead, can bring the church that I'll I'll never bring to church. There are kids who know who I am now because their friend brought them to an event that I spoke at. And and all that works together. And a lot of times we're like, well, we're on God's mission. I think God's mission should be ours, and ours should be God's. It should be like drinking water. It should become so common that it's easy for you to do what you do, to share Jesus, to make him a common denominator in every conversation that you have. And the way to start that is to start saying, Hey, how do you introduce somebody? How do you introduce yourself? How do you go to a job? How do you but work at that job? How do you put Jesus in your job? How do you go to math class? How do you build English class? How can Jesus be a part of English and math class? And we're like making Jesus as common a denominator as possible. He's not some kind of special pratch, he's the number one number you need. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Caleb Leake 11:34

Well, and so many kids wait until they have the the stage or until a moment or the influence when it really is our life should just be speaking the gospel itself.

Reggie Dabbs 11:44

Like everything we do should be the purveyor of the can make it normal, just make sharing Jesus is normal. You're not weird, you're not crazy. And to be honest with you, in the United States of America, the uh the more people know that they're Christians in the room than there are not Christians in the room. Right. And it's almost like this devil thing is saying, Well, you're the only Christian in your entire school. That's probably not true. Yeah. You probably have more people, but they're just not coming out and saying nothing because you haven't. Somebody's got to be the guinea pig. So let's just be the mission guinea pig. Right. Or go to the move.

Eran Holt 12:23

So, Reggie, you've been, I mean, one of the one of the things that I appreciate

Scripture As Power, Not Filler

Eran Holt 12:26

about you is you, your longevity in ministry. You've been doing this for a long, long time now. You've been trying to get kids on mission from multiple generations, right? You're you're trying to, you know, get Gen Xers on, get millennials on, and now we're in Gen Z Gen Alpha. What are some of the unique challenges you feel like this current generation is facing related to you know getting their life aligned with the mission of God?

Reggie Dabbs 12:50

I think a an in this I wish I could say that I purposely did this, but now that I'm old looking back, I'm starting to realize I fell into this by mistake. Okay. But you know what it is? It's it's it's my name, Uncle Reggie. Okay, two plus two is four. Two plus two has always been four, it always will be four. But why is it that the education in the United States of America now is lower than almost every other country? It's not that kids don't know two plus two is four, but when a teacher says two plus two is four, you know what that kid is saying? Why? Why should I believe you? So what we have to do as leaders is earn the right to be heard again. Earn the right to say, hey, two plus two is four. And they go, Well, Uncle Reggie said it, so it's let's go. It's that's the way it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But but there's been so much hurt, so much betrayal, so much uh brokenness from adult to kid that they're like, I don't know if I could trust anybody. I don't know if I want to believe two plus two is four. And then you go deeper, it's like, I don't know if I can trust my youth pastor. I don't know if he's really right. I don't know if this is Jesus even right. So as leaders, it's time for us to not just represent Jesus the right way, but to show kids through our example. It's like two plus two is four. But guess what?

Earning Trust With This Generation

Reggie Dabbs 14:26

For me, one plus three is four. Let me show you. And you and you're like literally taking it and you're making it as simple as possible as come Wednesday night, watch me, and I'll show you how to be a Christian. Yeah, but you gotta come more than once, yeah. Right. You know, come Sunday and watch me. Hey, let's go get pizza, watch me. Let me in every sermon that I do, there's a part where I'll go, hey, when I was your age, this happened. And all you're doing is you're letting them know why you are on this mission and how your mission can help them. And you're being real. That's good. The more real we are, the more they'll follow us.

Caleb Leake 15:08

Right.

Reggie Dabbs 15:08

Yeah.

Caleb Leake 15:09

Yeah. I love leading through your testimony too. Like leading through personally how you're you're living your life. And as a youth pastor, I feel like it's just easy to just lean on my programs, but how is my own life and reflection of how I'm carrying myself doing the discipleship?

Reggie Dabbs 15:26

Right. So if you're doing 25 minutes speech, then a five to eight minutes of that needs to be about why that speech is important to you personally.

Caleb Leake 15:36

Yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 15:37

And that's your mission being put on them.

Eran Holt 15:40

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. We can I think we can fail at that in youth ministry pretty easily. Uh, because you know, we we get under the pressure of like another message, another message, another message, week in, week out, week out, week out. And we don't personalize enough. Hey, here here to your point, Reggie, here's why this is important to me personally, here's what I've experienced in this. Absolutely. But it it adds an extra layer of weight to you know to the message, and it adds like some relational integrity, you know, to what's happening here. Like, this isn't just a job for me. Like, I this is this is my life. This is every everything about my life.

Reggie Dabbs 16:14

Yeah. And that integrity goes from you to them. And because you're using the Bible, it puts scripture in it, and all of a sudden everything is relevant and it becomes one thing.

Eran Holt 16:24

Yeah. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, love it.

Caleb Leake 16:27

Beautiful, bro. All right, well, keep going. You said you got multiple of these things, so let's let's keep going.

Reggie Dabbs 16:32

I you know what I too is um the use of scripture. I believe you cannot not use enough scripture. You can always make it go, make it go back to the word of God, go back to the script. I believe when I was younger, I that was my biggest mistake. I had the stories, I had my testimony, but I always forgot put more scripture. The more scripture, you know, when you do when you do your testimony, you're a motivational speaker. But when you add scripture to your testimony, you're an evangelist. Come on. That's you're the pastor.

Caleb Leake 17:07

Right.

Reggie Dabbs 17:07

You know, yeah, no, and so you cannot do that enough. And I would encourage leaders, our mission is our mission, but you know, it could be, hey, you could be a good person, but why? The Bible says, here we go. And and what you're doing is you're taking what I want to be a good person because I believe in the word of God. But here's what the word of God says. It's like we just did uh yesterday, we had baptism and we had people being baptized, and and and I have

Communicating For Response

Reggie Dabbs 17:35

one person got in the water and they go, Hey, there was like uh 128 people get baptized, and they were there real fast. And I was by a kid who goes, Hey, you're gonna watch me? I said, Yeah, I'm gonna watch you. He's getting baptized, and they go, Why you get baptized today? And he said, Because my pastor told me I needed to. And I think that's the coolest thing ever. He goes, Because my pastor said I need to get baptized. As leaders, we need to remember that's the way these kids are looking at us. Yeah. So every Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, whatever we're doing, and my pastor said, Do you want them to be able to make that their mission statement for the week? So while you're writing your sermon, while you're putting that event together, while you're putting that session together, yeah, is this gonna lead my kid to be mission on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday?

Caleb Leake 18:31

Right.

Reggie Dabbs 18:31

And with that in mind, write those sermons, write those events so that they know, you know, whether you come out and say it or not, this can lead to you having a friend know Jesus.

Caleb Leake 18:44

Right. Yeah, and building all around that framework. Well, so when when it comes to like you were even saying this for you, you can you found yourself in the trap of of not preaching enough scripture and using just your own own testimony. What what do you think is like the trap that we easily fall into when we when we go to that? Because you were saying from your own experience, you felt like you tended to lean more towards those things. Why do you think that was specifically?

Reggie Dabbs 19:08

Well, I just think that because I grew up in church, the Bible becomes mundane. And you and I know, dude, that's like, how could he say that? But when you're in it over and over and over again, you forget the power of the word of God, the power of the scripture, the power of the bread of life, you know. But when we get that and we start realizing it, we want to put more of that power and more of that bread of life into what we're doing in front of our kids. Yeah. So just remember the power of the scripture as you're setting it up, as you're writing the program. Right.

Eran Holt 19:45

Yeah. So, Reggie, give us some tips. I mean, I I think one of the things that everyone appreciates about your ministry is your ability as a communicator. Um, and I think you're you're incredibly versatile as a communicator because you know, one, you know, you know, during the week you're standing in front of uh high school assembly, which is a very unique, you know, communicator uh set of skills that you need to have. And then on the weekends you're at a church or at a convention or camp or whatever. So coach us up and coach up youth pastors and youth leaders that are listening. What are some ways we can increase our effectiveness as communicators? What are some ways we can increase our effectiveness in preaching and teaching God's word? Well, that's a that's a good question there.

Reggie Dabbs 20:24

Uh I believe I always write with the end in mind. So even when I start, or I might hear a song and go, oh, that would be a good song. But you know what? I I when I hear that stuff, I'm thinking of the altar call. I'm thinking of the response. I'm thinking of what is a kid gonna respond to with this? And and so I write backwards. So my what the first thing I do is I gotta get their attention. Boom. I gotta their attention. Why do I need their attention? And when I

How To Lead Bold Altar Calls

Reggie Dabbs 20:54

have it, what am I giving them? Where am I taking them? They're getting on the bus with me, so where are we going with this bus? So I write backwards. I write all my sermons with the altar call in mind. Number two, never be afraid to give an altar call. The response ain't got nothing to do with you. All you can do is preach the word of God, preach what he's laid on your heart, give them the scripture, and then make space for them to respond. That's another thing. Always make space for somebody to respond. I never ask churches, hey, do you want me to give an altar call? Uh-uh. I I have churches when I get done sometime go, well, we normally don't do that. We normally don't have people walk up front, but I guess we do this week. I guess you do. I mean, I'm it's it's what I do. We do altar calls every week where we live because you never know who's in the room. Yeah, you never know what they need. Um, never be afraid to let kids do that. How do you explain altar calls? It's it's simple. It's an altar call. If you got a cell phone, you put an address in it, it takes you where you want to go. But if you decide to go your own direction, that phone is gonna keep telling you to change directions, make a U-turn, you're going the wrong way. So, get what is an altar call? It's your internal clock to heaven saying you're going the wrong way, you need to make a U-turn, you need to change directions. Those are easy steps. And then you know what it really does? It takes all the pressure off you.

Caleb Leake 22:21

Yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 22:22

God knows who's in the room, yeah, He knows who needs to respond. And even if they don't, fine. He knows who's in the room, He knows who needed to hear that, but they will never hear it unless you say it.

Caleb Leake 22:33

Right.

Reggie Dabbs 22:33

So good. So you have to have the faith to try.

Caleb Leake 22:36

Yeah. You you are I mean, you just came to our camp this summer and you led an altar. That was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was amazing, though. And you are the master of kind of leading those moments for youth pastors, youth leaders who are who are walking through wanting to lead a really good altar car because we because that really does like pull out some of this missional living we're talking about, like yeah, getting them to respond after you've given something. Yeah. What are tips for learning how to step into running an altar call well? Uh yeah, I love that. And what are things that you've learned from maybe things you were like, I'm never gonna do that again.

Reggie Dabbs 23:13

Okay, we ain't got that much time. But I I am I I'm crazy. I mean, yeah, I've lost my mind when it comes to this stuff. I've done things where I look back now and go, oh, they could have put me in jail for that right there. That's like that, right? One time I looked at these kids and I'm at a youth commission, and they're literally kids in the back vaping and all this stuff. And those are the pastor kids. And I'm like, what the world? So I decided I'm gonna scare Jesus into them. So I I I it came time, my time. I jumped up and I went, so I'm so glad I got the microphone right now, because here's what the Bible says. And I went to revelation that the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will ride first. Those of us which remain will be caught up in the twinkling of an eye. Some of you, you're like, why are you saying that? Why are you saying that? Because God spoke to me in the back, and he says, in three minutes and 47 seconds, he's coming back. And you know what? You got three minutes and 40 seconds. There's not enough time for you to call your mom, your dad, your brother, ain't enough time for you to take another hit off that little pipe

Prayer, Preparation, And Confidence

Reggie Dabbs 24:20

that you've been smoking in the back of the room. There's only time for you to take care of yourself because in one minute and 57 seconds, the trumpet's about to sound. I'm going to heaven. I won't know who's going with me, but if you're in trouble and you're not living right, some of you are going, wait, the Bible says no man knows the time or the hour. Well, God didn't give me the time or the hour. He gave me the second. And you know what? 58 seconds before he comes back. I started, I got the 20 seconds and went, it's too late. 20, 19, 18, 17. Bro, you could have heard the air conditioning system when I got to fight for at three. Some killed, some kid yelled, Jesus! And the place when not's kid will run into the altar. Wow. And then I I was like, I was like, the Bible says, live each day as if it's your last. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I led him an altar call. We prayed, we threw drugs on the stage. It was awesome, man. Then I have one youth pastor come up and go, dude, that was heresy. How could you do that? What is wrong with you? And I said, Where are your kids? He goes, Over in the corner crying, right there. I said, Well, maybe you should go over there and take care of them and email me next week and we'll figure this thing out. And we did. But dude, this is stuff like I think a pure heart, God sees that. And I believe when you're honest and have a pure heart, his Holy Spirit is like, come on, I'm gonna use this girl, I'm gonna use this young man. I'm gonna go to them. But you know, you do the scripture, you do the sermon, you make it real, and then you give the response. You have no idea who's in the room. You just don't know. You just don't know. And so um pray. Dude, a lot of people don't put a lot on prayer, but I'm telling you right now, it changes everything. Yeah, yeah. Prayer changes. I prayed for kids. I seen my summer schedule this summer. Allison Allison Park was on my schedule, and I saw that. I've been praying for weeks when I finally got there. Actually, that was that was a sermon I had never done until that night. And it was illustrator. So I had you guys do poster boards and

Staying Tender By Being Present

Reggie Dabbs 26:35

write stuff on it, and and I just tried it. And and I know you probably think I did that like every week all summer, but man, it worked, dude. I think I'm gonna do that. Actually, I'm getting ready to do spiritual emphasis at Old Roberts University. Okay, and that's something I think that I'm gonna pull out and use. But you know, it's because of the response and the words that people put on people that they shouldn't. Right. And uh, God says, you know, you're my and you know, it's the scripture that I quoted, all power I give to you, all authority I give to you. That is amazing. I don't even think we understand the authority that God has given us. But if we just use a little of it in our sermon prep, a little of it in our sermon delivery, and a lot of it in our response time, we will never say, Well, who am I to have a kid respond to me? No, because you already know all authority Jesus given to you, steam power that raised him from the grave, you're using when you give that altar call. Yeah, do it in boldness. Yeah, who's gonna respond to, I don't know, maybe you should come to Jesus. I don't know, maybe I'm just saying, if in case, I don't know. Let's just pray. No, it's like tonight your night. This is your time, this is your moment. Let's come to the altar, let's go.

Caleb Leake 27:54

Right. So, okay, what is that boldness you have? Because you, I mean, when you were with us too, you sent it, bro, and it worked. Is that something that grew over time, or is that something that's just been wired into you from the beginning?

Reggie Dabbs 28:06

Oh, no, no. Everything grows over time when it comes to Jesus and his presence and and demonstrating that through you. It's just it's it's the time you spend with him, it's the time you spend in his word. You can't preach the word if you're not confident that the word is in you. You know, the more confident it is, the more it's gonna come out. And so you gotta have it in you. So you gotta prep, you gotta spend time. Do these guys playing football? They they're not just like, oh

Miracles, Healing, And Student Ownership

Reggie Dabbs 28:34

well, hey, I guess uh it's August 28th. We should go practice. What do you think? I mean, let's just go. No, it's almost year round, right? They're surrounded by this thing. As ministers of the gospel, year round, we need to be surrounded by this thing. We need to just spend time in it. We got to do that. And it's important. It's important.

Eran Holt 28:56

Reggie, um, one of the things I've admired um in getting to know you um and just we've we've we've had chances to kind of hang out and just, you know, not just in ministry settings, but like having fun and riding around and going from school to school um or playing around the golfers and stuff and things like that. But your heart, Reggie, your heart is so burdened for this generation and so uh like sensitive towards kids. How how do you maintain that? Like, how how have you what are some of the behind the scenes things you've done in order to keep your heart soft and burdened for the ministry that God's called you into?

Reggie Dabbs 29:34

I don't spend a lot of time in the green room. I I'll go in the lobby or sit on the back row. I think even the night I was with you guys, I was on the back row hanging out. I I still remember the girl who had an ACL. She was in a on a on a on crutches, uh-huh. And I asked her, I said, Oh, you're gonna be okay, it's gonna make and now you're like, we're months later, and you're like, how could you remember that? Because I was there. Right. You you can't really reach a kid unless you're there. But when you're in their time, uh I I purposely will try my best to lose whatever security detail they have. Some churches have security and they be like stalking a brother, but I'll get away from them, go in the lobby, especially if there's two services. I'm shaking hands, man. I'm like, hey, how you doing? I'm out five minutes before. When that five-minute clock starts ticking, I'm in the back four or five rolls going, my name's Reggie. I'm your guest speaker. Nice to meet you. We're gonna have a good time today. And they're like, Well, what is this? Why? Because it's about people. And the more you realize it's about people, you can do anything, you can go through anything, but and you know it's about people having an opportunity to know Jesus. And for some reason, Jesus let them hear me today. And I got to give them time so they'll give me time.

Caleb Leake 30:57

Yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 30:58

So that's why I purposely go out, talk to kids, talk to leaders, talk to people. Hey, people want to shake your hand. They've already seen you on the front of the daily bulletin that they handed out. Guess speaker with Reggie Debs. Then you're like, hey, my name's Reggie. I'm your guest speaker. Oh, this is you right here. Like, oh yeah, that is me. And and all and people don't some people are like, what's the big deal? The big deal is when you start speaking, they're like, dude,

Encouragement: You’re A Tag Changer

Reggie Dabbs 31:24

he shook my hand.

Caleb Leake 31:26

Yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 31:27

And he he gave me time. And that people, I think sometimes speakers are leaders. We take for granted that people are we're they're we're giving them time. They're giving us time. So we gotta maximize that. And and it's not what you do on stage is one thing, who you are off stage is everything.

Caleb Leake 31:51

That's a that's a sacrifice too. That's uh that's an energy emotional sacrifice to go out and be. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Because I I know evangelists and what the the price that you pay to go and travel and always go into a new place. And so the intentionality, I was so thankful for you in that way, Reggie, when you came to APC into our camp, because you were just so intentionally relational with so many people, including my leaders and my students.

Reggie Dabbs 32:18

And I know and I know Ann was wonderful. I was in a group with them. They were great, they were good.

Eran Holt 32:24

Caleb, that the the girl Reggie mentioned with the AC. Didn't she get healed the next night? She did.

Caleb Leake 32:28

Yeah, literally, she got healed. And you know why? No, it was also from a student who prayed for her. Yeah. Yeah, because Aaron called people up and and he was like, if you're a student, you want to pray, and he's expecting like eight or ten kids, and it's like an army of like 40 kids who come down front to pray for kids, and yeah, she got healed. She like, yeah, it was nuts actually. She like threw the brace away with her parents. It was yeah, it was awesome. Yeah.

Reggie Dabbs 32:52

I I liked the way you said with her parents.

Caleb Leake 32:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I've learned them from a few mistakes when we would throw the pills away or throw the cast away. Your parents were like, what are you doing?

Reggie Dabbs 33:04

Dude, now you show it, you're showing your wisdom now.

Caleb Leake 33:08

Let's get to your parents. Uh most wisdom comes through painful experiences.

Eran Holt 33:16

That was funny. Hey, hey, Reggie, I may ask you just one last question. We got a couple minutes left here. Um, we've got a lot of different um, you know, types of mil ministry leaders in the in the podcast audience, and and we like to call it the lead the gen fam. You know, we have we got your vocational youth pastors, we got your your part-timers, your bivocational, your volunteers. So it's a pretty broad spectrum of leaders out there. I know that every leader at times wrestles with discouragement and wrestles with feeling like, is it worth it? Am I making a difference? And so, Reggie, um, last question, would you, it's not even really a question, it's just an invitation. Would you just share something from your heart to encourage leaders that are in a season of ministry where they're just feeling discouraged and they're just feeling like, is it worth it? And am I really making a difference in the life of a student?

Reggie Dabbs 34:00

But you when I and literally I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, when I was a senior in high school, my my I my false sicker mom, I grew up in the false sick care, was an English teacher, and she had me read a book, The Last Week of School, called MASH 4077. And that's like a um sitcom in the 70s and eighties. Well, this book was from a real MASH unit in the Korean War. It was a frontline

Resources, Events, And Closing CTA

Reggie Dabbs 34:25

mobile hospital. Well, in chapter nine, it was called Tag Changers. And real, real quick, what it was was they had the doctors, the nurses, the orderlies, the surgeons, the techs, all of them. But they found out that while they were saving lives, soldiers were dying before they got to them. So they said, we got to pre-check every wounded soldier. So they took one doctor, two nurses, and they would pre-check every wounded soldier and they'd rotate every day. One day, they had so many wounded soldiers. The doctor was calling out and they used tags, three different ones. Yellow means you're not hurt bad. Uh, blue means you need surgery or you're gonna die. Red means there's nothing we can do, you're gonna die. So the doctor would be calling out these colors. The late the nurse behind him had her pockets full of these tags, and she would tag them on the wrist or on the ankle. And and the last nurse, all she looked for was the red tag, and all she had was vials of morphine. If she saw a red tag, she would aim for the arm or the thigh, and she would squeeze the drug in. And in 22 seconds, the soldier would have passed away because there was nothing they could do to save him. One day, she the dog, the doctor said red. The girl put a red tag. The lady came with the drug, and when she got there to push it in, the soldier opened his eyes and said, Tell my wife I love her. Tell my, tell my wife I love her, tell my kids I did it for them. It moved her so much. No one was watching her. She took a pair of scissors, cut off the red tag, and put a blue one, called for the orderlies to take the kid to surgery. Three months later, a five-star general comes to the mass unit and he says, Who changed the tag? And when she said it was me, he ran and hugged her and everybody got quiet. They could hear this five-star general screaming, that was my son. You saved my son. We're tag changers. It doesn't matter if everybody looks at me like, oh, Reggie, he's big time. No, no, no. I'm just a tag changer. When we get to heaven, angels are gonna want your autograph just as much as they're gonna want mine. Then all they see is people who proclaim the gospel, who had the faith of Hebrews 11:1, to believe in something they could not see. They're gonna do that. They're gonna do that, and they're gonna believe that because of both of us, all of us just living our life for Jesus Christ. And all you have to do right now, I don't care if you don't get anything for this. I don't care if everybody's mad at you because you messed up and you it doesn't matter. You know what matters? You're a tag changer. Come on. You're a tag changer. Let's keep changing tags for Jesus. Because everybody's been tagged with the red tag of sin, the red tag of death, the red tag of you cannot get out of this world. But Jesus came, he's the original tag changer. He came with his scissors to cut off this death and to give us life. So now we got to pass it on. That's who we are. Oh, by the way, can I tell y'all something? I did free chapel camp over Labor Day weekend, and we they got back from camp, and this mom came up and she goes, she's crying. She goes, My son, I can't find my son. He didn't get off the bus. The brother got off the bus, but he didn't. And he had a high school brother. The high school brother goes, I put him on the junior high bus. I put him on the bus. I know he got on the bus. All his leaders said he got on the bus. So we literally lost a kid. And I looked at the mom and I said, Do you have a picture? Well, let's just go back. Let's just say we forgot what he looked like, or he colored his hair in camp. I need a picture. She goes, In my car. It's right there. It's unlocked. That's it. In my purse, I'll go get your purse. So I went to get her purse and I looked in the car. There's a junior hire sleeping in the backseat. He saw the car, went in the back seat, laid down, and went to sleep. And everybody thought they lost him. He was sleeping in the backseat of the car. Woke up and went, Uncle Reggie, hey, what's up? Good to see you, buddy. Hey man. Don't be bad. I'm gonna go get your mom. Be happy. That is a relief, dude. Is that crazy or what, dude? The lead, the lead youth guy. I was like, Lance, bro, I didn't know what to do. I was like, bro, you lost a kid. This is gonna be great.

Eran Holt 38:56

Oh my gosh. Come on, Rich. So exciting to have you on today and so blessed. What encouraging. I love that story too. Yeah, you know, we're we're tag changers, man.

Reggie Dabbs 39:04

Yeah, and I know I did good when the dog comes in. You know you did a good job. Oh, that's true. Oh, yeah. He's chilling.

Caleb Leake 39:10

He's like, I want to be around, I want to be close. Thank you, Reggie, for like your humility and like your focus on even just keeping things like it's it's simple, it's real simple, and keeping your eyes fixed on the simple things, yeah, and modeling that. Um, just as a guy who's only five years in, it's it's super inspiring. And um, I think it's always good to be reminded of the simple target we aim for and not overcomplicating that or or getting caught up in the wrong things.

Reggie Dabbs 39:38

Yeah, so and you're killing it, buddy. I mean, you're doing a great job. I enjoyed being there, I enjoyed watching. The way you flowed on the mic was beautiful. You just loved your kids. I loved it.

Eran Holt 39:49

Oh, that's a huge compliment. It was a blast. Hey, Reggie, somebody wants to reach out to you, get in touch with you, ask you a question. What's the easiest way for them to get a hold of you?

Reggie Dabbs 39:56

If you're in public schools, it's the youthalliance.com. Theyouthalliance.com. Everybody else, uh it's dabsreggie at gmail.com. That comes straight to me. Awesome. Awesome.

Eran Holt 40:10

Thank you so much, man. This has been awesome. What I encourage you to do is. I got one more thing.

Reggie Dabbs 40:13

I got one more.

Eran Holt 40:14

Let's do it. Fire. Hey, your event.

Reggie Dabbs 40:18

I'm coming in January still. You know that, right?

Caleb Leake 40:21

In January. Oh, is it to me?

Eran Holt 40:22

Is it too? Oh, oh no, no, no, no. He's talking, he's talking to me. He's talking to me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The evangelist round time. I have an event.

Reggie Dabbs 40:32

There we go. His event. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one right there. Yeah, man. I'm coming, just so you know. I just want to I want to put that out there. So anybody evangelists want to come hang out.

Eran Holt 40:50

Yeah, hit us up. We'd love to come and hang out. We'll be an all-day Tuesday event, January the 6th. And uh, we're gonna try to grab some golf the day before. Nice Reggie and I are undefeated against uh against Peter Reese and uh Chocolate Bear. If you guys are out there, the losers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. AKA the losers. So Reggie, thank you. Been awesome. And uh been great. And uh hey, if you're still watching, you're still listening, we'd love it if you would uh give us a review, give us a like, give us a share um on any of the platforms you're watching that'll help us kind of spread the word. And uh if you if you're still listening, if you're still listening, tag Peter Reeves or Chocolate Bear in this uh in this conversation right here. Yeah, you want to do that for sure. So we love you guys. We'll see you on the next edition of Vitals for Youth Ministry Podcast.