Beyond the Event: A Youth Ministry Podcast
Bringing together influential voices from the CIY community to walk alongside you in your journey to maintain momentum between the mountaintop experiences of youth ministry.
Beyond the Event: A Youth Ministry Podcast
BTE4.16 Getting Students Engaged in Their Communities with Maggie Schade and Brittany Shoemake
Mailbag questions or topic suggestions? Text us!
How do we move students from sporadic volunteer projects to living lives of Kingdom Work? In this conversation, Christ’s Church of Oronogo’s Local Impact Minister Maggie Schade reveals the transformative approach that's reshaping how youth engage with community needs.
Maggie shares a compelling vision where service isn't just something students do, but fundamentally shapes who they're becoming. Drawing from years of experience connecting students with community partners, she unpacks the critical distinction between channeling energy versus creating it, and how letting students take ownership of ministry opportunities produces lasting fruit.
The discussion takes a powerful turn when examining prayer as the true engine of mission work. Through vivid examples from international partners, we discover how perspectives on prayer within youth ministry often need radical realignment. Rather than seeing prayer as supplementary, we are challenged to place it at the center of our community engagement strategy.
You'll gain practical wisdom on developing focused community partnerships, creating meaningful pathways for student service, and helping passionate teens identify their "next right step" after transformative experiences like CIY MOVE. We also tackle the sometimes-controversial topic of international missions, exploring ways to develop global frameworks for ministry that connect students to God's worldwide mission, whether overseas or in their own backyard.
Whether you're a seasoned youth minister or just beginning to explore community engagement with students, this episode provides both inspiration and actionable steps to help your ministry move beyond one-time events toward cultivating lifelong kingdom workers. Start your journey today by taking one small step that could transform your approach to student ministry and community impact.
Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event youth ministry podcast, presented by Christ in Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. Today we are going to be talking to a really good friend of mine, a MOVE speaker, you may recognize, but, more importantly to me, she is on staff at the church that I attend. She is our local impact minister, so she maintains a lot of really cool relationships with all of our local mission partners and, yeah, I want to talk with her about how we can help students along in this journey of getting involved in the work that God is doing in their communities. Her name is Maggie Shade. You're going to love her. It's going to be great. But before we do that, we're going to talk to an absolute CIY legend. Director of Engage, brittany Shoemake.
Speaker 2:Oh, Brad.
Speaker 1:You are. You're a legend. You've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 2:I feel like you have said that before, but it still is not true.
Speaker 1:It is true. How long have you been on staff?
Speaker 2:I just passed 18 years actually 18 years 18 years.
Speaker 3:You don't look old enough to have worked anywhere for 18 years.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks Well thanks.
Speaker 2:It has hit that realization now when I'm looking at students that are going on engaged trips that I have been working at CIY longer than they have been alive.
Speaker 4:They have been alive, yeah, brutal.
Speaker 2:Absolutely brutal. That hit me in the spring yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But no, I did start when I was 12.
Speaker 4:I mean not that far off. You started when you were in college right.
Speaker 2:I worked here for a long time, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. I don't think he'll mind me sharing this. I was having a conversation with Jason French about Move and he was just like you know, man, I just don't want to like overstay my welcome on stage. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:He was talking about like I feel like maybe I need to like get off stage, like I'm not going to be able to connect to these kids, and he's, you know, 55 years old or something. I'm like Jason, you're not even close, you're not. You're not even close to being there yet, and you know what? We're all still young.
Speaker 2:We're all still young at heart, so, michael turned 30 this week.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday.
Speaker 3:Doesn't feel a day over 24 or 25.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was actually I was. I was talking about this at lunch today. I was 24 when the pandemic started, and the last like big, like life milestone that I experienced was like I graduated and got a job in 2019 yeah and ever since then it's just been like this is now you know the place that I've been, and so it's like I haven't had like a thing. That is like I was this old when this happened, so I feel like I'm that old.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean yeah, yeah, like the mile markers, yeah, that, yeah, so like I still feel like I'm in my mid-20s yeah in a way, it's weird.
Speaker 3:I always thought that turning 30 was for people older than me well, it's for you, and now it's for people younger than me yeah, so literally woof so when you see a 24 year old do you?
Speaker 2:feel like, yeah, I'm in, that's it school right?
Speaker 3:yeah, so the 24 year old should also not be in school 24 is a great year.
Speaker 1:We're not I turned 35 this year and the fives, I think, are harder than the zeros, like I feel, way worse than when I turned 30 because then you're already on your way to that next ah, no, no, all right enough about. You're closer to what than 30 now, yeah, I know, okay, all of that to say Brittany's a legend. I mean I'm closer than you are so. Oh, geez, okay, Well, anyway, we got to move on from that.
Speaker 2:You know what's going to keep me young? Recover, Brad. Recover. You know what's going to keep me young? You're young.
Speaker 1:I am so excited that I get to go to Spain with Engage this year. I'm really pumped about that, me too. I did not get to do an Engage trip last summer.
Speaker 2:So it would have been your first year at CIY not doing an Engage trip. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because my grandfather was in poor health and it was a whole thing and I didn't want to be out of the country and that was all just a huge bummer. But I'm back.
Speaker 1:Going to Spain back in the game with my besties from Christchurch in Jacksonville and I'm just so pumped. Engage is such a thing that I look forward to. So here's my question for you, brittany yep, are you a? I think every single person at Christ in Youth considers it like a huge privilege to do the work that we do Under that umbrella. There are people who like brace for summer.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and there are people who like a leap into summer. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which are you?
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny you say that now, because summer for Engage has already felt like it has started like summer quotations summer because we do spring break trips and so we say it was almost like a mini summer that we had during the month of march. But uh, I leap into it, I get excited I, I leap in yeah, it's pike or your bracer or a leaper. The part of our job that we get most excited about.
Speaker 3:I'm definitely a bracer, you're a bracer. Oh 100%.
Speaker 1:But you love being on the road.
Speaker 3:It is true I do love traveling quite a bit, but yeah, yeah Well anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2:There are the parts of it that are.
Speaker 1:It's when I think too much about it. Maybe I become a person, but it's like knowing that we also are not in the live production department.
Speaker 2:it's true, it's true, but and I've said this before to so many people when I we take safety and all of that like as a number one priority in everything we do, especially when taking teenagers across the ocean and doing international trips, and just knowing all the question marks there, when I think too much about it, it becomes very overwhelming.
Speaker 1:Oh, and let's not do that.
Speaker 2:But I say that not to think that we don't care about it. Obviously we do care about it. But there is the weight that I feel all summer long, knowing that there are teenagers under our care in different countries.
Speaker 1:In other countries.
Speaker 2:That take hours to get to if something happens. But I trust the processes.
Speaker 4:I trust what we have in place.
Speaker 1:I trust that God is going to take care of things that we can't handle, that we can't control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and that's stressy.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm changing my answer I'm a bracer.
Speaker 2:I just became a bracer on this podcast. See, when you think about it too much, that's the thing. But it's like no, you leap into it. You took me there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I'm so excited, yeah, excited yeah, engage is the first thing I'm doing because this trip happens a little bit early it is we're leaving on may something I don't even remember 28th, yeah and uh, that's how I'm starting my summer, so I'm super pumped yeah um, if you want to come to spain with me, let me know might be too late for this year, but in the future, next year in the future. Yeah, britney will be there a couple days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just talking just talking to our partners yesterday, uh, on a zoom call and talking and getting some final things in order and it. So I was leading this trip, this team. Last year it was our first, our first time going to spain with an engaged team and so just going through all the plans made me so excited for you and you know you always feel this too the sad parts of I just want to be a part of everything with this team and just knowing in advance what they're going to be experiencing, because I got to experience that last year.
Speaker 1:I'm excited and there's also that part of fomo, I think the thing I want to talk about, about engage, is I'm glad you brought up the Devo yesterday. We do a staff Devo every Wednesday morning. It's Thursday today. Yesterday, wednesday morning, we had a member of Team Expansion from Spain zoom in, remind me her name.
Speaker 2:Deanna, deanna yeah.
Speaker 1:And lead our Devo and she talked really, really powerfully about prayer and it is not surprising but is also, in some ways, like mind blowing, how um much of like a unified chorus that is amongst our mission partners, about like how important and powerful prayer is in the work that they do. Yeah, retell the story, cause you probably know a little bit better than I do. Um, she told about like doing some of their prayer walks in in some of the like villages around where they are in Spain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Granada.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they're. So they're in Granada, and Granada itself is is a large, not the island. Granada is yeah, so they're in Granada, and Granada itself is a large Not the island. Granada is a city in Southern Spain, and so Granada is a large city in itself, but there are several smaller suburbs, is what we would call them. They call them villages that are around of those, right now, of those villages, do not have a single witness for Christ that they have been able to encounter or know of. I mean, the most clear thing of that is there are no churches in those villages and towns, no evangelical churches, and so nobody that is able to be a witness and claim Christ, and so they spend time going through those towns, praying on the streets and using that time, yes To to ask for the Lord, to to do his work there, but for opportunities to run into people as they're walking and to start conversations.
Speaker 1:She literally said that their prayer as they're walking through the cities is send someone to us.
Speaker 1:We are ready and to start conversations, a pastor at a church in his village, and I got so convicted by that because, well, here was my thought process, here's where it kind of went. It immediately was like, well, yeah, of course they rely so heavily on prayer, like the ministry that they do is so much different than the ministry that we do here. And then I was like no, it's not. No, it's not. You know what I mean. Why are we not like walking around all of our high schools? That'd be creepy.
Speaker 1:Don't do that but you know why are well like? Why are we not like? We are ministering to the next generation of students. We should take prayer as seriously as, like all of these heroes of ours who do kingdom work?
Speaker 2:yeah, overseas. Yeah, it's that old mindset of prayer being the last resort for something. Um, but it's not that it is. This is the strongest tool that we have in this fight against the enemy, and knowing that it sounds like, yeah, we're going to walk through these streets and pray, but they have the strongest weapon.
Speaker 1:Prayer is kingdom work.
Speaker 2:Prayer is kingdom work Brad.
Speaker 1:Quote Brittany.
Speaker 2:Schumacher Prayer is kingdom work Brad.
Speaker 1:Warren, yeah, so, youth pastor, I know you pray for your students, but, like, are you praying for your students? You know what I mean like are you really interceding on behalf of your students, on behalf of the high school and junior high students in your communities? Like, I think, for a lot of us I'm gonna say say us, I'm going to include myself in this. The answer is no, and that bums me out. So I was very, very convicted by what Deanna? Deanna, deanna.
Speaker 2:Deanna had to say yesterday yeah, anyway man, that makes me even more excited for you, I know well you know, but it's so true.
Speaker 1:Like Tara in Cambodia relies so heavily on prayer in such a beautiful way, Richie in Northern Ireland relies so heavily on prayer in such a beautiful way. Our friends at El Circulo down in Santo Domingo, like prayer is such a huge part of what those IJM field offices do and it's like if someone came and visited our church from another country would we talk about prayer the way that they do when.
Speaker 2:it's like our ministry is prayer and whatever else God gives us is a gift. Exactly, yeah, yeah, prayer Another, as you say, say prayers, kingdom work. Prayer is the engine for mission, like it is not going anywhere without prayer it's good stuff. I, I was, I was it's maybe the most meaningful Devo that I've heard at CLI in my seven plus years here.
Speaker 1:So thanks for asking. Yeah, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:I was being so genuine when I was doing that introduction, saying when I, when I knew that we're so, the Devo was on prayer and how that connects with God's kingdom and his mission, and so she was the first one that came to mind for me of knowing her heart, knowing her connection and knowing like the reliance of prayer in her life and I've I've been learning a lot from her in in that.
Speaker 1:Same yeah, in the one hour that I've known her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and I love they just have the, this easy acronym, as they're walking through the streets and they call it they call it yeah, the five H's, yeah, Praying for open highways, open heavens, open hands, open hearts and open homes. And just asking, interceding on behalf of the people in those villages, in those homes, in those communities, pleading for the Lord, for the spirit.
Speaker 1:And he is honoring it.
Speaker 2:He is honoring it. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Okay, episode over.
Speaker 2:The intro. Brad honoring it, he is honoring it. Yep, yep, okay. Episode over the intro. Oh, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:We got a lot to talk about, but honestly, that's such a good intro that's such a good like preface to our conversation with maggie that we've already had that we were going to pretend we hadn't already had.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you said that, because I like I don't know how to pretend that we hadn't already had. I'm glad you said that, because I don't know how to pretend that we haven't already had this conversation and just where that's headed, as we talk about getting students involved in their communities as well.
Speaker 1:It's really really cool. Okay, on a lighter note, michael, let's do the mailbag.
Speaker 3:Wow, speaking of prayer Okay.
Speaker 2:Wait, speaking of mailbag.
Speaker 3:Hang on Brittany Before you start.
Speaker 2:I get to flip the script on this. Before you start Brittany I have a question that I have to ask you. Okay, this is not a serious question, so you only get to half flip the script. Is this from your mailbag? No, you'll get to. You'll get to take over.
Speaker 3:Okay, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, but I was through my dwindling list of questions. Good thing we're at the end of the season.
Speaker 2:So are these all the ones that you left behind?
Speaker 3:They're just the ones that I. They're just the ones that.
Speaker 1:You are getting the absolute scraps.
Speaker 2:So good, we won't say who they're from.
Speaker 1:No, that's not how it works. They're good questions.
Speaker 3:This is from Casey Lanier. She's asking a handful of questions.
Speaker 2:She would never ask a bad question. We know this.
Speaker 3:She's asking a question that we will recontextualize to your broader scope of travel.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:She's asking best road trip snacks. I want to know, what are the snacks that you're like? This is what I'm getting when I go to fill in the blank.
Speaker 2:Oh when I go. Okay, well, I can. Just I can tell you what I. So I was just in northern ireland, came back, uh, beginning of april I came back so was leading some teams over there and came back with half of a suitcase full. So I had packed, I had packed things to take over to the riot crew, like some swag and stuff like that, and new in my mind, hey, I'm going to be taking all of this swag. Sure, I'll take it in my suitcase, because that means I'm going to have all of this empty space coming home. And so I had half of a suitcase full of all kinds of different chocolate from Northern Ireland.
Speaker 4:Both.
Speaker 1:Galaxy brand dairy milk, and then the chocolate in the United Kingdom is so superior to what we have here?
Speaker 2:I am not even like a sweets person. I would so much rather have salty stuff. But the chocolate there is out of this world.
Speaker 1:I am not even like a sweets person.
Speaker 2:I would so much rather have salty stuff, but the chocolate there is out of this world. So I brought home and they have so many different kinds and so many yeah, just so many different variations.
Speaker 1:But like I would never just like pick up a Hershey's milk chocolate bar and eat it no, literally ever. But I will eat a plain milk chocolate galaxy bar every day for breakfast, for the rest of my life it's so good yes, so they also have.
Speaker 2:It's called a squashy, it's raspberry and like a cream milk squishy thing that you eat it is. It is so good I could eat a bag of those in one sitting. So squashies, chocolate. And I did bring back my favorite crisp. So crisps are chips uh, in our side of the ocean english language. So I brought back some crisps that the flavor is called prawn cocktail. It sounds terrible, but they are. It's my favorite flavor. They have so many different flavors of chips over there too.
Speaker 1:I like the what do they call it? Like the sour cream and onion kind of like. It's like cheese and there's so many different kinds.
Speaker 2:There's so many different it's, it's, I don't. There's so many different kinds, I don't know there's so many different. I did not mention it but they did not yeah call it out so all-time favorite I did give so much of it away, though I will say that I brought. I bring back stuff for other people. Oh, I'm not eating a half a suitcase of chocolate my all-time favorite.
Speaker 1:This isn't even a snack, it's a drink. But my all-time favorite like snacky type thing in another country is in cambodia getting the like kamai iced coffee with sweet condensed milk.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. Every time I've ever been to Cambodia, I've had 50 of them and I remember bringing back the little cans of their sweet milk and trying to make it here. It's not the same, you can't replicate things like that. But you can't go to Phu Phu forever and get it and it's like they do a really good job yeah.
Speaker 1:That's good to know so go to your local Vietnamese restaurant, get a Vietnamese iced coffee You'll love me for it With sweet milk, with sweet milk. Iced coffee with sweet milk oh, so good.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess, if Brad's sharing, I'll share really quickly too. Gosh, when I was in high school I went to Cuba with my dad. You guys know my dad, tim Tim, Not speaking just to you guys, but also to the listener. But we went to Cuba and while we were there, of course, like we can't just drink Just any water, like it has to be like bottled water or you know whatever you're going to say rum.
Speaker 3:And there were, and there were two. There were two food related takeaways that I remember from this trip. Of course there were, there was more than that from the trip, but but food related things, um, this was the first time that I ever enjoyed rice, ever in my entire life was when I went to Cuba. I was like, do we just not know how to make rice in America? And I think the answer is generally yes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Um yes, um yes, we do not. Yes, we do not Um, but also they made us guava juice every day and I have been chasing that high ever since then. It is the most delicious of times that I've done engaged trips to the.
Speaker 1:DR. We stay in Santo Domingo, but like the time I went, I think it's kind of different locations depending on when you go or whatever. But we were traveling back and forth to Katui, which is up in the mountains, and every day we would go up there and do something, and it was kind of different every day. We would go up there and do something and it was kind of different every day. And we would come back and I would make our buds stop at like a roadside produce stand and buy like four pineapples.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they're pineapples. It's like a different thing than the pineapples that you can get here. They're real, so great, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:They're real.
Speaker 1:So great, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:It's so good. Okay, Brittany, I'm sorry for interrupting you.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's okay. That was a good question.
Speaker 1:I need a pineapple right now from the DR. If you're in the DR, you can send me a pineapple.
Speaker 2:I need some squashies right now. I'll get those in two hours when I go home. Okay, brad, I got to ask in the Facebook community, so questions to ask you.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:And got a few back.
Speaker 1:This is not why I started this podcast. I think it is. This is not why we're here. I think it is we all know right.
Speaker 2:It's not why I'm here. Everybody knows, everybody knows. There are some great questions here, but I need to know this one from our good friend mish michelle cruz never short on questions.
Speaker 4:She says or she asks what's your go-to?
Speaker 1:I need to sound smart word yeah, um please tell us so here's the funny thing about words is sometimes I try to say them and I don't say them like like you've said it in your head and does it come out, or you say no, I say not the right way. So like every time. I say every time because I tend to speak quickly, um, but every time I say the word intricate, it like comes out as intricate. I think I've talked about this before.
Speaker 3:We have talked about this.
Speaker 1:So I generally try to stay away from anything above like fourth grade reading level. However, here's the question. Do you?
Speaker 2:think that makes you sound smarter.
Speaker 1:No, but I do love the word ubiquitous, oh yeah, so sometimes if I'm like just feeling a little froggy, I'll throw ubiquitous into a sentence.
Speaker 2:OK, what can you think of the last time you used it?
Speaker 1:Um, I can't, but I do. I mean, I do occasionally, you know it's a good. It's a good word and you can like you can use it all the time. Like those little maple helicopters are ubiquitous.
Speaker 2:I didn't say helicopters Right.
Speaker 1:See, I can't talk for a guy who stands on stages with some frequency and has a podcast. I literally can't speak.
Speaker 3:Thanks, mish, we all have those moments, Brad.
Speaker 2:That was good. That was good Also, just this one, because we're talking about podcast and your words and your voice, which I'm glad you have it back after your surgery. Thank you, me too. Thank you, jesus. Has anyone ever recognized you by your voice, which I'm glad you have it back after after your surgery? Yeah, thank you me too.
Speaker 1:Good, thank you, jesus has anyone ever recognized you by your voice alone? Um, I know, uh, well, maybe I feel like at adult leader meetings I've been asked like are you the guy that does the podcast before? Yeah, um, but I don't know if it's because, like, I introduced myself as brad and I'm wearing a name tag that says brad warren and they've heard me say that before or if it's like he kind of sounds you know. So, um, michael does a lot of magic to my voice. So I don't know, I don't know that. I would say that, but he makes me sound better than I do.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I would say that, but but he doesn't have to do anything to his voice. That's not true.
Speaker 1:We all know that I can show you guys what I do. You have a great radio voice. I don't want to see what you do. That's great, are we done?
Speaker 2:I mean there's more questions we don't need to do more. I'll save them for the next time.
Speaker 1:Great, I love that. Okay, on that note, I would love for us to go and talk to your friend and mine, maggie Shade, if you're ready for that yes, all right, let's do it. Maggie, thanks so much for being here. I want to start in the place where this starts, I guess, which is I want to know. I've never asked you this. This is so fun that I get to know you a little bit.
Speaker 4:I'm excited.
Speaker 1:What was the first time that you remember caring about social justice issues?
Speaker 4:Honestly, I think it started really young. I remember as a kid which is funny because I see this now in my daughter, who's six, and sometimes I think like did I really feel that as a kid? And now I look at her and I'm like, oh yeah, for sure that's real, because I see her wrestling with a lot of this. I just have always really loved justice. I've hated injustice whenever it was seeing a kid struggling with something or a kid from poverty, or even in elementary school. I just remember that not sitting well with me and thinking I have to do something, like there's some kind of action that I can do. I actually very vividly remember in first grade, the first time that I saw any type of racism like I vividly remember that moment and just being like cut to the core and thinking this is not okay as like a you know, seven-year-old or something. So I think it started really young.
Speaker 1:Um was it? Was it always, uh, connected to faith, or do you think that that like came later?
Speaker 4:I think in a way, yes, but in a way, no, I think in a way yes, but in a way no. I think that the Lord obviously was using that. I mean, that was straight from the Holy Spirit, but it so I saw faith on that side of things. I was very involved in my church, saw what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus, but then with my mom, who I did not go to church with I saw a lot of mercy and compassion and things like that. So I kind of felt like I had these two different things going on.
Speaker 4:And then when I went to college I was like, oh my gosh, actually these go hand in hand. I vividly remember taking a class my freshman year about the prophets and learning the way that God used the prophets to speak out against injustice, that he calls his people now to walk in the prophetic tradition of speaking out about things that are wrong, about fighting for justice, about trying to bring things into rightness, to make things new, the fact that he is always doing that. And so when I was in college I really started to see the fusion of that faith and justice and that it really they're inseparable.
Speaker 2:So you say, like you're seeing this in your daughter now, yeah, and you're walking her through that. Was there anybody in your life? Maybe not when you were that young but even through junior high or high school that was walking with you calling that out in you. Yeah, someone for you to follow after in that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean my church I was super involved in my youth group had great D group leaders, great youth pastors. That I think saw those things in me, that gave me opportunities in those ways, you know, things like small group experiences or mission trips or things like that just doors that were opened to be able to walk further into that. And I think that's a huge part of it, that that passion and those things that I felt did not sit dormant within me but that I was given opportunities and doors were opened for me to really experience that and see the way that God was doing that already in the world in a bigger way than I could imagine.
Speaker 1:So when I think back about my own journey in this which I'm not going to like flesh out all the details because it's boring there are so many things that I look back on and the weak part of me is like ashamed of those things. And I think you know, um, really, there's a lot of like redemption that God has done in just how I looked at people and my role in their lives as a Christian, as somebody who you know cares about these things. So I'm curious, cause you are kind of like talking about, okay, going back to high school, I can remember all these things kind of starting to come into focus. Um, what do you know now that you like wish you could tell 16 year old Maggie about engaging in these, this type of ministry and this type of work?
Speaker 4:I think obviously it's been a journey. So I for the last 15 years, have been in a very justice focused ministry, um, and so there's things I, you know, learned in high school, things I learned in college, things that I've learned in the last 15 years in my role at our church that that the Lord has really spoken into that and grown me in those last 15 years in my role at our church, that the Lord has really spoken into that and grown me in those ways. But I think the biggest thing that has really been the biggest struggle in my time in justice work is I think the Lord has just shown me like I am making all things new that he has the final say that one day there will be absolute justice, that one day everything will be okay, everything will be made right. Because I was actually just meeting with a college student right before this and we were talking about this that one of the hardest things about justice work engaging your community, seeing injustice face to face is that it's never over, like it's just constant.
Speaker 4:All you have to do is read the internet, turn on the news, see that there are constantly issues of injustice, just absolutely horrific things happening in our community and around the world, and I wish I would have fully understood then that I'm not going to fix it Like me on my own, me with my team, me with our whole church, us as the global church. We're not going to fully end injustice. Does that mean we stop fighting for justice? Absolutely not. But it does mean that we recognize that one day we will see no more, that he will wipe every tear from every eye. He will make all things new, he will make justice flow, that all of that, he, he will bring redemption to all of those things and that I can rest in that. I wish I had known that a lot earlier.
Speaker 1:You're putting a lot, of a lot of meat on the bones of, I think, michael's favorite engage mission principle. If I remember correctly what was yours. God is already working, I thought so Preach that. Yeah, preach that it's a lot of things that we talk about around here.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Which is really cool.
Speaker 2:And I think when we live into that focus, it takes the pressure off of us.
Speaker 4:Oh 100%.
Speaker 2:You could carry so much weight, could not sleep at night carrying on your shoulders the weight of injustice in the world, oh, yeah, and it never ends well.
Speaker 4:It never will.
Speaker 4:I've been there so many times in my life and I think what I so.
Speaker 4:I took a class last semester about biblical theology of mission and one of the key things that we talked about was that God did not create a mission for his church.
Speaker 4:God created a church for his mission. So he has this mission of restoring his people back to himself. That everything fell apart in the garden and he, his entire mission, is to bring his people back to himself. That everything fell apart in the garden and he, his entire mission, is to bring his people back to himself, and that he's not giving all of us our own individual mission. He's saying you all have a role in my one mission that I have been accomplishing from the beginning of time, that I will accomplish into eternity, and that is so huge, I think, to think like I'm not carrying this torch, I'm not like, come on, guys, join me in what I'm doing. I'm simply saying God is doing this work and we get to be a part of it. He has invited us into his mission, and what a gift that we get to just come alongside him and join him in the work that he's already doing. That is like that creates such a beautiful framework.
Speaker 1:I think for our ministry That'll preach, I want to take, before we get too far into the conversation, I want to take everything that you just said and put it in a funnel, okay, which is I'll tell you why the funnel's there, okay, At CIY, we have been doing a lot of research for a long period of time about vocational ministry, and it's one pattern that has arisen many, many times is that students followed through on their commitment to go into vocational ministry when they had meaningful opportunities to serve.
Speaker 1:Um, now, that might not always look like getting out in your community and doing whatever. It might look like, you know, being super involved in something that happens within the walls of your church, but I think that this is, you know, another piece of that as well. Um, so I would like for you to kind of continue wearing your local impact minister hat and also put on your youth ministry hat. Um, a hat on a hat and then, uh, so that we can talk about, like, why this whole conversation is important, especially for junior, high and high school students, and what are ways that we can get them not just involved but like, meaningfully involved. You know what I mean. Like, can I come up with something for you to do that. We can call local impact Sure.
Speaker 1:But, where are, like, the meaningful service opportunities for students? So I don't really know where I want to start with that. I'll say this yeah, You're smarter than me, I'll take it, just run, she knows what to do.
Speaker 2:Hand me that baton, brad Hand me that baton I'm ready, it's all your sister.
Speaker 4:You know I'm ready. So I think a couple of things on that that I think that are really important to do. The first is that we don't want to call students to do individual acts of kingdom work. We want to call students to lives of kingdom work. We don't want to create a bunch of high school graduates that go out into the world and they're like man I'm really good at service projects, I'm really good at two-week mission trips. Are those things great? Yes, are they key in our foundation of that? Absolutely, but that's not the end goal. We want students who grow into adulthood, who live lives of kingdom work, who are looking for opportunities within their home, in their neighborhood, in their schools, in their places of business, in their churches, and saying how can I live out this life of kingdom work, how can I join in the mission that God is already doing in all of these arenas, that I already exist, that I'm already living my life, and so I think that's really important to remember, which is kind of a hard balance, because we create individual opportunities, but when we do that with the mindset of how can we apply this in our everyday life, that is really key. I think that that is a really big deal and I think it's important for students to have a lot of ownership and agency in that.
Speaker 4:I think that some of the most impactful things for me were when my leaders would not just say like, okay, here's this project, this is what we're going to do, this is the time to show up, this is what you need to wear this. These are all the details. Just show up and do it. Those are great, obviously, entry level, for sure, we need those. But then, as I got older, into high school, when my leaders would be like oh, you see an issue, what do you want to do about it? How can I come alongside you and support you? I love doing this with our students and our church when they're like, hey, I don't like that.
Speaker 4:There are so many kids in foster care. I have an issue with that. I have an issue that you know. One time we took our high schoolers to children's division our, you know, dfs and they're walking through the cubicles and they see a cot like a toddler size cot on the floor and they were like what is? What is this? Why is there a toddler size cot on the floor? And I was like, hey, because when kids come into care. You know sometimes they don't have anywhere to go and a caseworker is trying to call you know foster families and trying to find a place for them, for students to see that and then to begin to wrestle with like what's my role in that, how can I do something about that? That is so key because that translates into adulthood of taking initiative, of being really aware of those things and figuring out what they can do about it. So I think those are two really key pieces when I look at what that looks like in student ministry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the role of youth pastor becomes like sounding board and guardrails.
Speaker 4:Guardrails Champion? That's the good question.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely so like you asked that first question like what are you going to do about it? How can I help? But that's the beginning of a conversation where then youth pastor is a person who has, you know, more depth of experience and knowledge and, hopefully, access to some resources that students might not have. You become like the person who continues to say, yeah, you're doing it, go that way, you're on the right path.
Speaker 2:And it's so good.
Speaker 4:I mean, I've seen so many times in our church where students will come back from move or mix and they'll, you know, really have a heart for something. And and our youth pastors will say, all right, I want you to meet with Maggie, I want you to meet with this local nonprofit, I want you to meet with these people and they facilitate that and set that up so, like our high school pastors, our junior high pastors don't have to be the ones that have all the answers, that they don't have to be the ones to figure out how to do all those things, but they can say, hey, I know somebody that knows a little bit more about this. Let's go to coffee with them and let's talk about what this means, let's dig a little bit deeper, and so then that role in student ministry can help just facilitate those conversations where those things go deeper. And it's so cool.
Speaker 4:We have two girls right now who grew up in our church, who went to college, who are now entering into the role of essentially community impact minister at two different churches. And I just look back at them from, you know, fifth, sixth grade on, at the ways that I saw God working in them, just developing this heart for justice and for community impact. And now we see that come to fruition there. I mean, this is now their full-time job. They're now adults doing this, taking these local churches into their community and seeing how, all along the way, their dGroup leaders, their youth pastors, were saying like, hey, I love this, I see this in you, I call this out in you. Let's continue to push you forward in that.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to put something on the table between the two of you and then I want to listen in to your conversation, cause you're both like super duper experts about this, and so I'm just going to drop the bomb and walk away a little bit. But, um, you mentioned students coming back from move and um, this was this. This is my story. Okay, I watched bot uh at at move as a uh, as a rising senior. Is it over there?
Speaker 2:It is. Look at that, it is on the shelf. It's on the shelf.
Speaker 1:As a rising senior in high school and I came back and I was like I have to end human trafficking right now. So I feel like there is definitely a disconnect between the mentality of a student coming back from move and maybe saying like I want to do, do, do, do, do right, and where you're saying they should actually end up, which is who am I becoming and how does that like tie into these things?
Speaker 1:So I'm, I'm, I'm curious what both of your advice would be on getting students or helping students find their way from A to B.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that is the word of we're more interested in who they are becoming than what they are doing, of not getting so caught up in the doing and the checking, checking the lists, of got to do the right things, that it becomes more of the holistic approach there, and so getting them to become a learner first, I think I think is key. I don't know you take it from there, oh I totally agree with that.
Speaker 4:I think. I think exposure is a really big part of that, of being able for them to see. You know, because I totally get that Students will come back and they'll have these great ideas and it's like I love that. I would so much rather channel energy than try and create energy.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, A hundred percent.
Speaker 4:And so it's like we need to take full advantage of that and we need to get students exposed to people and places and organizations that are already doing that, so that it doesn't just become this oh, I did this one time thing, I checked the box. It's good to go, but for them to see people who are saying like this is my life, this is, I live a life of justice, I live a life of mercy, and to see what that looks like practically, I think that's huge. And so for them again to step into like this is what God's already doing. God is already doing this work.
Speaker 4:Don't reinvent the wheel. Don't go over here and create something completely brand new. That's unsustainable. Join in with what God is already doing, and there's just so many incredible opportunities out there for students to do that. And when they can see the longevity of that, when they can see people doing that really well, with a lot of structure and stability, I think that's a big part of the game changer. Because for you, you watched by it and you didn't want to just like go out on your own and fight human trafficking, I'm assuming, like you saw, Rafa, I absolutely did.
Speaker 1:But then you learned I was like somebody. Give me a machine gun. I'm going to Southeast Asia right now. We're going to end this problem.
Speaker 2:But think about the steps that that led you to.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Because I had a good youth pastor who was like hold on and you saw Rafa and you're like, oh, yeah, okay, yep, I can get on board with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is what is the next step right in front of you. Yes, it is not what is on the other side of the mountain. Yeah, not what is on the other side of the mountain. Yeah, and you're never. It's a mountain that is going to keep having absolutely peak after peak.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, and I think for students to see that there's the both and there's like, because for me, as a high school student, I was like man, this is like the goal, what I want to do with my life. This is like when I graduate college, when I'm, you know, a real life adult. This is what I want to do with my life. This is like when I graduate college, when I'm, you know, a real life adult. This is what I want to do with my life. But also, it's not just that like there are things I can do right now, but we can't make it either. Or we can't say, okay, just hold tight until you graduate college and then you can do this thing. Or, you know, till you become an adult or graduate high school, whatever. And we can't say like, just do a lot of stuff right now and it'll be good enough. It's like, no, do some stuff right now, learn, prepare, walk alongside people, and then this can be. You know what your life looks like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. What is the next step? Yeah, that's right in front of you. Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So I want to get in the weeds a little bit. One of my favorite things that Eric Epperson has ever taught me is that people connect more to specificity than they do to generality, and so I want to talk about Joplin, missouri. I want to talk about you. I want to talk about these students that are brought to you after move, who have this fire burning inside of them and you have to figure out a way to to harness this energy and point them in the right direction. To harness this energy and and point them in the right direction, what are some of those places here in Joplin that you've seen students get plugged into um in in in ways that kind of create the outcomes that that we've been talking about a little bit?
Speaker 4:yeah, I. I mean it's almost unfair. You know, joplin is like the.
Speaker 1:it is almost, it is almost unfair, but also it's our life. We love it. This is it, this is our context.
Speaker 4:This is what we know. So we have some incredible local nonprofits and I think a big deal about this with our students is that we want to plug our students into places we're already connected to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's you know as a church. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So you know there's other ones that maybe we don't know a ton about or something, and we're not going to tell our students to don't do that. But when they're asking like what should I do, where should I go, we're going to go with the ones that we have a really deep connection with because we trust them, because we have vetted them, because we work with them, and so our big thing at Christ Church is we are constantly, whether it is early childhood, elementary school, middle school, junior high, high school we're plugging them into our partners, and so we do that from a young age I mean, I know this is about student ministry, but I'll go all the way back to elementary school we make our impact partners a really big deal and we call it Kids Club K through fourth grade. So much so that, like, my kids are constantly talking I have a kindergartner and a third grader they're constantly talking about what the Lord is doing in Japan, what the Lord is doing in Cambodia. I remember, actually, when my daughter Poppy met Tara from Cambodia and afterwards she was like, well, why doesn't Tara work in Japan? Because they need church planters. And I was like like, well, why doesn't Tara work in Japan? Because they need church planters, and I was like, okay, well, fair, but also she is Cambodian and she's doing a great work in Cambodia. But we do that. That's just like a part of our DNA as a church. Our elementary school kids are going to be very familiar with what the Lord is doing in our community and around the world. That is not something new when they become an adult or get to high school. They are very familiar with our partners from a very young age, and so I think that's really important to set the stage for that. Are they going overseas as a kindergartner? No, are they doing all those things? No, but they're aware of it, and so I think that's a really big piece. Is that awareness? And then also, we have just such great partners.
Speaker 4:We have a homeless organization called Watered Gardens that has a really great model of restoring dignity. This is a great one. Our high school students once a month serve there the second Sunday of the month. They cook breakfast for everyone there. They are in charge of the Sunday morning worship service, so they will lead worship, they will preach. That is a regular monthly thing that we're always inviting students to, so that's a great opportunity for students to get on board to. So that's a great opportunity for students to get on board. I love that a ton of our students will graduate and be very familiar with the homeless community. Like that is not something that they are afraid of, because they're there once a month. They're serving there. That's a really big deal. Not just serving, they're serving and then sitting alongside them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, they're worshiping alongside them.
Speaker 4:They're eating breakfast. It's just a really beautiful that's a really beautiful partnership.
Speaker 1:For the sake of the illustration too, I took a group of high school students um, not from cco, from a different church, uh to water gardens one time, you know, and we did the whole thing and cooked breakfast and I had to like force them to go sit at tables it's like I'm not, we're not leaving until you have a conversation with somebody.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean, but it's like there's a huge contrast between that you know like hey, we're going to go do this one time. And it feels very like we're checking this off of a list and there is not that sense of familiarity, like contrasted with. Ok, every third Sunday or whatever it is, I don't even know. You say third sunday, second second okay, second sunday um, we have the opportunity to get to know people and and be involved in in a really, uh, impactful and profound way.
Speaker 4:That's cool which I love because, like I love that our students can say like you are not just somebody who is homeless, you're not just somebody who's living in poverty, like you're a fellow image bearer. I see this dignity and worth in you and I am not higher than you, I'm not less than you. Like I'm just a fellow image bearer and I'm going to sit and eat breakfast with you and I'm going to worship alongside you and I think just having that regular exposure and relationship is so huge. And another big one that we have is our partnership with the foster care system. I think that our students are really well connected to the foster care system and really have an understanding from a lot of different ways. We have students serving our foster families, doing things for them, doing yard work for them, babysitting for them. We have students a couple times a year. We have a foster parent night out. We always have high school students serving at that so they're again connecting with these kids, being able to be in their group again making sure.
Speaker 4:What I love about that is we host those on our campus and these students are creating an atmosphere in a local church to where these kids can know. I feel safe in the local church. I feel loved in the local church and whether they ever come back to our church. That's the impression they have of the local church, which I think is really huge. And so they're serving in a variety of ways with our organizations. They're seeing what foster care looks like.
Speaker 4:They're understanding this is not just some random people over here, these are like my friends, these are people I go to school with.
Speaker 4:It's creating a deeper level of compassion, I think when it's not just some outside people or it's not just these other groups of people, this is people that I do life with, that does after school programs and things like that. We actually did a cool thing with them this past year that we're gonna do again, where we did a family serve day with them, and that was really cool because we had all ages I mean toddlers up through adults serving together, and that I think has been really impactful too for students to not just serve in a student ministry setting but A to serve in an intergenerational setting where they're serving alongside adults but also alongside their parents and their brothers and sisters. I mean I think even that helps bridge that gap from student ministry to adulthood of okay, I don't just know how to serve around my friends that are also 16, but I know how to serve alongside kids, I know how to serve alongside adults, I know how to serve alongside my parents and things like that. So that I think is a really big one.
Speaker 4:We've kind of started to step into, too, is those intergenerational moments, because the church is intergenerational and being able to bridge that gap, um will help students in the long run, I think, and it takes the conversation too.
Speaker 2:From this is a conversation that we're having on wednesday nights at youth group or small groups on sundays, to then the conversations are happening inside the home too. Absolutely, parents, absolutely it's huge and it's been.
Speaker 4:It's fun to see, especially with, like our students that go to water gardens. It's cool to see their parents learning from them like oh I actually you know these people seem very different from me, but my 15 year old daughter does it once a month, so it can't be that scary if she can do it and it's really cool to see students leading that the way a lot of times for their family and what that means, and that's always really encouraging.
Speaker 1:As you were talking there's. I mean, everybody knows that student ministry doesn't exist in a vacuum, like it's. It's part of something bigger in your, in your church, family, and so it requires these, like what you're, what you're saying requires these strong partnerships, uh, between the church as a whole and these partners in their community, and this is something that I care a lot about. Um, the last ministry that I was in, I oversaw our like missions team, volunteer missions team or whatever, and when I walked into it, you know our church was I don't know a third of the size of CCO, like not not huge, and when I walked into that, we had like 30 or 40 different mission partners that we were like financially supporting some of them like five hundred dollars, a thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean and that comes from a really good place, you know, obviously. But, um, cco from and and correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like a point of emphasis for CCO has been like we are going to have our people and we are going to support them in absolutely the most impactful way that we possibly can. So, um, is there a? I'm not sure, I'm not. I'm trying to think of like, uh, correct way to talk about this, but how many local partners do we have? Let's start there.
Speaker 4:Local four.
Speaker 1:Four? Yeah, okay, so that's not a lot. Right, are the full-time local missions minister at, or local impact minister at, cco. So talk about the fruit of you being able to focus on. Hey, these four ministries are things that I oversee and that I really get the chance to invest in, and why, like, maintaining kind of that tighter focus is a priority for you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's been a really big deal for us. A few years ago we kind of shifted some of our model and began to have we call it covenants with our partners. Brittany knows this.
Speaker 2:You're a part of this.
Speaker 4:And really developing, not just like, hey, we're going to send you a check once a month and that's going to be the end of it, or here's the things we require of you. You're going to send us an update, you're going to send us your financials, that's going to be the end of the story. We really want to say to our partners hey, here's what we would like to have from you, but also here's what we would like to have from you. But also here's what we promise you. Here's what you can always expect from us as a church that supports you. We're going to be fully engaged with you. We want to be there. We want to help in whatever ways you need. If there's something you need, we want to be your first call. We want you to reach out to us, whether that is finances or volunteers or whatever that is.
Speaker 4:We want to be very, very deeply connected with those partners, and I think it's kind of a mix. It varies from partner to partner, or you know things that we do, but there's so many ways that we can connect as a local church that we want to be really creative with that. We don't want to just say, all right, here's what we have to offer. We're going to do one service project a month. We're going to do whatever I love when we can sit down with a partner, like neighborhood life house. When we did this family serve day, we sat down with addy, who's the director of that, and said, hey, what? Which?
Speaker 4:by which, by the way, grew up in Christchurch served as a student a ton when she was in high school, knew the Lord was calling her to that kind of a work and now is doing that in the community.
Speaker 2:And brings kids from Neighborhood Lifehouse to CIY events.
Speaker 1:Yes, which is like this incredible, incredible.
Speaker 2:She the one who's job.
Speaker 4:Incredible. She actually. I saw her a couple of weeks ago at Ozark. She took her first neighborhood lifehouse student on a Tuesday tour to check out Ozark as a prospective student. So so many things. So we sat down with Addie and said, hey, we would love to get families able to serve together. What would that be helpful to you? If it's not helpful to you, if you don't want it, then that's the end of the story. We're not going to force something on you. I mean, you guys know this as missions, people like we're not going to, you know, go on a mission trip and paint the fence for the 28th time. We want to be able to be helpful. And she was like, absolutely, I've actually been thinking of this idea. We have a lot of different countries represented in our neighborhood, a lot of families moving in, you know, immigrants, refugees. I would really love to do like an international potluck. And we were like, say less?
Speaker 2:This is everything we've ever wanted.
Speaker 4:And so basically being able to say to her like what do you want this to look like?
Speaker 4:What do you need from us, what would be helpful? And of course she was like, yes, I want this, I want this, and also like this would be cool for your students and your families and your adults to see, and so being able to just give them the freedom to do that. Or even with you know, fostering Hope, one of our partners that works in the foster care world, to say what would be helpful? Do you need volunteers? Do you need donations? We they really wanted to create a way for our people to donate kids clothes, and so we set up a station in our kids club lobby where people can donate to the foster care community that's just set up all the time, and so really creating that relationship with them where they feel like they can text me at any hour of the day and say, hey, this is what we need or this is, you know, we need prayer for this, we need support, we need whatever. Those relationships are just invaluable and they're reciprocal that covenant that I talked about is a really big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it is seen as a way of CCO is, yes, contributing in financial ways, supporting ministry, but on the flip side of that, we are better as a church because of these partners. Not in a way to put the spotlight on CCO by any means. But the church is better because of the life that these ministries bring to it Absolutely.
Speaker 4:And even going back to me talking about my kids, the fact that my kids in elementary school are seeing the incredible work God is doing. This isn't just hypothetical. We're not just saying God works around the world, we believe it happens somewhere. We're saying Jay and Caitlin and Tanner and Delaney and Sam and Rachel, they are in Japan. They are planting churches. Here's video of what it looks like. We're celebrating the baptisms of our partners all over the world in all of our adult worship gatherings.
Speaker 4:All of these ways that we can say we're not just preaching to our people, and especially our students, that God is a global God and saying like, just you know, imagine whatever you think it looks like. We're saying here's exactly what it looks like with people we know and love and trust. And here's all of the ways that we can engage with them we talk about. Our big model is know, grow, go. We know about our partners. We want to know what they're doing, who they are. Here's ways that we can grow in prayer and generosity for them. And here's ways that we can go, whether that's we're taking a trip to Mexico or Cambodia or Japan or Papua New Guinea, or to downtown Joplin or to Carl Junction, whatever any of those places, but that they can grow in all of those areas. Carl.
Speaker 1:Junction, whatever any of those places, but that they can grow in all of those areas. Yeah, I like to just kind of like circle back around to the student ministry portion of this conversation, though I want to reemphasize something that I think is at the heart of what you're saying and you can obviously correct me if I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. And you can obviously correct me if I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. So, these four partnerships that you have specifically, though, I feel like get involved with something that what's a way I can serve in my community that it would take a minute to like think about. Okay, our mission partners, we've got these people over here doing this.
Speaker 1:I think, and you know, and and it just is a requires a lot more thought and and and a lot more time to to figure out what, uh, what some of those things are. You're in a position where a student comes to you and it's like, yeah, great, you can do this, you can do this, you can go be a part of this. And any student who has spent any amount of time at Christchurch if you say the name like watered gardens to them, or if you say the name fostering hope to them. Or if you say the name neighborhood life house to them, then they're. What's the fourth?
Speaker 4:life, choices life.
Speaker 1:Oh, life choices, Beautiful. Um, if you say any of those things to them, they're going to say, oh yeah, you know, I've, I've heard about that, I've heard people talk about that. It's not going to be like an unfamiliar thing. But for the youth pastor it's a little bit difficult because for a lot of them this is an area where they have maybe influence but not authority, or maybe not influence or authority. If they are very inspired by this conversation, they're going to have to go to their missions pastor, their senior pastor, and say, hey, I want to develop a really strong connection with one of our partners or two of our partners so that our students can get involved.
Speaker 1:And that's a big thing. Christchurch even that like throwaway comment almost about Addie, like growing up in the church, having her vision clarified in the youth group at Christchurch and then staying in Joplin and doing what she knows that God has laid on her life to do. Like that whole journey happened because of you know, this little church on unusable farmland on the middle of Oronogo, missouri, that decided that they were going to walk alongside her in this, and I think that that's just a really awesome thing and I think that for every youth pastor, that's like the goal right For sure. Like that's what you want from your students.
Speaker 4:I think what's been helpful too is that like I don't have to be, as you know, the local missions person, I don't have to be in all those relationships anymore. Like Tyler, our high school pastor, is deeply connected with Water Gardens now, like he's doing that on his own. Emily and Flint, our junior high pastors they're planning serve days for with these partners that I don't have to be in the middle of because they have stepped up and created that relationship themselves, which I think is is just really a huge thing, because that's a big deal to them and I'm just really thankful that they do that for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a really cool thing. So you have to leave.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:But we have a few minutes though, and I'm planning on capitalizing on these few minutes.
Speaker 4:We're great.
Speaker 1:Because I want to talk about something that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet, which is the role that international mission trips play in this. Which international mission trips? Pat Brady on the podcast talked about it several times trips I've had Brittany on the podcast to talk about it several times.
Speaker 2:We know that it's a sticky subject for Azogian reasons.
Speaker 1:It's expensive. It can be damaging if done inappropriately. We have to be conscious of the way that we feel like this is impacting, both positively and negatively, the students that are going on the trip, the mission partners that are in the field, all these things you got to. You got to work with parents who may or may not trust you taking their kid to a country that has a Latin name because it sounds unfamiliar to them. Or you know, there's all there's. There's, there's a zillion things that has a Latin name because it sounds unfamiliar to them, or you know there's all there's.
Speaker 1:There's a zillion things, but I want to know what role you think international missions plays in this whole like kind of conversation and I don't know what you're going to say. So I'm going to stop there and then I might have some follow-up questions. I will say Brittany will have some follow up questions. Ok, I will say, brittany will have some.
Speaker 4:I know, for me personally, I international missions played a really big role when I was in high school of understanding the kingdom. You know, I don't. I don't know, looking back, were those always done? Did we, you know, do all the things in the ways we would do them? Now I don't know. I wasn't in charge, I wasn't thinking through all those logistics, so I don't know.
Speaker 4:But I don't think the answer is to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to international missions, of doing that well. I think there are absolutely ways we can do that well. I think that goes back to that partner conversation. We had that. When we have a very deep and personal relationship with our international partners to the point where we can say, hey, we'd like to bring a group, is that okay with you? They know they can say, actually, that would not be good, we would not like that, that would not be helpful to us, and they trust that we will say thank you so much for your honesty. What would be helpful? Is there something that we could do as opposed to that? That would be helpful?
Speaker 4:But I think that partner conversation is a really, really, really big part of that. I think you know anything. Any way that students can see that God is so much bigger than what they see right in front of them? That is huge. And one thing I mean this isn't really, this doesn't really speak to your question, so I apologize for that. Actually, I don't apologize.
Speaker 2:You know I will be honest with you, Brad, you have the mic.
Speaker 1:It's always a privilege when I have like my real friends on our podcast. You can just be like. You said this, but I'm going to say this instead and it's like great Run with it.
Speaker 4:I love it.
Speaker 4:I think you know, a big part of it is. I think the international missions plays a huge role in that and I think that is a really key thing that, looking at our students that are living lives of kingdom work now that it played need to understand that we have opportunities for international impact in our own community. I mean, that's where we see international students. That's where we see immigrant families, refugee families that are living in our community. We really got engaged with international students as a church when we learned the statistics that 75% of international students would come to America and never enter an American home and I was like, oh, absolutely not, that is not okay. We have people coming from around the world to our backyard and we are not taking advantage of it. So that, I think, has been huge. And so I think, really, looking at any way, yes, we want students to go international. Yes, we absolutely do. That's going to take a family that's willing to do that. It's going to take parents that are okay with saying that that's going to take funds, all of that. We have students that can absolutely do that and we need to create opportunities for them to do that.
Speaker 4:I don't think we can say, well, if you can't go on a mission trip, then you can't have international experience.
Speaker 4:I think we need to create international opportunities for them within our own community, because they are there, because we are a country that has people from all over the world living in it, and we can take full advantage of that to show love, to show hospitality, to show being a good neighbor to them. So I think, generally speaking, anything we can do to create a global framework for the kingdom, for our students, is absolutely so valuable Making them aware of our international partners around the world, showing them what's happening with those partners, taking them overseas, taking them to places in our own community where people from other countries are living and working, and engaging with them as our neighbors. I think that is a big conversation that is always going to be an absolutely yes for me. I think it looks different for every student based on where they're at and what their family situation is and what they can do, but I think we need to highly prioritize international exposure to students in kingdom work in some way, absolutely yeah, I think it's letting them rub shoulders with kingdom workers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, whether that is crosstown, in your backyard or across an ocean. Yeah, like if they are rubbing shoulders with people who are doing kingdom work in their context, it's contagious.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. And when I look at our partners, I mean I just I love all of our partners. Okay, I love them all. I really love the partners that grew up at Christ Church. People like Addie, people like Tanner, delaney, like Rachel Martin, these people that it's like I knew you in student ministry. I knew you as kids and the way that God used Christ Church and created cast a global vision of the kingdom for you as elementary kids and middle school and high school kids and what he's doing with that now I love. I love that I can say to our kids in Kids Club hey, look at Tanner and Delaney. They sat in this room, they were Kids Club kids and now they they sat in this room, they were kids club kids and now they're planting churches in Japan.
Speaker 4:That is not a far off idea. That is not a crazy thing. That is unattainable. I said this at a kids club live last summer that there are kids sitting in kids club live. That will be one day be our impact partners at Christ Church and I cannot wait to see who that is. I cannot wait to see the way that God uses them and it's just for them to have that exposure and see that all the way through elementary, through high school. I mean, that is just. It's unbelievably valuable If we're not casting that vision and dream for them. There's this quote that I love that says if you want to build a boat, don't drum up workers and supplies. Teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. And we cast this vision of this global kingdom and we say there are people that are working all over the world to spread the gospel, to plant churches. Isn't that a beautiful, incredible thing? And our kids and our students see that and they're like absolutely, I want that. I'm going to do what it takes to get there.
Speaker 1:Well, I cannot think of possibly a better way to end this conversation. So I'm just going to let that kind of be it, maggie, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was a blast. You're the best.
Speaker 1:Okay, brittany, off mic. Two seconds ago, we were talking about how lucky we are to have. I mean and Maggie mentioned this too. It's like we live in Joplin, Missouri. This isn't a fair conversation and as we were talking to Maggie, I think you and I both kind of had this realization that, like this, this conversation doesn't feel fair that we have a. Maggie and no one else gets a Maggie. So I wonder what, like how would you encourage a youth pastor who might not have this, just like wealth of resources available to them like we happen to have at Christ Church.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's start small, start with something.
Speaker 1:Take a step.
Speaker 2:Take a step. It's what we talked about in that conversation of you can take one step right in front of you and me. Maggie is listing off all of these different ministries and all of these different partners and you're like is listing off all of these different ministries and all of these different partners and you're like, where do I even begin? And I think it's just take one step and have a conversation and I think, when you see, when you start asking questions, when you start digging into it, you're going to start seeing more than you knew was actually there. And so I think it's take a step, ask some questions and you're going to see.
Speaker 1:To be like even more prescriptive. If you want a good first step, call one of your mission partners that's local, go to lunch and find out as much as you can about them. You know, if nothing else, start to develop those really, really strong bonds that I mean you've heard from Maggie the fruit of years and years, decades of hard work and intentionality that have gone into the missions program at Christ Church. So you know it's a process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and reshaping, and like being okay to go in as somebody who is not an expert and to not feel like you have to know everything, like that is okay. Like have conversation. We, we know how to build relationships and that's what this is. It can sometimes look intimidating when you're talking about justice, work or injustices and, like I was talking about, the weight of that can feel really, really, really heavy. But underneath all of that, what sustains it is relationship, and so build a relationship with somebody.
Speaker 1:I love it. Best of luck to you.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a good journey.
Speaker 1:All right, brittany, it's good you want to close us out by reading our blessing there.
Speaker 2:I would love to Brad. Here we go. May God show you grace and bless you. May he make his face shine on you. May you experience the love of Christ, through whom God gives you fullness of life. May you be strengthened by his power, and may Christ himself make his home in your heart, that you would be full of his love and grace and that those you serve would see Jesus in you.
Speaker 1:Today's episode was produced by Michael Hester, lauren Bryan and myself. Huge thanks to both Brittany and Maggie for being here and sharing some of their expertise with us. We will be back in a couple of weeks with our final episode of the season. Lane Moss is going to chat with us about how the heck we are supposed to try to maintain any sense of work-life balance during our crazy, crazy summers, so that'll be a great conversation. Hope you'll tune in in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can feel free to reach out to us on the CIO community Facebook group or by email at podcast at CIOcom. We'll see you next time, thank you.