In episode 197 of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast Zac and Chad break it down as real, struggling, pastors, and humans. This is a difficult and unprecedented time. It requires muscles and leadership that we have never exercised so we lack the endurance.
However, there is a hope, there is a faith stronger than ours. We turn to that in this time of increasing weakness to find promise beyond our current circumstances.
Show Notes:
In episode 197 of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast Zac and Chad break it down as real, struggling, pastors, and humans. This is a difficult and unprecedented time. It requires muscles and leadership that we have never exercised so we lack the endurance.
However, there is a hope, there is a faith stronger than ours. We turn to that in this time of increasing weakness to find promise beyond our current circumstances.
Show Notes:
Zac : 0:14
Hey, what's up? Everybody? Welcome back to another special addition of Youth Minister Booster podcast. Chad. Here we are together, alone together,
Chad: 0:25
alone together, back at it again with the vans. You have heard that in a minute.
Zac : 0:32
It's been a minute. It's been a minute, Daniel, Uh, and so wow, living into, uh, what feels like forever, but is actually only a week three of a global pandemic, trying to make high or low heads or tails sense how to be an minister in it. And, buddy, I still to come today and tell you I'm tired. Okay, I'm tired. I'm tired. It was all everything was fun and games when we first started in his life. Oh, shoot. Can we do Youth Ministry online? And then I think we all did it, done it and now we're done with it. I think it's a lot of ways there's some there's some depth to that. There's some conversation to that. There's some virtual theology around that, but I think more than anything else I feel disrupt. And in that disruptive, uh, upheaval, I'm tired of living and working from home with my whole family, living and working from home in a conversation that I share with my wife the other day. I feel like I have been working out of muscle group of an existence muscle group that's never been used before, and it just feels tired. All
Chad: 1:56
I think that this is all new for everyone. And then there's so many different areas, right? Like you're talking about that like, you know, emotional swings, trying to figure out new things, new, creative. And there's always a level of excitement. I think at first, right of these Russian, the these new type things. But I think we're We're at the point now where the new has definitely worn off this thing. The fear is still there, the concerns still there. We're starting to see for many youth bastards, You know, that first zoom call was so much fun, right? And and your kids were used to it. Now they're using soon for their schools and all these guys. It's no longer the cool, fun thing in your trail
Zac : 2:38
over the Brady Bunch grid. That's so cute. Everybody on all
Chad: 2:42
the names are done right? Right now you're frustrated with him. They're on their phone. They're turning off their video they've got a virtual back background, right? All these kind of things. Um, And and now we have all these new problems that we've never dealt with before all of those kind of things, along with Let's talk honestly as well. I think the fear for many of us with our churches of, you know, our own salary and, you know, financial stability
Zac : 3:08
of gangs and planning's it, like right.
Chad: 3:10
And not to mention, you may have small Children that will not go away, right?
Zac : 3:16
I keep shutting that door. Maki opening it. I mean, like Daddy says the red light like like that Uncle Jesse. Red Light has never been more after po for a millennial generation wondering why the heck would you need a red light outside of the downstairs recording studio? It's because he knew he knew he was living into a pandemic and he had to keep those kids out.
Chad: 3:38
Yeah, man. So yeah, I get it. I understand the feeling of feeling like we're tired, so I pushed back. And maybe this time I want to ask this question because I think each of us need to answer the question. Um, are we tired? Are we emotionally, Spence, are we spiritually spent? Are we just apathetic Because we have not left her house in 2.5 weeks, right or whatever. And so I think I think if we're having these feelings, identifying the actual cause is up most of importance. So we always like to talk personally with each other. So for use at work in which one of those is it or is it e of, you know, the Scantron machine right of something else.
Zac : 4:32
Just run the chapstick along the edge so it doesn't read it. Uh, it's all of it, right? Like I think I think it's all of it. I mean, because we all had a plane like I had a plan. We were working from home. The kids were gone three. Ah, I just like the plan of what was a few weeks ago. Months ago is gone. And I'm just feeling at every level If my energy level is lower, doing less productive, I'm feeling less like purposeful, like That's one of the things that, like youth ministries, tricky because it's like the work is so noble. Only want to be crisis responders, but like we kind of all had, like, a plan and kind of had an all aggression. And I think a lot of us, especially in this season, are feeling some of those dominoes begin to fall. Like this Easter weekend is different for everybody. That wasn't a plan. Summer camps are changing. Our mission trip is canceled. We had a plan, we had a purpose. And now it just feels like we're like, well, beyond, like, that early round of triage. And like, now I know for you, and I'd love to hear you say it out loud. Like heart of good leadership is good planning. And if the plan falls away, we feel like less of a leader in less of a person. And now, like I've got my kids and my family in such a close proximity, I mean, they've got to be a better dad or a worse dad. But I can't be the same dad that I waas.
Chad: 5:50
Well, when you talk about planning to here, here is the other hard part of this whole thing, you know? How do you plan for the future? When when do we get to go back
Zac : 5:59
way done with this? Yeah. Give me a timeline updating my timeline.
Chad: 6:04
Yeah. So, you know, for many youth, Pastor Gene may be sitting there going all you can't camp is cancelled. Well, what happens if you get to start meeting again during that time frame, right? Like, do you try to pull off something during the summer? All of these kind of questions that I don't think anyone has an answer to yet. And so the thing that I would lead with that I think we want to get into the pond Of all these questions that we've already built in our swimming into is the word control. Because I think for us, oh, everything that we are experiencing and feeling at some level comes back to this word of control. Um and and I think that for us, whether we're planners, whether we're not whether we're at home, whether whatever, there's a sense of, we feel like we're out of control or, um, I'll in this win, Maybe we felt like we were We've been in control the whole time, and we really haven't. Um and so now that that lie is definitely exposed to, as there's even more of that feeling of vulnerability all of those questions that we have that come with that. So that resonate with you?
Zac : 7:26
Well, and so I mean, we talked a little bit about it earlier. We're just a phone call in today. Like I mean, control has always probably been the enemy. And it's what you share just a few moments ago, whether we were aware of it or not. But But what? Okay, so we've named it. We've named the enemy of our own fearfulness. Is control like it's It's in control. I could be less afraid of it. Well, now I'm out of control. I'm afraid of it. What do I do? How do I live into how do I live into a time of fear?
Chad: 8:02
Um, I I think that if we've exposed the lie and the lies always been there, right, that we haven't been in control. Then I think we have to turn to you what we should have been doing the whole time If we're honest and the times and ministry that were actually really functioning well is understanding that way don't have complete control, but we sort of got who is, um, and being willing to have faith in him in this process, know that he works all things out for is good. And, um and I think that for us, we have to start to become comfortable in the uncomfortable ity of that. Right. Um and I think that I think there's a level of faith in that right. There's Ah.
Zac : 8:53
So if I just have more faith, So So what? You're what you're telling me? Is that okay? Okay. All right. Thanks. Pasture running more faith in this season. Great. Okay, I'll just churn some more of that s o will be good.
Chad: 9:06
My my pushback. Right? And so the theological pushback is it's not ours, even in that right. Like your your faith is not your own. And I think it's he he who gives that. And so I think for us it is this period of time, of helplessness, of being Children and an understanding that, you know, these are all things that did. Let's be honest. And even when I'm saying this to you, I always feel like when we have these conversations with the other ministers, there's always this feeling of they know. You know what I mean? Like even as I talk about this. I'm like these people know this, right? They know they
Zac : 9:47
know, But we forget that is with fundamentally the that is the work of real ministry that I would even extend a cz Muchas our pastor friends that are listening to this. No. Your people probably at some level, also know, but are even more prone to forget. Because what fear does is cloud. What fear does is overtake. What fear does is feed you. Too many voices toe listen to so we forget, but but remind us which had remind us what's the thing that we are? Actually forget it.
Chad: 10:25
What is the thing that we're forgetting? I mean, that's a good question. Um, I think we're forgetting that this was not a surprise. Um, this was not a surprise for the Lord, like all of this. Um, when you were planning 2020 when you were planning for camp when you were planning for you know, you're Siri's for all the years. And you, you know, you had that great creaking set up, and you did all your leader training and all of this kind of stuff, like he knew. Um, and I think maybe there's because we're walking through some pain and it is hard maybe even hearing that there is some feeling of, like, kind. What? Why, right? Like, why are we here? What is happening? All of these kind of things. And I just continue to remind myself that, um, he who is in me is greater than he used in the world. And I God is not surprised by your tired. He's not caught off guard by your frustration. Um, and he's not offended by your doubt, huh? And I think that it's a season and a time in the same way that were ministering in a new way. We also have to be ministered to in a new way. Um, our time with the Lord is more valuable now than it may ever have been in our lives. Um, our time in prayer right now, um, is more crucial than any other time in our life. Um, and yet I think for some of us were feeling tired at an emotional, spiritual level. We're trying to simply fix the's in the physical realm of Morse Lee. More rats, more exercise, right, And these air good things. And for many of us, were finding depression because we haven't left the house, so we don't We don't stop these either. But in the same in the same, um, stroke of fixing all of these other things we have to dive into, um, our willingness to abide in him to spend time with him and to know that this is where our hope comes from. This is where our comfort, our peace and joy comes from, and we can no longer fake it. Um, Zach about you, buddy. But you've done this job long enough. It gets really easy to just kind of fake it and call it in. Right. We
Zac : 13:36
know where we need to be seen. Yeah, which is the most dangerous posture to begin. Like they're literally There are moments were you know where to stand in the room. You move down front for the invitation. You sneak away before the last song is done. You've been glad handing the door on the way out. You make sure to roll in at the right time like it is really easy to nowhere to be seen. Now that we've peeled back that physical layer of a church building a church gathering space to re examine what it means to pastor and care for God's people. We don't know where to be seen, which challenges us in the places unseen and shot I What you shared is, ah, 100% correct because we went through and we problem solves all the things that we could see and fix. We need a spot to gather. We need a place for people to get a pipeline of information. But what it has revealed is the unseen, which is the source of our joy news source of our hope. The source that gives life because for the first time in a long time, we are living with a 24 7 There is no separation for so many of us from church and home. And so whatever artifice or a wall are buried, you get put in between. Those two is now gone, and whatever we're left feeling is the rial matter at hand. Forget making a better YouTube video. Take this season to figure out what it means to be faithful to the one who is greater in faith than you. What it means to be a parent, what it means to be a partner like this is that sees because in this global calamity, in this pandemic of worry and fear, if we're just trying to put all the pieces in place, we have missed what's really broken. We've known it beginning we are broken and our whole hope of pastoring in this is just a role model that broken. This lived out into faithfulness and forgiveness. And I think for so many of us, the exhaustion you're feeling one is okay. Feel exhausted. This is a tiring time. But what's not okay is to rest in something beyond just your own newfound sleep habit. We've gotta figure out a way to rest in a faithfulness, truthfulness that is a source beyond our own willpower or our own. No power. So what? What do we miss him away to talk? I
Chad: 16:17
think I think in the midst of all of this when we see our people that are afraid, um are natural, um are natural. Draw is often to look like the person who's not afraid, because we think that's what they need, right? And I think it's the last thing they need. Um, I think there are people need ministers who are willing to vocalized their own fear, Um, coupled with their own faith. Um, because if we try to look like somebody that doesn't look like them, then there's no model of what it looks like to be a person who is in the midst of fear and yet has faith and hope. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna hold my gosh, I'm about to share a story that is unbelievably tender to me. And so bear with me as I get through this. Um, my my wife and I walked through our first miscarriage many years back, and, dude, I didn't know what to do in that period of time as her husband like, I saw my wife hurting, and I just tried to knocked, and I pushed it down, and I felt like I had to be This has been that, like was strong and there and all of these kind of things. But in the midst of that, I did not grieve with my wife. And so when she was healed and she waas, um, further down that road internally, I was still grieving. But now I was alone. When we walked through our second miscarriage, we walked through it together. Yeah, I led by walking next to her and feeling what she was feeling emotionally through that process. And I think that for us to Minister, well, we have to be ministers that feel it and walk through it with our people and stop pretending like this is happening to someone else and that we're just there to run programs. Um, our work of ministers in this period of time. Yeah. We need to have great gatherings online, and we need to think through how we teach the word in creative new ways to people. That's applicability to them right now. But we have to be ministers who have our hands and our feet dirty right now willing to sit next to people who are walking through difficult times. Um, and to feel it, there's a reason why I think that we see Jesus weep at the death of Lazarus. Um, because he was there and he knew him and he loved him. And I think that there is that type of ministry heart that we all must embody in this time in this time and my hope in my prayer is it for you and I and our listeners on the tail end of this thing. My biggest worry is that we that we would go back to what we were before this thing and not take the opportunity to grow in this process and allow this challenge to become character. Andi. I think that for you and I and the tiredness that we feel, let's own it. Let's call it for what it is. And let's say that we're tired. Um, but not miss the opportunity to see the growth. That's also gonna happen. Um, I think I think we're gonna have a lot of great pastors when this thing's done better ones than when we started. Yeah. Um, and if that's what he wants for his church, who am I to disagree upside down? Yeah.