Let's Go - Strengthen

In this Beyond Sunday episode, Dina, Pastor Zach, and Pastor Seth talk about why kids and students are a vital part of the church right now—not just someday in the future. From practical parenting and discipleship rhythms to creating welcoming spaces where young people can belong and grow, they explore how churches and families can build faith that lasts.

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Transcript

Welcome And Friendly Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings podcast, where we dive a little bit deeper into our message and see what we're taking beyond Sunday. My name is Dina Newsome, and I have two guests today that don't normally come here together. So this is a uh happenstance that they're here together, but I guarantee you will find them both entertaining. Wow. Is that a good adjective? Entertaining too much.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

No, at first it sounded like we could possibly be Bruce Wynne and Batman in the same or like Clark and Superman. Nobody saw us in the same room ever.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

But then after that, it was just I'm Zach Zender and I'm with Seth Flick. Yeah, and we don't normally come together because we fight a lot and they don't let us in the same room. Physical battles. Yeah. So luchidors, actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

They've been behaving well lately. So we decided to try it. We could go off the rails too. It could happen pretty fast.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah. And so I want to with Seth here, I want to uh apologize to him because Is this about the movie quote? Yeah, I I threw you under the bus months ago. Our loyal listeners would remember it's one of the highlights of the show. It is actually. Uh when I called you out for basically just doing the same gimmick every sermon that you just choose movies and TV shows. And um, and you've shown that you are bigger and broader and better than that. And so I just want to apologize and say uh you're a great preacher, great man. I love you, and uh excited to do this with you today.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Well, I love you too, but just so you know, all that's false. Not your um commentary, but like that is my frame of reference. It's all like the last time we talked in the pod movies. It was like GI Joe, Tina June Ninja Turtles. So as kind and loving as that was and restorative, uh, I feel good about it now.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

We're all about restoration here, and just being good with who you are, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

I'm a child of the 80s and part of the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

So I was like, more you're more night nineties. I'm a child of the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Again, just just to replay this back again. Uh, during worship this past weekend, somebody's ringtone went off during the service, and it was like the complete opening theme of Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

I love that song, but it had nothing to do with training up a child on the way that they'll go.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Yeah. So well, and they're still making new movies, though. That's that's transcending time.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah, well, you know, uh I'm waiting for someone to actually make a dinosaur. That's what I'm waiting for.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

That's already happened with a sheep.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Not that I know, but not a dinosaur.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I'm not impressed.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

And uh direwolves. That's the other, that's the newer one is direwolves have been cloned.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I don't know what the next step is. Woolly mammoth. That's the same company said their next step is a woolly mammoth.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Wow. Yes, that's like dinosaur-ish.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

You're getting there, Demon.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I slowly, slowly but surely.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I just want the whole cast of ice.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Okay, I'll see a brontoshower.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Like the whole cast of Ice Age, and we could get Ray Romano to like voice one of them and John Lugasamo to be the squirrel-y creature or whatever that thing is. Scrat. Scrat.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Same as scrat.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah, so does he have a sloth?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

No, oh no. Scrat's the one that's looking for the nut the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, John Lugazamo is is the John Lake did the sloth.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Did the sloth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

See, it's all about movies. We're going back to it again.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

It is. We just can't help ourselves. All right.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Let's help ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

It's also mine and sets one-on-ones every week. Yep. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

We digress. Okay, so this Sunday was a special holiday. It was Mother's Day. Oh. Uh, my question for you guys is what is your favorite mom memory from growing up? It can be like, oh, or it can be funny, or what's your favorite your mom memory? I thought you were gonna say your mom joke. Yo, mom joke. No, not your mama joke. Which is also 80s, 90s.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yes, it is. Yep. This is where I live most of the time. I I can say there's not one Mother's Day where my mother did not kindly receive some really bad piece of artwork from me and my my brother and my sisters. Uh, you know, whether it was with macaroni or watercolors or oh crud, I'm 15 and I forgot to get a card. So I made one hastily in my basement, my basement room. Uh, she was always kind and accepted it with love and care. And it's just really super thoughtful. So um, I can share a story to give Zach some time to think about his uh from this past Mother's Day that is gonna go down in our book of awesomeness. And that is one of my children went to go to the bathroom as they are um they do often during worship.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Uh they excuse themselves to go to the bathroom often. And they came back and whispered to each one of the boys, hey, there's Mother's Day cards in the bathroom. So every other boy during the message got up, grabbed a card. One of the boys, who I will not throw under the bus, grabbed one of the cards and didn't read it before he gave it. And it said, Happy Mother's Day, grandma. So he grabbed it from her real quick and then scratched out grand and was like, Happy Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

So Melinda got like five cards.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

She got a ton of cards, full of love.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

I had somebody actually at church, I was worshiping at 11 and and the more towards the back for whatever reason this time. And you know, it's 12 minutes into the service or whatever, and and someone, you know, they recognized me as pastor. They came over to me and said, Hey man, clutch in the back. Clutch. And I was like, I know it's pretty good, right? It's one of the best things we do here at King of Kings. And we do that for the ladies on Father's Day, too, I think, as well. So if you forget a card, and actually I'm to the point, we're to the point now where we we know this happens in the bathrooms at King of Kings on Mother's and Father's Day. And so it's good stewardship from our family. I like where this is to to not buy a card Sunday. You know, so anyway, that's uh insider tip. So he it is bad. I don't normally talk about what happens in the bathrooms. Yeah, neither do I on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Uh the sword does cut both ways. So on the one hand, it is very, very kind because there are people that have forgotten.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

It also cuts the other way, and that is when mom knows that there were cards there and still a card did not get delivered, you're like two times in the top house.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

It's like, yeah, bro, you had every chance. Yeah. And now unless they didn't go to the bathroom while they were here, which that's maybe it's just one. I think that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Well, when the whole flick family takes one, then you know, there may be very few left.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

That's very true.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

We try to stock it well.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

I did not encourage that. I didn't even know it happened until I got home for it.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

It's amazing. That's what it is. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

I love that each kid got up and got one. Uh, that's so fun. Yeah, I'm thinking my mom, she's was is the best. And you know, one of the things I've always loved about my mom is just the way she laughs. And it's super fun once we get my mom going. Um, we can just get her to keep going. And it ends up sounding kind of hysterical, and she like starts in her laughing. That's what we do, and she'll just and then and it's just super fun. So she's just a wonderful woman of God. This is true. That uh is just a lot of fun to be around and loves to laugh. And and so anyway, we've always loved getting my mom all riled up, and we can still do it today if we had to. And we can force it, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

You do have good parents. My kids call his parents grandzenders. Oh, nice. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Um, my favorite memory of my mom is um actually a nickname that she earned. Um, when my brothers were in high school, some of their friends were over and they were trying to sneak. Uh I don't remember exactly what they were trying to do, but they were sneaking around in the bushes outside of our my house, trying to get to my brother's window. And I don't remember if they were trying to scare him or what, but there were a couple friends out there. So my mom found out about this and went outside and like snuck through the bushes to scare them and literally scared the pants off of them. Like literally? No, well, no, not a certain phone.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

This is a story that I don't think we can finish on the pod. Pants on the ground. I want to know how the no pants thing goes with your mom's nickname.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

No, it was like she really they squeal like very scary. So they all lovingly started calling her Ninja Mom because she snuck around like a ninja. And this stuck with like all through college, all when they were adults. So many of them at her funeral came back and were telling stories of Ninja Mom. Well, Ninja Mom came into the dorm room and we didn't see her, and this happened, and Ninja Mom did this. So that's my favorite my mom story, Ninja Mom.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

That's great. I glad uh we went with the your mom jokes, but we've we like sanctified them. Your mom is great.

Strengthening Ministry By Valuing Kids

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yep. All right. So this week was week two of our Let's Go series, and Pastor Greg Griffith has taken us through this. Last week we talked about sustain, and this week it is about strengthening our ministries. So, what are you guys taking beyond Sunday from this week's message?

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah, for me, it's a reminder of how amazing kids are to Jesus and how amazing our young ones are. And just as much as he believed in and empowered and invited young people to be around him, um, how much more do I need to do that in my life? It just gave me that much more um courage and uh sort of confidence to keep moving in that direction in my life, no matter who I am and who anybody is. Like we we are here only for a little while. And so steward the life that we have. And one of the greatest things you can do to steward is what Jesus did, and he invested in kids and students, and it's so important too with the faith formative years that they have. And uh, so that that's what I'm taking beyond Sunday. Just another like great encouragement in that direction.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, I would say something very similar, and that is Jesus was very intentional about engaging children and youth. And so, like, even for those who are responsible for teaching now in his name, uh, he is very specific to say that this is a holy responsibility and a dire weight that you carry. So in Matthew 18, 6, he says that it would be better for you to have a millstone wrapped around your wrapped around your neck and be thrown into the sea than cause one of these of mine to sin. And he's talking about the children. And he's also talking about in the context of like actually seeing to it that uh children are developed in in the ways of faith. And so I just think that this is an incredible opportunity for us to see that this is a big responsibility, but it's also an amazing uh opportunity to like to bless them and see them grow. So it's not just something we want to do to not have a millstone tied around us, but it is something that we can do to create a stronger than a millstone type foundation that the next generation can stand on.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Yeah. I really liked one line that Greg used, and he said, We are thrilled to share the buttery fingerprints on the wall. And that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

There's a member of our staff that I thought about immediately. I was like, I don't know about that heart. Everything else is.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Well, there was a friend in my row that was a spouse of a staff member here at church that while he was saying that was in the middle of eating her bag of popcorn. Which I thought was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

We love cleaning the popcorn kernels off the floor too.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

No, I just think it's an imagery that, you know, uh we may complain about those things in the short term, but in the long term, that's just a sign of that we have young people here and how valuable that is.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah. So my first parish in Southern California was next to a very, very, very large parish. Like this guy is known throughout the country, is known throughout the world. And he is a good teacher. So I'm not like besmirching his name or anything like that. Be smirched. Well, no one should be smirched or be smirched, is what I should say. But when you go into the main worship center, there are signs plastered over every single door that says that no one under the age of 18 should be allowed into this during worship time because this will disrupt our broadcast. And I just think that that is so incredibly sad because when I when I see now the fastest growing churches and I see the reels on Instagram, these churches have messy opportunities for worship to come into play. And they people love seeing that. And that's not because they're intentionally messy or they're not trying to like bring the Lord the most excellent thing. It's there are times where these men stop the service so they can pray for somebody who's hurting. And I think that this generation in particular is looking for really authentic worship where those kinds of things happen. And I mean, that's the same kind of like that's what you see happen when the friends rip apart the ceiling and then lower their friend inside because he needs help. And I just love hearing squeaks and little, you know, like cries sometimes of kids because that means you know that the Lord's doing something really powerful in that space.

Children As Ministers Not Just Future

SPEAKER_00 13:33

I was in kids' ministry for a long time and a lot of the discussions on message boards or in, you know, blog groups, stuff like that was always like, What how do you refer a crying child to an appropriate space outside of the worship center, or how do you help them exit the room? And my answer was always you don't. The minute you say something to them about this isn't the place for you, then it becomes not the place for them, is how they feel. And no one should feel that way. I understand it can be a distraction, but I would take that distraction and the growth that it signifies with it any day. All right. And what ways do you think we can treat children as ministers in the church today and acknowledge their current contributions to the faith community rather than just seeing them as the future contributors?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yeah, and I think King of Kings does a really good job of that. You know, yes, what can we take Beyond Sunday? One of the things I took Beyond Sunday uh away as well is just kind of a healthy pride on King of Kings has been a church that does see kids as contributors, students as contributors. And so I'm looking, you know, at kids and seeing their excitement for uh worship. I'm I'm seeing, you know, they they they're generous, they they give to certain causes. Um kids also like it's kind of amazing, you know, we especially with discipleship stuff, uh, you know, there there might be a kid, a little kid that can say something to Uncle Bob that is about faith, that is a question that we want, like that we'd love to ask. And we just don't, I don't know, have the courage, or just it would be inappropriate, maybe even for someone like, but kids can just do that. I see kids as well, like especially in giving challenge and when it's around generosity, that that they don't have the concept of like giving 10%. And so they will give$20 out of their$42 life savings. You know, you know, it just makes sense. Yeah. And so like you just see these things and it just brings you back to like we really can learn a lot from from kids. And so my my thing is always how do we how do we set up those situations where where we encourage kids to do that, where we don't put obstacles in front of them, but we say, yeah, go. Like, what can we do to support? And that would, of course, you know, age appropriately. That that would that would go with anyone that's younger, any generation that's younger. It's like, how do we how do we hand stuff over to them, maybe even before we're comfortable, but because we believe in them and we want them if any anywhere they can try something and fail, or try something and succeed, like that. Let's do that at a young age in the church and around Christians where you know, where it's okay to fail. Amen. Um, we got this beautiful thing called grace that's a great safety net for us. And so, yeah, let's believe in it and trust him more. And I think Kingdom King's done a really good job of that.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, I would agree. Uh, being here that I don't, you know, I've only been here for uh less than a year now. So it feels like you've been here a lot longer than that. That sounds bad. Oh man, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Jeez, it's only been a year.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Uh smells funny. Only talks about old weird movies. Uh so, but some of my more formative experiences have been, you know, at other churches. And so, you know, like in terms of uh younger age, I just remember this one story of Riley going home after we had talked about baptism and the importance of connecting to Jesus' resurrection through the waters of baptism. And I just that's something I did with every single class every single year uh at our school. And he went home and he sat down and he like was holding court during dinner. And he was like, Today we learned about the doctrine of I didn't talk that way, but like today we learned about the doctrine of baptism. And he started to talk about what it was. And he lived with his mom and with his grandpa in their house. And so he asked his mom, he's like, Mom, are you baptized? And she said, Yes. And he would talk about how good it is to be baptized, which is great. And he was like, You're on God's team. Because I gave him Packers jerseys with big G for being on God's team. You like that as a Cleveland Browns fan?

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah, okay. Anyway, so he looks at his grandpa and he's like, Grandpa, are you baptized? And grandpa's like, Nope. And so Riley witnessed to Grandpa and, you know, just like told him about Jesus and peace and grace and hope and faith. And like Grandpa broke down because Grandpa had been like building up this wall the whole time. And here, this little kid is talking so clearly about peace and grace in Jesus that Grandpa and Riley were baptized on the same day together because that little guy was a missionary to his family. And I think you see that time and time and time and time again, that you're so young, you have the boldness of faith, and you haven't like been stripped down by the uncomfortable social situations that faith can bring, uh, where all of a sudden, like, you're you're too socially aware to actually be bold and courageous. Kids don't have that, they just don't care. And I love that about kids. Um, that makes them like some of the best witnesses. And you see that in the scriptures too. Like Timothy was very, very young. Can you imagine some rando stranger, like Zach and I just show up to somebody's house and be like, we'd like to take your son across the country and we might die. Please take him. And yet, like what Timothy invested in Ephesus, the ripples of his faithful, youthful service uh created some of the strongest churches in that area. So, like as other churches began falling to other faiths, the church in Ephesus had a like un like an unbroken strength for a thousand years uh because of what the Lord did through Timothy in Ephesus. And yeah, eventually, you know, like it succumbed because there was not great bold leadership that was there, and other faiths just kind of pressured it away. But I mean, just think of that was one uh youth, that was one young adult that was empowered uh with sharing the gospel, and that changed an entire city and it changed that whole Eurasian area for a thousand years. So we just have to find our Timothy's.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I think one of the greatest things we do is empower um kids to serve and to talk about their faith outside of these walls. We're constantly, I feel like, here um talking about inviting your friends. You know what I mean? Like inviting people in and have a very hopefully welcoming culture to that. Um, but I think empowering kids and students to serve is an amazing way to just let them understand their faith and what it means to be a servant. And then hopefully, as they develop their frontal lobe more, understand what that meant for Jesus to serve us, you know, and that whole idea. Um, I can remember my son was probably three or four. Um, and I woke him up and said, Hey, are you going to church with me today? And he said, Are we gonna talk about Jesus? And I said, Yeah, we'll probably talk about Jesus. And he goes, Well, you can take somebody else because I already know about him, and there's people that don't know about him.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

That's some not bad logic.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

He understood that, hey, I got this already. There's people that don't know this, and maybe you should grab one of them. Now, I don't know what random child I'm grabbing on the way to church to take with me.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Hey, you, Timothy, come with me. Uh hop in the car.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

But I just thought it was neat that he wrapped his head around that idea that, you know, we need to tell other people about Christ. Yeah. All right. This sermon touched on the importance of family and faith formation. How can parents actively participate in shaping their children's spiritual journeys and what resources might they need?

SPEAKER_01 21:23

All right. I got some, I got some.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

All right.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

All right.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

So lay it on us.

Faith Formation At Home That Sticks

SPEAKER_01 21:27

My current studies are focusing kind of on this exact area. And there was a pretty broad, well, it wasn't the most broad. So they had a sample of 500 youth that they followed over, I think it was like seven years or something like that. But the Fuller Youth Institute uh provided a very, very important uh just statistical database that lets us know what has been important for people walking away from the faith in their high school years and people sticking with the faith. And that's why there's a book that's kind of um summarized a lot of it called Sticky Faith. And they said the number one indicator of A child sticking with their faith was how the Holy Spirit worked through their parents. And so if the parents modeled authentic connection to Jesus, it was far more likely statistically that that child would stay with the faith into their adulthood. And interestingly enough, they even looked like they parsed it down to, well, what if it's mom? What if it's dad? And however you would like to interpret the data, I guess this is a good call for dads to really take this responsibility seriously. They were 25% more likely to stay with the faith if dad was also faithful to their calling. So if you really want to look at the stats and you want to like stack the deck in your favor as a family, there's a few things that could be done. Number one, mom and dad should be the number one models for church. You cannot farm this out like you probably can do for other things. Like if you stink at baseball, you get a baseball coach. If you're horrible at music, you get a teacher that's going to be able to help them understand whatever it is percussion or piano or whatever. You can do those things. And your child can be good at those, whatever those tasks are. You cannot do that with the faith. Now, the Holy Spirit can do anything. So any child can hear the word and then grow. But if you really want to do everything you can do to set up your child in a way that's healthy and helpful, uh, you model your faith uh in a way that uh is true and real. Number two, uh involve them in intergenerational ministry. So the more other adults that they see also walking authentically in their faith and giving them, that is the child, the student, giving them positions of authority and coaching them in them, uh drastically increased that uh child's ability to stay into the faith. Uh other things that were in there, and this is something that Zach's always done really well, and that's like incorporating real practical teaching in messages that students adhere to and they want to listen to and they resonate with, not just like cute stories, but actual depth in the scriptures that intersect with real problems in life. And so, like, just find a church that's going to support that. And you are doing a very good job of upholding Proverbs 22, 6. Strain up a child in the way they will go, and when they're will, they will not depart from it. It's not a formula. It's not a if you do these things, then your child will not depart from the faith. It's a if you want to stack the deck in their favor against their flesh and a sin-filled world, these are some really, really strong steps that actually have data to back them up.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Yeah. All those things are awesome. I think, you know, I read a study years ago that said from Barna 85% of parents know that they're the number one faith formation person in their child's life. And and if you read a couple paragraphs lower, it was like, but very few had any idea or any sort of plan. Ouch. So imagine this is most people that are listening. Imagine knowing something is so important, but knowing that you're failing at it and not sure what you should do. So that's where I think the church can come in and provide some really great coaching, some really great uh resources to help. One of the things that I teach regularly that I think is missing a lot is um just kind of understanding like what targets should we aim for? Like what does this look like to live like and for Jesus? How do we, how can we be a disciple? And so when you don't have language or targets you're shooting for, you end up in a really confusing, messy place. And that's collectively what I think has happened with the church and with Christians. And so that that's been my sort of contribution to this space or this question, I would say, is um, you know, we all know that discipleship is important again, but many of us aren't doing it. So we feel guilt and shame because we know we should, but we don't know how. And and there are a lot of people that believe but don't follow. And I think the contribution that I want to give to folks is like identify what's important, identify what targets you're shooting at, and go for that and talk about those things. And so that's what I do with my kids. Uh, we we have through red letter challenge identified the five targets of be, forgive, serve, give, and go. That it's not, I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's something. And my kids know those five targets and try to meet with them every month to talk about how they're doing with those. And sometimes when I say this or pastors say stuff like this, like listeners can get like rose-colored glasses and think, oh, the pastor's got it so perfect and figured out. And it's like, it's not. Um, I try to do it every month. I'm probably like six or seven out of 12. Um, it's incredibly awkward. I think my boys hate it when I ask them these questions. I don't like it either. It's like I'd rather do something else, but it's important. And so I want to just strip away sort of the rose-colored, because I can hear that sometimes when I hear other preachers talk about this is what I do and this is why, man, they're perfect. I was like, no, they're not. They're sinful. And so am I. So it's not perfect, but it's something. And so that's where I think the church can help is identify and give language, give targets, give our church has four values generosity, courageous, authentic, um, reliant, reliant. And so let's talk about those and let's let's put those into our kids' vocabulary, if that makes sense. And so I think I echo all the things that Seth said, but also let's get underneath that and actually have something we're shooting for, because we do that with the things that are important in life. When you're trying out for a sport, you've got metrics you go for. When you're in career, you've got metrics you're going for. When you're raising dollars or trying to get your own financial portfolio, like you've got things you shoot for. And so we've got to get to a place where in faith we have that and we're able to instill that to our kids. It's not perfect, but it's something.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

A curriculum that I used to work with um did a study and they showed that there's about 936 weeks between the time a child is born and the time they leave the home graduate from high school.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Seth, you and I have one week left with each of our oldest.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

So I have like a week and no one goes off to be our kid counselor for like the whole summer.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

936 weeks. And so their whole idea, um, they market this as like your marbles. And so raising a kid is losing your marbles. You are losing those marbles in many ways. Yes. But each week you're losing one of those marbles. Um, and so what are you doing this week? What's one thing for your marble for this week that you're doing? Is it just praying together before a meal? Is it attending church together? Is it serving together? Is it just asking your child, hey, what do you think about this scripture? Or what do you think about God? Or what do you think God thinks about this? You know what I mean? Just engaging in a conversation. Maybe it's serving together. Maybe it's something more in-depth, doing a devotion or a study or taking a mission trip. But what's one thing you can do each week that just moves that needle a little bit? Because if you can do 936 of those, you have set the foundation for your child. It's like 85% more likely that that they are going to carry that faith forward when those things are acted upon at home.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Um, can we give a hack to the parents right now? Yes. All right. So I learned a hack, a parenting hack from Kate Solberg on this podcast. So shout out to Kate. She's amazing. Kate. So she had said one of the ways that she gets like the information out of her kiddos, because sometimes if you just ask your kiddo a straight question, it's really hard for them to think like, what if I answer this question wrong? Whatever. She said, What I do is I say, Hey, what would your friends think about this? Yeah. Whatever the topic is. Oh, what are your friends' day like today? Oh, those, and by asking that question, you've given them the opportunity to give you a reflection in a way that they feel like, oh, yeah, I can give this and it's not gonna be a big deal. So I wonder if that's a way to kind of put that, like at the dinner table. Hey, what would your friends think about that's a marble? You know, whatever it would be. Uh, so that they grow.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Yeah, that's a marble.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Go Kate.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Just gotta keep losing your marbles.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Don't have many more to lose.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

All my marbles are gone.

Spaces That Help People Feel Home

SPEAKER_01 29:58

There's a 90s reference to a movie that comes to mind right away. It's from Hook. If you remember at the beginning of the movie, the guy loses his marbles.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

I take back my apology.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

You're welcome. I can generally draw just about anything back to an 80s or 90s movie.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

G.I.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Joe, Ninja Turtles, Hook. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

All right. So, what role do you think physical spaces? Because uh when we're talking about this let's go, part of the thing that we have been focusing on with some of the money through this campaign is updating some of our physical spaces in our buildings. So, what role do physical spaces play in supporting community and ministry? And how can churches balance that investment in facilities with other missions?

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah, it's such an important question. And I think that we don't think about it enough. So I've been reading a book lately called Palaces Are for People. And it's all about uh social infrastructure. And it's not something that's talked about a lot of places, but essentially it's kind of highlighting the uh the social infrastructure and communities that lead to that community's health. And when the social infrastructure is strong, um, they can withstand a lot more things happening in the community. There's an instance of this in Chicago in, I think it was the 90s. Um I don't know if there's a movie about the scene if it was. But it was happening in the 90s where it was just this unrealistic um heat wave that came through and actually caused more deaths than some of the major things that you and I would know about. And as they studied it, they they found the major difference with some communities perform very well in it and some didn't. And the it's the ones that that did not have the social infrastructure that um fared the worst. And the point he was making in the book, which I thought was a really fair point, is again just the the social spaces that we gather. And so in his world, churches are a part of this. Um, churches, you think libraries, you think bowling alleys, community centers, places like that. That's where that's where community happens. And so um to be able to have a space for kids and to be able to have a space for students where they can come and they can connect. Because that's what happens in those places is there, it's more than the walls, it's more than the books, it's a lot happens at those places, and it's it's a place where people connect. And so physical space is so important because it gives people an opportunity, gives our students and kids an opportunity to come and connect and and to share lives with one another. And that's really the thing that holds communities together is when they're connected to one another. And so, how does our space do that? Those are questions we're asking, and we're we're asking how how can we do that even better with our space? Cool, let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah, I I would just kind of double down on what you're saying. I think what sin does is it causes people to feel alienated and alone, and everyone then has this like deep yearning for home. And I I think this is like a psychological thing. I don't think this is just within the realm of theology, but I think everyone is looking for home. And people connect physical spaces with that like psychological reality. I'm looking for home. I desired this feeling. I don't know exactly what it is until I feel it and I see it, and then for a second I feel like I'm home. Yeah. And I think you know, it used to be back in the day that churches were like made out of stone. And there's something that can look impersonal about that, but there's also something very beautiful about how rooted that makes that structure be in a community because it it makes the people feel like no matter what's happening in the neighborhood around it, there's a home there. Like something could happen with my own house, but I know I can go to this tried and true building. And so I, you know, for us, we know that we will always have a home in Jesus and He's always welcoming us here. I mean, the whole story of the prodigal father is about a father welcoming his wayward son home. And I think when we do that, it's even spaces here. We're letting students know, we're letting kids know, we're letting young adults know that yes, there are a lot of things according to your flesh that are gonna pull you away from Jesus and you're gonna feel like a stranger and you're gonna feel like a foreigner. But here in this place, you have a home.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

So and I've heard that a lot from people when they walk into King of Kings, is man, this felt like home from the moment. And I want people to think about that because what they many of them don't realize that haven't had a connection or a history here is this the building we're in here at Millard Campus was a computer factory, Seagate making floppy disks, right? What's a floppy disk? You go back to the 90s. Hard drive.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

So it's making hard drives.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

But but but I've like, I'm sure when it was Seagate, not a single person walked into this space and said, This feels like home. This feels like work. Yeah. Or or a or a computer factory. Like, yeah, because that's what it is. And yet we have people walking into that same infrastructure, that same building, but because of the walls, the pictures, the people, the the colors, the feel like it people feel home. And so I think that's a really cool illustration of like it's less about the structure and more about what's on the inside, the people and the things. And we want to always be thinking about how how does for kids and students, how how does that make feel like home for that kid? How does that feel like home for that student? And some spaces, the way they're constructed make that happen a lot, a lot differently.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

It's about feeling safe and about feeling a sense of belonging. Like there's a book, I don't remember what book it is even now, that says there's three things you want to give a child, and it's a sense of identity, a sense of belonging, and a sense of purpose to raise them in a healthy atmosphere. And that sense of belonging is important. It can happen in any space. It doesn't have to be the nicest, newest, fanciest, fresh paint or whatever. But those things do enhance the ability to make people, you know, belong. And so they are considerations for them. But the number one thing that I hear when I'm at the new here spot where people come and I say, Well, how, you know, how did you hear about us? Well, we we've been watching online, or we've come a few times, or we heard from our friend, and that this is a safe place, the word safe, which is not what I would imagine is the first word I would use to describe as church, but I hear it more often than I ever anticipated in my role right now.

unknown 36:19

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

All right, can you share a personal experience or story about how youth ministry helped impact your life or someone you know? Kids or students or young adults.

Youth Ministry Stories That Shape Lives

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Yeah, I mean, but my life was forever impacted in youth ministry, and that's part of my story, is that happened here at King of Kings. We moved here when I was 10, and I didn't want to move to Omaha from Tennessee. I had a southern accent. And uh anyway, I was leaving some friends, and you you don't know much at 10 years old, but uh my world got radically changed. And when I look back, I just see the total provision of God in that. And then he gave me a church with a church that from the beginning, from the time I've been here at least, that's always invested in the next generation. And my life was changed in student ministry. It's when I fell in love with Jesus. I went on mission trips every single year. I went to worship every single week. Um, I I felt called to ministry um in between ninth and tenth grade. There was a really awesome youth group here that I really connected with. And so part of me being here at King of Kings the last five years uh genuinely is um this church has meant so much to me and invested in me when I was a student. And so I I really try to do my best to like what can I give back to the next generation and to the church that gave so much to me. How about you?

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Usually we go Dina's last.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

See, when Tyler's on, he always says, Dina, why don't you go next? Didn't expect it from you.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Um, so really all all three of my kids have grown up um in the ministry, and I each one of them has a different story that I could tell about it. But two of my kids grew up and became missionaries for part of their lives when they were old enough too. And I know it's because of things they did in their high school journey at church.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Did they go to the same place as you went to?

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Yeah, no. No, no, yeah. Well, they went where I worked at that time. When we were going through that, it was where I worked.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

A lot of your formative experience was with Hong Kong, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:30

So and same for them, because by the time I started going to Hong Kong, they were coming to and that's where they went to be missionaries, both of them at different times went and lived there.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

I love that. But see, that's another example of like a parent's example lived out in true authentic faith. You can see that actually happening in students too. Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to run.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Um, what I really liked about their growing up too is I think your kid tends to have circles of friends sometimes. They may have their sports friends, they may have their club friends or their neighborhood friends. My girls, when they were growing up, had their church friends that was a different group from they didn't go to school necessarily with all of their church friends, maybe with one or two, but I knew that their church friends were the ones that were going to be there for them if really hard stuff happened. When it was little stupid stuff, like a boy hurt their feelings or they got a bad grade, it was their school friends or their best friend. But when it was tough questions or hard things happening in life, it was their church friends that they were turning to. And I know that played a part in how their faith developed too, because it was people that they were surrounding themselves, their age that were asking the same questions. And then they had some trusted adults, like you talked about having trusted adults that they could go to and talk to about those things. Um, it's just mind-changing. For my son, the same thing. I mean, that's his experience growing up in the church and just being a part of my son. Started, we again we went to Hong Kong so many years. My son was five years old the first time that he came to Hong Kong. And I I love when we talk about kids being ministers too, because I literally watched that. Here we are in this um trip of where we've got a team of maybe 40 total, but there's like usually six to 10 at one school. And I'm staying at a school with a bunch of teenagers and my five or six-year-old son, and he is going and playing with these kids that speak very little English at that age, um, and just jumping right in. And pretty soon he's got this little group of kids that's kind of following him around or coming and inviting him to see that them and just um because they're totally enamored by him. But when they would talk to their teachers about understanding why he was here, it was to teach about Jesus. And so it wasn't necessarily his direct conversation with them that was teaching them, but it was his presence. And just in that way, he was ministering to them in a way that we couldn't if we were chasing him down and trying to tell him about Jesus. Um, and so sometimes I just think that sense of proximity does more than we can imagine.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Agreed. So for me, it was uh not so much growing up as I was younger. I mean, I always had good faithful witnesses, like grand and grandpa went to church, and we went to the same church as grandma and grandpa and my mom and dad. So, like we all went to church in the same place in Racine. Like all my uncles got married in the same church. I got married to Melinda in the same church later on. Um so it wasn't like church wasn't there, but it just wasn't as much a priority and it wasn't as engaging. But when I got to college, like I didn't even know there was contemporary Christian music. Like the churches we went to were the red and blue hymnals. So this is insider baseball, but like for those who don't know, the red hymnal had these in thousand times, and the blue hymnal was just slightly more updated. And that was it. So by the time I got to college, I all of a sudden had this opportunity where like our theology department, like uh, I call him Pastor Pavla, but he just recently passed away, like, really invested into a group of us. It was just neat to have somebody that was really just making sure that you were equipped to go out and talk to people about the faith. And that for me, that changed everything uh my time at Concordia. So, and also if you go to Concordia, this is just a shout-out for any students who are looking forward to it. Uh, I'm not gonna make this promise, but I will make this promise that you'll walk away with spouse. Uh because pretty much that's a deal, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Yeah, two for two.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Well done. That just does. There's that it just seems to happen. You go to a concordia, yeah. If and it like, you know, you increase your abilities, like statistically, if you are both in ministry or gonna be a teacher or a mission.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

That that happened too, too.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Just happens. So if you're looking for a spouse and nothing else has worked so far, just go and go to concordia.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

That should be their new marketing point. All of the Concordia taglines. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Lonely?

SPEAKER_00 42:48

The Concordia dating app, but it's just applying for admission.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

Swipe right for admission and a date.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

All right. How can we as a church invest more into our youth and children's ministries to strengthen their foundation and involvement in their faith journey?

SPEAKER_02 43:06

What do you think, Dina? Love that.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Um, well, I think we're working on it. I think that um there's a lot of talk right now about providing resources to families. And I know that that's something on the horizon that Mary Ann, our kids director here at Millard is working on, um, kind of setting up a resource center, putting some online resources. I think that's one of the biggest ways that we can invest into children's ministry is by ministering to their parents. Um, because, like you said before, uh, there's a lot of parents that know what the right thing to do is, but they don't know how to do it. And so they're intimidated by it. And so providing some safe, simple resources for that. Um, but then I think involvement is just continuing to be a place where they feel welcomed and seen and and belong.

Practical Ways To Invest And Serve

SPEAKER_01 43:56

I think one thing that um King of Kings does well. And can continue to get better at is equipping youth students with the abilities that they have to do very important roles and tasks here. I mean, we have a high schooler on our on our team right now who I am going to miss dearly because he is currently employed here. And he, like, when we have a need, you can ask this guy, and he's probably encountered this, you know, tech electronic need, and he can troubleshoot like like nobody. He is amazing. Uh, and I think this kind of piggybacks on something earlier that Zach said is that uh when it comes to leadership, I think oftentimes we're looking for people who are proven and polished, but giving leadership reins with appropriate like uh mentorship, even before we're comfortable with it, is probably gonna be the way we'll have to go. Uh just to make sure that young adults um make their way into the future leadership of the church because they're not just the future. If we don't give them a chance now, they're not gonna do it. So, one thing that I would love for all nine or 12 of our listeners to do.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

I think we're 13 now. This is what we figured out last week, maybe. Could be, could be 13.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

When you come to church uh on a Sunday, just look at the people who are behind the cameras, behind the boards, those who are on stage. You are actually going to see a predominantly younger skewing leadership group and go and tell them thank you for using their gifts and encourage them as much as you can because they need it and they will appreciate it like you would not believe. So that's what I would go for.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

Yeah, I can answer this question two different ways, like how we as a church can invest more from the the Capital C church side of things. Like I think King of Kings has done a great job of showing we invest in in kids. And so part of me is like, yeah, if you want to invest more in kids, like that's up to uh how well you participate and how well you give and how well you are a part of our ministry. Um, this is our DNA to invest in kids. So like I think Capital C church, we do invest. And so we can only invest though as much, obviously, as as the people give. And that would be the second part is um personally, what does it look like for each church is more than a building, right? The church is more than an organization. So now I'm answering it more as like, we are the church, you are the church. And so I think, yeah, how can you do that? Well, I think there's ways for more people to step up in serving in in kids and student ministries, um, more opportunities, like Seth said, to just say thank you to someone and uh and probably mentorship opportunities that maybe organically might pop up of uh we've we see that a lot in younger generations is that if they trust the person that's asking them, um they're very open to being mentored. And so there's a new uh that that's kind of new. And I think let's let's let's see what what we can do with that. Let's as older, more chronic chronologically superior people, um, let's let's invest and let's be courageous and and invite them in. And um, and I I I've been encouraged lately and been refreshed, my soul um being around younger leaders. That's giving me a lot of more um excitement, endurance, courage. And so I think people will see that for themselves too.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

And if you're looking to maybe just kind of dip your toes into what it looks like to serve in kids or students, you can uh join the vacation Bible school too.

SPEAKER_03 47:19

Nice plug.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Yeah, we would love to have you help us. Um it's great. You get to work with all different ages, and we have all different kinds of roles. Um, we can certainly find something for you. Check it out online or reading.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

There are no no villain opportunities left. No villain opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Yeah. You'll you'll know more about that when you volunteer.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

All right, as we wrap up today, what are your final takeaways from this message?

Final Takeaways And Sendoff

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Grateful for a God that loves kids, grateful that I'm his kid, and grateful for a church that believes in children and wants to raise up the next generation. Um, yeah, just I I I've genuinely that was probably my my key emotion uh after that sermon I told my Allison on the way home. I'm just grateful to be at a church that loves kids and students. That feels that feels important and meaningful.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

It feels transcendent. I think that's the other part of it too, is it doesn't feel just like a point in time where you might make a difference for a blip um because that feels kind of insignificant. But it feels like when you invest in younger students and younger kids and you actually make it a priority of a whole organization like a church, then it feels like you're doing something that's gonna last. And I think that's there's something purpose-filled about that. But it's also biblical. I mean, Jesus says in Mark 10 and other places, let the little children come to me, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. And he then goes on to talk about that the nature of their faith, not childish faith, like he wants us all to be consumers that cry when bad things happen. But like a faith that is like a child is one that's just open and trusting to the Lord. And so maybe it'd be okay if we spent more time with kids and we took some things modeled after them, like just the pure nature of their faith. Yes, they are corrupted by sin, so are we. But there's just something about the way that little kids engage with Jesus that I desire.

unknown 49:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

I think um I just really like the the focus on we're continuing to plant seeds. I mean, we want to grow uh something huge here and well, and on the campuses that we want to do and the cities that we want to touch. And um, Greg said it the first week. Now I'm gonna look at my notes to be sure I say it right. The plan has never been to fill a room, it's been to fill a city one life at a time. That was from last week. And uh, we do that by planting one seed at a time, and that's one kid at a time. Yeah, and that just matters so much.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

All right. Well, thank you for being here, guys. Next week we are gonna be in our last week of the let's go message series. Let's gone. We out. It's we out. No. Um, and so we'll take a look at that. And until then, let's keep it living our faith. Beyond Sunday.