Ever bitten off more than you can chew?
Hey friends, Zach Workun and Chad Higgins back for another episode and another year of youth ministry podcasting.
This episode is a smorgasbord of tips and tales, starting with my own kitchen catastrophe that turned into a smoky sous vide saga. You'll hear how Chad's culinary mishap serves up a lesson in embracing the unexpected and learning from our missteps—not just in cooking but in our ministry efforts too.
Rolling up our sleeves, Chad and I tackle the hefty topic of expectations in youth ministry. We peel back the layers on why we plan events and who they're truly for. It's all about syncing our passions with the real needs of our audience. This episode isn't just about shrugging off failures; it's a roadmap for refining our perspective to enhance our work.
And finally, we're not just talking shop on what could be; we're want to push you on how student ministry adapts to the times. Join us as we question the norms, from worship times to the structure of our gatherings. We hope you'll be just as bold in reimagining how to connect and grow with your youth groups.
Ever bitten off more than you can chew?
Hey friends, Zach Workun and Chad Higgins back for another episode and another year of youth ministry podcasting.
This episode is a smorgasbord of tips and tales, starting with my own kitchen catastrophe that turned into a smoky sous vide saga. You'll hear how Chad's culinary mishap serves up a lesson in embracing the unexpected and learning from our missteps—not just in cooking but in our ministry efforts too.
Rolling up our sleeves, Chad and I tackle the hefty topic of expectations in youth ministry. We peel back the layers on why we plan events and who they're truly for. It's all about syncing our passions with the real needs of our audience. This episode isn't just about shrugging off failures; it's a roadmap for refining our perspective to enhance our work.
And finally, we're not just talking shop on what could be; we're want to push you on how student ministry adapts to the times. Join us as we question the norms, from worship times to the structure of our gatherings. We hope you'll be just as bold in reimagining how to connect and grow with your youth groups.
Hey, and we're back with another episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast. My name is Zach Workin', hanging out in the garage with my best friend, I'm Chad Higgins. Oh, buddy, Okay. So here's the deal. It's the new year and we're sorry.
Speaker 2:New year, new bee.
Speaker 1:You're going to talk about failure. Whoa, why you got a boo, why you got a BW down or no. Okay, sorry, but we want to talk about it because you had a lovely Christmas but apparently had a little bit of something. Didn't go quite so right, my man.
Speaker 2:Why you got to bring this out.
Speaker 1:Are you ready to talk about it?
Speaker 2:All right, so like all men in their late 30s okay.
Speaker 1:A four diverged in the road.
Speaker 2:I could either get into World War II or Smoking. Meats Yep, and you chose and you chose A World War II version of Smoking Meats.
Speaker 1:It was like just trench warfare. Yeah just smoke grenades and trenches.
Speaker 2:So I've got into, like, smoking Meats, cooking Meats. Yeah, I like to do different things.
Speaker 1:Outdoor kitchen.
Speaker 2:We can talk about the pellet grills, all you want.
Speaker 1:Sure, I'm not, and I have nothing against them. Are you a purist? Are you an offset? I have chosen. I have chosen the harder path as the Bible would teach me to do, the rockier, the charcoal briquette lane.
Speaker 2:I have gone the narrow path and I've even taken it to the next level. I don't even own a traditional smoker. Oh, you don't have the full offset. I use a Weber kettle for my smoking.
Speaker 1:Not even like the smoke mountain, the black mountain, because Weber makes a vertical cylindrical.
Speaker 2:that ain't you? No, I use the straight up, weber grill Like chat on the beach.
Speaker 1:Like chat on the beach Because here's the deal.
Speaker 2:I feel like if I want, we live in Oklahoma, if we want good barbecue, there are tons of choices, lots of options opportunities. The process is the journey for me, and so I set up my Weber kettle. So noble.
Speaker 1:yes, Young squire.
Speaker 2:Now what I'm about to say may go against that, but I decided I wanted to smoke a pork, but I wanted to do a little bit different. This is for just for fun or for New Year's. I was going to make it for New Year's Eve New Year, new Year, new Butte and the process on this was multi-steps. I was going three hours in my smoker, but the flavor on yes. But not really enough to fully cook it.
Speaker 1:Because I'm going a little bark get a little color mainly for the smoky.
Speaker 2:And then I'm going step two, which is the step I'd never done before. I'm going full pork shoulder into my sous vide.
Speaker 1:Okay, hold on Easy, frenchie.
Speaker 2:Before we start throwing words around.
Speaker 1:Before we start throwing words around, what is a sous vide and why are you taking something out of a beautiful grill and putting it into water? You're putting your meat into water, so don't like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, A sous vide is a French method of cooking. It is a vacuum seal. So you take your meat, you vacuum seal it and then you're going to put it in water. Pork hot tub.
Speaker 1:Pork hot tub. Pork hot tub. Okay Wow, new meat, new Year, new Pork, all right yeah.
Speaker 2:So you're putting pork hanging out in the hot tub.
Speaker 1:The muscle fibers get so tight. They're in that chamber and they get so smoky.
Speaker 2:They get so tight You've got to stay limber, so that's exactly what it is. You put it in this bath. You have a sous vide circulator that keeps your temperature. A bubble bath? Wait, you got a pork bubble bath.
Speaker 1:Hot tub bubble bath. All right, a little shower cap.
Speaker 2:Jets engaged, and so it was. It's going to sit there for 24 hours, but that's a long time. It is a long time.
Speaker 1:What did you get hungry before then?
Speaker 2:No, no, no.
Speaker 1:Wait, hold on, so you're not smoking and planning meat out for that morning, that night.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You're planning it out. So when you say New Year's pork, you started on December 30th.
Speaker 2:Well, I started even before then.
Speaker 1:So you have a. Is this a multi-day project?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:A multi-day project.
Speaker 2:Because there, yeah, there was the whole seasoning process into the smoker Three hours in there. So I mean I've got, I'm already five hours invested.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Before it goes into the 24 hours.
Speaker 1:The vat yeah.
Speaker 2:The vat Okay, and then it's going to set after that, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, all those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've done sous vide with smaller pieces of meat. I do it a lot with steak. It's the way that I like to cook my steak.
Speaker 1:Well, steak, are you showing me pork chop? I actually won't do pork chop any other way. You can pan, sear and whatever you want to to start or finish it, but to get pork chop tender, yes, like I actually have learned to love pork chop because of sous vide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So pork chop it does amazing with chicken Chicken's. Great too, yeah. But so I'm going into the sous vide with this pork shoulder. Yeah, the problem is, you know, with the sous vide it's a little bit like the pellet grill you just kind of set it and forget it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you don't, you're just minimal maintenance. Minimal maintenance, it is like that is kind of the benefit of utilizing the offset.
Speaker 2:But more maintenance than I thought, the thing that I did not consider you throw a breaker on the old hot tub Worse the thing that I did not consider In the middle of the night this thing had been going for so long. Yeah, Hot water does what Zach?
Speaker 1:Oh, it bubbles.
Speaker 2:Well, we're not at a boiling point, because this water is at a hundred and forty. Yeah, I think it was, I think. I said at like one thirty seven or something like that. So it's not boiling evaporated, but it starts to evaporate, oh, and little by little. What you don't see happening is that water coming down, yeah, to the point that my circulator. There's a minimum threshold.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A safety.
Speaker 1:a safety, if you will so one section, so that your whole house doesn't burn down would not evaporate, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once it hit that level, the sous vide circulator shut off. Yeah, I Wake up the next morning, kitty, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:It's second round of Christmas.
Speaker 2:I'm excited right cuz at this point. I have six hours left of my cook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're almost there almost there down hill slide.
Speaker 2:We're gonna. We're gonna. It's gonna be coming off at around noon. We're gonna be busting into that bad boy. It's gonna be fantastic. Everybody's gonna go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey dad you did it dad. Yeah, well, this is the great. We'll never have pork another way.
Speaker 2:Right. My wife and child will heave me upon their shoulders and carry me through the street.
Speaker 1:Chef for life. Kiss the cook.
Speaker 2:I walk out into my kitchen Robon Okay, boom, chest hairs, just we clean little sleepy eyes, groggy, just waiting for waiting for pork to be Looking over the edge at me. And what do I find? A Circulator shut off Pork in a vacuum sealed bag just sitting in tepid water and I didn't know a ziploc disaster. I didn't know how long it had been sitting there. I guess there's probably some way to actually do the math of like water evaporation figure.
Speaker 2:But I knew that the water was like lukewarm to touch and I was like man that's been sitting there for a while yeah and I was like that's it's ruined my meat and so I had to go into the 24 hours in, and just I mean Failure, nothing, no sampling no, no, nothing, because I was like, well, I'm gonna take the chance, eat this pork that's been just sitting in lukewarm water for hours rotted man.
Speaker 1:So I mean you're still a good person, you're still a good dad, a good friend I have. I want to know, did you have like a little like memorial for the meat? I mean I have something in your life that long I mean I've had pets, less than that Did you. Did you bury it or like, what'd you do with that pork?
Speaker 2:Well, we went out to the backyard and we sang one round of amazing grace. No, it just went straight into the trash.
Speaker 1:He's been there 24 hours. Yeah, and just let it go.
Speaker 2:It was so bad man, I was so mad.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, failure comes in a lot of shapes and sizes. That one happened to be a 14 pound pork. Yeah, I mean so. So have you lost the will to cook again?
Speaker 2:No, I'll. I'll get back on will you smoke again?
Speaker 1:Will you sous vide again?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've already sous vide since okay, back at it.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that's a weird segue for some, but you shared that story and it Plucked a heart string for some conversations that I've had recently With some youth ministry friends that are feeling tired. I didn't. I know it's a new year and for some folks that brings like a level of excitement, enthusiasm. The oldest passed away, the new calendar has just been shipped by Amazon and relived my house. You know new year, new you, new budget, whatever but there are some folks that I think are feeling a little bit down, and there are other folks and this is where I want to jump off.
Speaker 1:Today we're at the beginning of a new year.
Speaker 1:For a lot of folks, there's some kind of mid-year, mid-winter weekend or event coming up, and when I heard you share about the amount of hours in prep you put into this meal compared to some of your other meals, like there is this like Emotional, like response of like I had invested so much, my expectations got so high, and I just wonder, like if there's somebody else who's careening for that kind of direction, and so I wanted to talk about that before we get into the the full run of this year, if someone's coming back off a really rested Christmas and are really excited about a February.
Speaker 1:You know, wow, dean, now focus winter weekend. I don't want them to have to bury the pork in the backyard Because they didn't account for the evaporation. So Chad, like man, before we get too far to this year, not to oversell an optimistic start to a new thing, give us, give us some like starting points for like, maybe Couching or encouraging some folks as they kind of walk into, I don't know, hopefully not, I mean, as there are lessons that you would share, that you've learned, or thoughts or feelings you've had since, like it might be really with the pork.
Speaker 1:I mean like the pork, or the feelings of like putting that much time and energy into something and having it not work out like I just. There's somebody in our community of friends that is planning a big Dean now, right now, that is going to have Bad weather or a basketball game or an SAT. That's just gonna like Train wreck what they were planning and they're gonna feel really defeated because it was something that they either could or could not plan for.
Speaker 2:Well, but I think that I think some of that is the perspective of what's it for okay. Right, like I mean the, the pork things probably is bad analogy, but like, but, but maybe it's not like it. Like I was saying, if I want really good pork, like there are places to go get it, sure, and and I don't even know if that method was gonna turn out to be the best yeah, it was just what I saw online that I was like that's really interesting, yeah and I feel convicted.
Speaker 2:I've never tried it, yeah, and so for me, like and I'll be honest, I'll probably do it again, okay, but I'm gonna add water before I go to bed, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're setting alarm, yeah, but I and I think that that's some of it like I learned from it, yeah, like I I'm curious to know from you, as you've gotten older and you've tried things, what I think my feeling of failure looks a little different now than it did probably when I was in my early 20s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or what you would count as failure. Sure, I think that's one of the things that I would always want to sit with. And there's a couple of youth ministry folks that the last couple of weeks we spent more time together, kind of getting ready for this year, and so I'm thinking of them a little bit and they've got a big February weekend or a March trip planned and I know that for all of their efforts and energy they're kind of hoping that there is a response that meets or exceeds the investment of time and energy that they've put into it. But I don't know if that's always the way that we should mark what we're doing, unless that was the sole goal of what we were doing. And if that's the sole goal of what we were doing, that needs to affect the ways in which we're gonna plan and do.
Speaker 1:And we talked on the phone this morning like sermon series, ideas that are like far more enticing to students than others, like I think that's one of the things that we often kind of like conflab or confluently kind of push things together, of like I'm really interested in this and I'm hoping a lot of students show up, and those two things may not be the same thing right, like, let's be honest, like sometimes, like the thing that you're really interested, that's like a minor theological issue, is not gonna like mobilize students to show up on a Saturday studying, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:That doesn't need to be like the purpose of the thing or the whatever. And I think for so many of us, like, we just kind of push too much hopes, dreams or ideas into a thing without and this is what you shared understanding the journey of it, and I think that's one of the things as you're getting ready for whatever, the midwinter thing is understanding why we're even doing it, and I think that's not like why I wanna do it, but how it serves the students that I serve, and I think that's a really different question than like, well, I think our students need more discipleship. Okay, I agree, I can be talked into that, but what you're planning both may not serve that goal or your students where they're at.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think this is where man, some of this, is the cultural researcher that we have to be the anthropologist of our students to kind of meet them where they are, to kind of lead and serve them in the direction that we wanna go. This is the like as you are going, kind of stuff. And so if your February all out exciting weekend is to get as many students to show up as possible, then the barrier to entry should be as minimal as possible. If the weekend is discipleship and retreat from their phones, just know that, like, getting away for a weekend and not turning their phone on is not enticing to half of your students but to the half that it is. They may love and value that more than anything else that you plan.
Speaker 1:The case point I wanna share is from our own church, our kids ministry.
Speaker 1:We had a big blowout musical thing the kids did and they had a big Christmas party.
Speaker 1:But can I tell you the thing that my boys were most excited about Wearing pajamas to church on December 31st Cause they were like we get to wear whatever we want. They're like, we're gonna bring our stuff Like it's for them, like. And we had way more kids that day than I think that we even anticipated because it was just a small thing that meant a lot and that was such a cool thing to see our kids ministry team leaders cause it was like such a low investment for them. It was like get the word out, put the movie on and again, was it super deep? No, we watched the star, the Christian movie about the nativity stuff, Like it was not like this, like hard hitting, big, deep thing, but it hit a nerve. Or where a third grade kid is at that they get to wear their pajamas to church. And I think sometimes in student ministry we are imagining with the eyes of a 31 year old youth minister and not a 17 year old kid that's looking for meaningful social connection or encouragement or direction or clarity.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that that's why I think that's where a lot of the frustration can come from to the youth pastor is when you want all of your events to be all things to all people and to like, continue to like, exponentially grow. Like that's not feasible, right right, like you, it just can't. And I think that that's why it's really important and strategic to begin to map over a year or multiple years to where you can say, okay, this event, this is, has this purpose, the broader view.
Speaker 2:This event is like a growth engine for us and so you don't feel like it's pointless, because I know that I got that way in ministry. Like you start looking at just the fun events and you're like you can kind of become jaded, that you're like I wanna be preaching the gospel.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:All these kinds of things and you're like why are we doing this Nerf night, right? Well, the reality is and I think that's what happens for a lot of folks You'll do the Nerf night your first year there. That also has to have the like you teaching.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, 20. Minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah you know what I mean. Like, and we're gonna pray over the nerf guns or whatever.
Speaker 1:I like may these darts land. True, I get it. You've got an Ephesians 6 talk. You're ready to go armor of the Lord against all their nerfy nonsense, but Save it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe just have the nerf now. Yeah you know and realize that, like the point of this is not a bait and switch, yeah for the kid that's never walked through the door.
Speaker 1:It's to get every middle school boy in the tri-school area to show up, right, because middle school boys love Nerf knights, right, to the detriment that, like, there are some high school boys and girls and be like nah, but every eighth grade boys like Heck, yes, and that's again. That's so. We're even within like who we're trying to do the thing for it becomes far more Specific than just we're gonna get teenagers. They like they may just be For this group or this interest or whatever, and it may even be organized enough to know that, like man, I got a lot of basketball guys. They're gonna be out anyway, but I got all these middle school boys that are home and it's cold and gross outside. Let's do this or whatever.
Speaker 2:If you don't know who the events for, it's not for anyone.
Speaker 1:Right. What does our friends say? That if you, if everybody's invited, nobody's coming right. And so I think for so many of us I mean, yes, midweek Sunday worship gathering, we have different small groups for different students, but if you're planning something special, then the invite needs to feel special as well well, and I think that there's.
Speaker 2:I think, as we start to plan events and that would be my encouragement is for everything that you do to be able to identify the purpose, the meaning and what we're trying to do at a bigger level, like if the event is just a fun connection event, then push into that. Yeah, and because that that's always a frustrating thing for me, anytime an event doesn't have a clear purpose or meaning at the end, when somebody's like, well, how do you think it went? And I'm like I don't know, yeah.
Speaker 1:I can't, I can't feel right, but that's not a, that's not a. How I feel about how it went Right is not a metric for me, like I mean, hey me, how'd you feel at your poor? Well, obviously it didn't finish, but like it's. You can't just judge it based on how it felt. It has to be an in-game or target in mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but my even to go back to the poor like part of my thing, like I wanted the experience, yeah, and even though I didn't get to taste the poor, like I learned something for the next time.
Speaker 2:Yeah um, I, you know, and I got to experience what, what that whole thing was like, and you know, to me all these kind of things, I got things. I had to experience something that was very different, yeah, but I think for us, like, let's say, let's say, you have a fun event, we'll go back to the Nerf night. Okay, maybe your purpose for that Nerf night, though, is we want a Big group of students to hear the gospel message. Yeah, okay, then that's the goal. That's the goal, and then you, then you know what to evaluate. Yeah, right, one guy down the street may just go.
Speaker 2:Man, we're just trying to get students in the room. I don't feel like we have a good connection with our students. There's maybe even some grumbling that like student ministries and fun. Yeah, I think a lot of times, and I even saw a post on Facebook of this guy that was like you know, my students are complaining that there's not enough free time In our weekly stuff, and then he gave this like detailed outline of like the whole night with like 17 minutes of Fun, right, and he's like, well, what else am I supposed to do?
Speaker 2:You're like hold on. Like the post says, everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your budget tells you that. Scorecard tells me everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know what you're up to. Yeah, like the fact that you're trying to like Lay it out in such a way and think about it in such a way. Let's me know that you're trying to fit everything in, yeah, instead of creating these moments to where it can just be fun, or when you're like, hey, this is a strategic event for us To gather a crowd that they would hear the gospel, yeah, well, then you have something to evaluate on. One Did did we do a good job of communicating to gather a crowd? Did we? Did we market it well enough before? Did we do all the things in it to make it fun?
Speaker 1:some of our students bring the friends that we have some to bring, yeah but then you also get to evaluate.
Speaker 2:Did we present the gospel in a clear, concise way that? There we allowed follow-up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you're able to then go okay, that is the purpose of that. Yeah, instead of just we have small groups. All right, I hope they work yeah yeah, and and I think that sometimes we get in that place where we just do the events and then that's why we start to look back and we're like what's the purpose of all this? Because we haven't identified and given it purpose.
Speaker 1:Well, and one of the things that that I would share in response to that is that being able to go through again, first of the year, some of the purposes you may have known and lost, and I think this is a great time of year to go through and recover what those purposes were. Like man, what is camp about? Look, look, it's hard to you. Look at one event and you're like man, is it just enough to have this? No, it sits alongside the bigger picture, the broader view that you were sharing earlier of year over year.
Speaker 1:One of the things that's best about youth ministry, and most difficult, is that you keep getting older.
Speaker 1:But students man, a 14 year old is experiencing 14 year old things every year, and so being able to calibrate your ministry to be welcoming in fresh students to a similar experience that happens by being in middle school or high school, like the thrill of turning from middle school to high school or the fear of turning from middle school to high school, are both true things that are not real in your 31 year old, 28 year old life but are very real in the life of students the first breakup, the first girlfriend, boyfriend, crush, like all of those things that you're not experiencing that.
Speaker 1:They are to be calibrated to that. And then across the year. So, year over year, how am I doing ministry well for various ages? But then across the year, is this, you know, teaching thing that I wanna share working conjunction with the thing that we had planned? Is there space for play and connection? Is there opportunity for retreat and growth? Again, it's hard to have a loud and crazy weekend. That's also your retreat and growth weekend if those two things are values to your ministry and I think looking broader will also help. So, either recovering the purpose or identifying the purpose, but also helping you recover from when it feels like we did not make the mark.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's why I'm such a big proponent in like the longevity, and not just as a minister. I think there are events that have failed that we need to do again.
Speaker 1:Okay, we didn't do it long enough, didn't enough time.
Speaker 2:Well, and you didn't learn anything from it. Okay, like I think, sometimes we do an event we didn't have a purpose, it didn't feel good afterwards. So we're like we'll never do that again. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That late night's too much work, I'm out so, and some people are burmy a lot for this.
Speaker 2:Here we go, divide the room. It's why I think some people are either in or out on lock-ins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they felt really good about the last one or they felt really bad about the last one, we've decided all future ones based on the most recent one.
Speaker 2:Well, that's called recency bias. It's a little bit like your kids wanting to go to church with pajamas. Yeah, For some dude, you got a 12 year old kid that actually likes being around the church. I get to be there all night playing games Like that sounds pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:You three was cool, I could play Switch all night. I'm in, yeah, yeah, yeah, I could hang out with a friend. Yeah, go.
Speaker 2:And I know that some churches don't do it and do and all these kind of things.
Speaker 1:So this is it's a thousand reasons for and against.
Speaker 2:And this isn't a proponent for it. All I'm saying is, any event can be a great event if it has good purpose and it's done well, and I think, even if it's an all night thing Now I know that for us youth pastors like dude, I don't want to stay up that late Noted, and I think that that's part of the evaluation.
Speaker 1:Well, I think part of the reason is you talk about phase of life of students, phase of life of youth minister. Sure, when you're 26, 27, staying up late sounds a lot easier than when you're 44. But if the purpose was an extended hangout time and the youth space that you've created, cool, redress that motive and again, by identifying plans and purposes, we can adjust programs and I think that is this okay. So you gotta be worked up. This is the thing that I think youth ministry is in now as a chapter. So we've been in youth ministry for 20 plus years. We've talked about this at conferences for the last few years, coming out of COVID and doing youth ministry this year.
Speaker 1:There's not space to tweak anymore. We're not doing little adjustments. We're not starting at 6.45, I said a 6.30. We're asking is Wednesday the best time for us to gather and worship together as students? We're asking does it need to look like middle school and high school separate or together? Does it do small groups? Do we have to be on campus to have small groups? Do we need to have small groups that are only restricted to a certain size? Are small groups the best or the worst invite tool Like? These are big questions that we're asking now that I really think in 2011, 2015, 2017, we were just doing tweaks, right, we were like, oh, small group ratio one to five instead of one to eight.
Speaker 1:No, like these are the. You get to imagine what things are now and you get to discern and discover meaningful ways to connect, disciple and mentor students. And I think there is freedom in that, there's fear in that, because it's newness. It's for a lot of folks they're clamping down on what they used to do because it's like I don't know what we could do. But one of the things that I would want you listening, seeing and hearing this is to be free enough to say what is my student ministry? What do these teenagers need? What does this church need right now? And the playbook isn't the playbook that it used to be.
Speaker 2:Have you ever heard the story of the cat?
Speaker 1:No, the cat tied to the tree.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I think a lot of our ministries have gotten to this place because we've been doing things for a long time without really able to like, evaluate and ask like, why do we do such a thing? So many, many years ago, zach, there was a small country church.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, over like 200 years ago, and there was a really good pastor that was a pastor of these few people in this town and they met in this nice little church building with a nice tree out front. And you know, this is 200 years ago, so they didn't have AC at the time.
Speaker 1:So shade was everything.
Speaker 2:The shade was everything, but in the summer months it would get really really hot and there was this little old stray cat that would come into the church and the cat really didn't bother anybody, he'd walk around and man, when they would go to sing songs, so cat would just start, you know, meowing and it'd get really loud and it did kind of become a problem. But you know, this was a good pastor who thought about things and you know he didn't bless the animals, he didn't want to be mean to the cat.
Speaker 2:And so he found a little rope and he tied it around the cat's neck and he tied it to the tree out front.
Speaker 2:And you know, people would walk in and they saw the cat and they knew what had happened and they all laughed and they talked about the cat and it really made it Sunday morning really good. So the next Sunday morning it solved the problem. The pastor tied the little rope around the cat and tied it to the tree and year by year they would do this over and over again and everybody kind of just grew to love the pastor and grew to love the cat and all these kinds of things. And, you know, and then they would, you know, let the cat out at the end of the service and all these kinds of things. Well, eventually the cat got old and the cat died and it was really sad for the entire church. So they decided, hey, let's get our own cat again. And so they buy cat and the pastor started tying it to the tree and eventually that pastor got old and that pastor died and the next pastor comes and the church told him about the cat and the memories and all these kinds of things.
Speaker 2:So that pastor he started tying around the cat to the tree and eventually, the cat died and the pastor died, and the cat died and the pastor died and the congregation, far you know, surpassed it. And then eventually, many, many years later, a new pastor came on and he said why do we need to tie this cat to this tree? Over and over again, and the people said well, we're not completely sure, but if you don't tie a cat to the tree, we can't worship. And I think, like our traditions and our things are the exact same way, like they start with great intentions and purpose and everybody understands why we're doing it and we're all on the same page.
Speaker 2:But over and over again, when we don't evaluate, we don't ask questions and we just continue to do the same thing, it can feel very monotonous in the same way. But when we relook at something and we start to ask questions of like why do we do this and is it the best way, then we can start asking questions of like. And we really need an opportunity for a long-gated opportunity to have fellowship. And we know that we don't wanna stay up all night, but is there something else that we can do To do that? To do that? Is there a way to even do it within three hours or whatever, in a way that connects students with our leaders, and then we understand the reason that we would do something, and then we get to start to dream of the event or the thing that needs to happen to make it the best for that time and that place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because if you don't, little by little, the ways in which you felt good about the thing that you got to do might, just unnoticed, it first evaporate away and leave you stalled out and frustrated. And, friends, it's our hope that in the work that we do we wouldn't put so much effort on the busy that we would miss the joy and the opportunity of what it is to serve, do and be faithful.
Speaker 2:A snap Whoa.