Transcript
NextGen Matters: You know, when you hear the word welcome, what comes to your mind? Well, that's today's topic. You know, your ministry can have fantastic worship. Think about it, where students are given an opportunity to connect with their creator and their redeemer.
NextGen Matters: That was two weeks ago's conversation. Well, your ministry can also have insightful and practical teaching from the word of God, where students are given the chance to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
NextGen Matters: That was last episode. But, but if a student does not feel welcome in the ministry where they attend, I believe this all falls apart.
NextGen Matters: You know, something I've said for years, it goes like this. While Christlikeness is the goal, relationships are the glue. So as you listen to the conversation in today's podcast, I want you to be thinking through this.
NextGen Matters: Does your ministry truly have an authentic welcoming culture? Well, hey friend, welcome to the Next Gen Matters podcast, a show for ministry leaders seeking to move beyond overwhelm and move into leading with clarity, confidence, and consistency.
NextGen Matters: Today is very special for me. I had the privilege to bring in a dear friend of mine. Joining into this conversation, Justin Lucas is the student director at Mercy Hills Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. I was thinking today, I met Justin.
NextGen Matters: It was over, it was right about 20, 21 years ago now, when he was 18. And I saw him begin to grow up as a young man, but I have seen him the last number of years truly become a man of God.
Justin Lucas: Thank
NextGen Matters: When I think of a youth pastor that could take any one of these five areas we've been looking into, Worship the word today. Welcome, then witness and work.
NextGen Matters: Justin could crush any one of these five. He was so gracious to take this one. So Justin, I just want to say, i have been so delighted to see you become a pros pro in student ministry.
NextGen Matters: And it's been almost 20 years for you now. So you're about where I was when I became a prof, like for you.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. yeah
NextGen Matters: That's when I met him, was his freshman year at Liberty University. I was his teacher, right? So, Justin, welcome to the Next Gen Matters podcast, man.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Hey, thank you so much for having me. Let me, let me just say to everybody listening or watching today, I've been doing student ministry for, for just under 20 years. and doc has been just a mentor in my life the whole time.
Justin Lucas: And, Before I kind of go into the rest of it, i would love to say like there was a season I'd gone through a lot of things and a season in my life where multiple seasons where I was ready just kind of throw in the towel.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: And every time Doc's presence was there in my life, kind of holding the rope for me, just kind of helping me to not kind of go under.
NextGen Matters: You're welcome.
Justin Lucas: um But then i remember right I was right at the edge, I was ready to walk out, and I took the sustainable course. And I just wanna tell you, for those of you guys in that that that world, that meant everything to me, and I don't know I'd be where I'm at today without it. and So, Doc, i just wanna publicly say thank you for,
Justin Lucas: honestly, how you changed my life. And so I really do mean that.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: I don't say that lightly. Uh, but those who are kind of considering stepping out, maybe give it a shot, take sustainable walk through that and then make your decision.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: It works. Uh, but yeah, man, um I love talking about this, this subject of being like welcoming environments is important to me because I have a son who's going into the sixth grade and, uh, in my role now at mercy Hill, I get to set the strategy, the content, and I get to managing coach.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: my staff, my teams and my campuses. And so, man, um yeah, this is near and dear to me up my heart. so I'm looking forward to it.
NextGen Matters: Right. And let's let's set that up a little bit. You and you and Chris have been married how many years now?
Justin Lucas: Oh, gosh, we got married January of 2009. So whatever the math is there, that's 17 years.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, 17 years.
NextGen Matters: Yep. Yep.
Justin Lucas: That's wild, dude.
NextGen Matters: Yep. And you got two little dudes who aren't a little anymore.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. No, no. So my my oldest is in fifth grade. My youngest is in third grade.
NextGen Matters: right.
Justin Lucas: Both wild boys. So we live, we work in the Greensboro area, but we live in the country. We're a little bit of barn cats. But we do that so that my ADHD buck wild boys can just kind of take their shirts off and run out in the backyard.
Justin Lucas: We don't even care. Our neighbors are cows and horses for that reason.
NextGen Matters: Do the ATV.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, no, for real.
NextGen Matters: I love it. You know, it's cool because a number of years ago, ah i was speaking at a church and um an hour away in Roanoke, Virginia.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And this this precious lady walks up to me she goes, you know my son, Justin, Justin Lucas. And I just gave her a hug.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was my sweet mom.
NextGen Matters: And she hugged back. It was all good, right? And I got to know Justin's mom and dad.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: It was so cool for me to... to get to know them. And then those few weeks I was preaching there kind of in between lead pastors, right.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: To get to have this relationship with them. And and of course the big thing now is, you know, your mom and are Facebook friends, your dad and are Facebook friends.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: That's the importance.
Justin Lucas: you can tell on me if I ever do anything wrong. That's really what it is.
NextGen Matters: But yeah, Justin and Chris said, Oh my goodness. I go, let me make this really quick. I remember back, It was one of your first ministries.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: You came up to the university and I think it was college for a weekend.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And ah we spent an hour in and in my office and all three of us were sobbing like babies.
Justin Lucas: Yep.
Justin Lucas: Oh, yeah.
NextGen Matters: The hurt that you were going through and the fact you didn't quit.
Justin Lucas: Oh, yeah.
Justin Lucas: Hmm.
NextGen Matters: and then And then the next station, if you will, the next environment that God placed you the next church was not easy either. And yet you have consistently been just not in the game, but you've consistently grown through it and not given up and not quit.
NextGen Matters: and And I'm going to bring Justin in another podcast, probably the next few episodes, going down to his place there in North Carolina to just really walk through even some of that. But that's another conversation.
NextGen Matters: We're going to look into the idea here of welcome.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And when I say welcome, let's define the term.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: I'm not saying welcome, meaning what's your standard operating procedure, your SOP for how to like onboard a brand new student.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: That's important.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: To me, welcome is going way beyond just that. Does the new person feel like they belong? That's important. But i when I say welcome, I'm thinking at all times, whether it's your lead pastor's 10th grade daughter,
NextGen Matters: the person who's always there, your staff members, kids, you know, I mean, anybody who's there has that sense in their heart of um'm I belong, I'm wanted here and I'm valued here.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: There is that sense of we use the word community. That's what I'm talking about. So Justin, you have a number of questions for you.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: Let's let's rock and roll. What role does that sense of welcome, connection, community play within a life of a ministry and then even your ministry?
Justin Lucas: Yeah, let's go.
NextGen Matters: I mean, you've been number of churches.
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: So what role does welcome play in the life of a student ministry?
Justin Lucas: Well, me just say, like, if you're a listener, you probably fall in one of two categories. You're either the person that's highly relational or a bit more administratively minded. And so the administratively minded person usually jumps to great environments, the way teams are structured feels. And we're gonna talk about that a little bit. But really, i think the person who's relational is like, duh, this is a no brainer. I get it.
Justin Lucas: But I think the underlying side of it is that growth is built on the back of meaningful connections, not just great environments. So we have to say like, Hey, we have to be creating meaningful connections, but for the first time guest, like it's super, super important because we want them to come back.
Justin Lucas: We want to retain them, but you've got to also be consistently thinking about the retention of the kid who's bought in.
NextGen Matters: Right.
Justin Lucas: Like, are they continuing to build great friendships?
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: Are they truly known and loved by at least one leader? Like, And I'll tell you, like at Mercy Hill, we have big, big goals.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: Like we want to see a large number of baptisms. We want to see a large number of people sent out on mission. Like we're talking to the nations. We're talking, you know, church planting, like big things.
Justin Lucas: We want to see all this. But if you want to go from point A to point B, that meaningful connection, this welcome concept is huge for it. So let's just say somebody gets saved, they get baptized, but then they don't feel like they get connected.
Justin Lucas: They don't feel like they're building friendships. It's hard for them to want to get back. So if you if you have this missions pipeline, it really doesn't even work if you have it like ah an absence of a welcoming environment, of connections, of of community, however you want to word it.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: So you have to have you have to look at it and say, like, i have to be the person who spearheads this and leads in this. But I also have to set up other people to walk in this.
Justin Lucas: We want to have pathways to help people go from connected to the crowd to committed to the family. Like you can't you can't just assume it's going to happen. So be the person, but also have the process.
NextGen Matters: Yes and yes.
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: And I love that because we do need to have, in a sense, I'll use the word organization or operating procedures.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: We do have to have the word you use. I love it. Pathway.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: What have we created?
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: But when a new person walks in and I've said it like this in coaching I've done, what do you do when a new person, the teenagers dropped off by their mom or dad at the parking lot or at that front door to that room where you have your environment, your, your worship center, whatever your auditorium, whatever your youth room.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: Right.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: And by the time that parent then picks them back up that night and they say, Hey honey, how did it go? Are they going to say, i never want to go there again?
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: Or are they going to say, you know, they just they're just like shouting crazy stuff like, I just can't wait to come back next week.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, absolutely.
NextGen Matters: And Justin, how do we get that student, that newbie, to have that that experience with the like, dad, mom, I can't wait to go next week.
Justin Lucas: Absolutely.
Justin Lucas: Oh, man.
NextGen Matters: Walk me through that.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. right. So, all right. So if you're, kind of want to say, how do we build this culture? It's really what we're after.
NextGen Matters: Yeah, yeah.
Justin Lucas: Right. So but we want to build a culture of being welcome. You want to be known for that. So it's one thing to say, like, have you built a really great weekly program that people love to be at?
Justin Lucas: Like, that's kind of like, it's a part of it. Right. But at the other side of it is like, man, do when they actually show up, are they building the friendships? Are they being known by people in a way that says like, I love being there.
Justin Lucas: I've often said it like this in coaching environments. I've said, Hey, I can get students to go dig ditches in the middle of the summer. If I could promise them great community, like, and like the most undesirable like situation, if there's great community, don't go, they'll be a part of it.
NextGen Matters: Yeah, do it.
Justin Lucas: And so kind of going back to the people, Process thing, man, I love to kind of tackle people and to talk a little bit about process.
NextGen Matters: yeah do it
Justin Lucas: um So the first thing that we do is we say great leaders participate. They do not spectate. And that's just sort of a phrase that we use all the time. we say it until our leaders are absolutely sick of hearing it.
Justin Lucas: But the reality is, is that our staff have to set the tone. Like we are, we control the thermostat. So if I tell leaders, you have to participate, not just spectate, but I'm off to the side, leaning against a wall, only talking to leaders, only talking to parents, like only like doing those things, then it's, it's really hard for them to do that.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: We got a model to them what it looks like to get off of the bench and step into the game. I'll tell you from there, like you want to make sure that you have adequate amounts of volunteers so that you're not carrying the load by yourself.
Justin Lucas: like You need to replicate more people because if you're trying to carry, it doesn't matter if you have four kids or 400 kids. um like No matter what, like you can't be the only guy or the only girl leading in that way.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm. ah Agree.
Justin Lucas: Make sure you have teams. But then I would even say having team leaders in that to even help carry and shoulder the weight of replicating this culture. Um, but then man I'm going to tell you for a, from a people standpoint, I would even say like, sit down, drop.
Justin Lucas: What is a a character profile for a welcoming individual is huge.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: Here's the seven things that we say. We have seven in our character profile.
NextGen Matters: Okay.
Justin Lucas: We say this person needs to be high EQ. Um, If you're going welcoming individual, high EQ is important because you need to be able to read a room, help students understand what's going on, help them.
NextGen Matters: Yep.
Justin Lucas: na their Students by nature are low EQ creatures. We can't match that. We have to be above that so that we can help them navigate life.
NextGen Matters: i Dude, I see that every every Wednesday night with high schoolers, let alone middle school.
Justin Lucas: Dude, it's wild. Yeah. So we... Yeah. So high EQ, we have to be approachable.
NextGen Matters: Yeah. it
Justin Lucas: Um, so, I mean, it's like, if you have that faced when face that, when you're emotionless, you just look angry at the world, maybe, um, force yourself to smile all night, like be a self-aware, be approachable. um Be positive.
Justin Lucas: So there's going lot of situations in student ministry where things go wrong, go awry. Like you have to be a positive person. You can't you can't let those things kind of overwhelm you or overstress you.
NextGen Matters: Right.
Justin Lucas: And if they if you're the type of person where they do, you need to actually set up a team leader who can handle all the logistics of the night so that you don't get overwhelmed by it. Because everybody's looking at the leader to have that kind of positive outlook on stuff. And they're looking to our volunteers. So if you have somebody, if you can't handle the logistics plus the welcoming thing, give the logistics away.
Justin Lucas: The second or the fourth thing is being proactive. And what I mean by that is like, there will always be kids who are disconnected, whether it's a first time guest who showed up without any friends or it's a student who comes every night, but they're introverted or maybe they're neurodivergent or maybe they have all these other things.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: The proactive leader is operating in a high level of intentionality that says like, I'm going to look to the corner.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: I'm going to see the kid and I'm going to go after them. Like, That's ah the proactive leader says, I'm not going to wait for a need to arise. I will anticipate the needs of a welcoming environment and I'm going to make it happen.
NextGen Matters: Good for you.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: If I can jump in on that, I saw it again last night, we have a ninth grader and I work with 11th and 12th grade guys.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: So that's my group.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Right. But, you know, we have the first, you know, 15, 20 minutes, nine square, the whole thing, you know, right.
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: Just connection time. And he's always by himself. He sits by himself and he's, he's smaller. He's very thin. in other words, he looks like he's probably seventh grade, but he's ninth grade at one of our local public high schools here, Jefferson forest high school.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. yeah
NextGen Matters: And, I pull for him. So I walked over to him the other, you know, last night and we're we're recording this on a Thursday.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: So Wednesday night, just again, ah you know, I'm gosh, probably 45 years old.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: of the
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: I don't care. i don't care.
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: And, and I, you know, Hey, how, how was the week so far? You know, just, just that simple conversation. i am not his leader. i don't care. I'm in the room and not pushing him, but just,
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: Yeah, so I love what you're saying.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: All of us, all hands on deck.
Justin Lucas: Absolutely. You have to look at the.
NextGen Matters: Whether it's me as the volunteer or you as the student lead, you know, all hands on deck.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah. You have to look at the whole thing, not just your little pocket. So we have a lot of group leaders who be like this guy has seventh grade guys and or these these ladies have 10th grade girls or whatever.
Justin Lucas: A lot of times they can get so isolated and so consumed with their little pocket that they'll miss people who aren't in their little grade and like group level.
NextGen Matters: Exactly.
Justin Lucas: so you have the proactive leader says, hey, it doesn't matter. like I care about the whole. The intentional leader says, I'm going to go do the the thing, like whatever it is.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: I'm going to live with intentionality. Um, it's the intentional group leader in that setting is saying like, Hey, uh, little Debbie cakes might make a more welcoming environment. I'm just going to spend $3 at the dollar general and get a few snacks.
Justin Lucas: Um, now the last two I think are really important on our list. Um, cause number six is inquisitive and I will tell you one of the biggest, um, or one of the biggest setbacks I think some leaders have is that they want to tell their own story.
Justin Lucas: way more than they want to ask questions. And for a student to feel welcome, they have to feel seen and valued. And so we have to be willing to kind of like table our own story in order to learn theirs.
Justin Lucas: Like there will be a moment when it's appropriate to to tell about whatever story you've got, but we have to ask good questions and get to know students and learn about who they are um and care about that more than saying whatever we want to say. ah And there'll be, um like I said, there'll be moments for that, but that's just kind of reality. You know, you want to make a kid feel seen, ask him about all the things they have going on and take a genuine interest in it.
Justin Lucas: The last one is energetic. Now that looks different for everybody. When I say energetic, people genuinely think, oh, the like peppy college kid who's bouncing around all over the place. The reality is, the reality is, is I turned 40 this summer and I love summer camp, but I'm grumpy in the mornings.
NextGen Matters: tigger
Justin Lucas: That energy looks a lot different, right? So energetic doesn't necessarily mean that. It just means like, I am, I'm not going to be apathetic or lethargic. I'm going to actually step into it with, with joy.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: And like, I'm going to love doing what I'm doing. Um, ah For us, that's the character profile of like a welcoming person.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm. Right.
Justin Lucas: And we apply that a lot to our group leaders and to um our people who are much more student facing. But you got to kind of even look at it for your own ministry and say, who are those people?
Justin Lucas: Who do I need to put through that character profile? If it's like a ah production coordinator, man, you probably don't need to worry about that. But if they're in the parking lot greeting parents as they're dropping kids off, they absolutely need that.
NextGen Matters: Right, right.
Justin Lucas: um But if if they're a group leader, they need it. Honestly, we have security teams. We put our security teams through this kind of conversation because they need to have high EQ when they're ah when they're dealing with other issues.
NextGen Matters: Good.
Justin Lucas: So, yeah.
NextGen Matters: I agree with that. I've seen the opposite.
Justin Lucas: Oh, yeah. Like we want, we want those guys. They're hypervigilant. Like they're, they're, they're taking their TRT shots and jacked out of their mind, but we need, we need them to, we want them to be physically intimidating, not relationally intimidating.
NextGen Matters: Right.
Justin Lucas: that Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Right, right. Jesus loves you and so do I.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: um Justin, what you have created, i love that. By the way, those seven, we're going to put in the show notes as well because I want everyone to to walk through these in your own mind.
Justin Lucas: yeah Yeah, absolutely.
NextGen Matters: Also, something that I've heard before and I've really integrated into um my own life, and this was back in my early 30s, so way back in the day. um
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah. Yeah,
NextGen Matters: for me at least, was the idea, this one speaker said the idea of being friendly over function. And I began to really process that and I've actually tweaked it a little bit where I say friendly with function because I want everyone to do their function well.
Justin Lucas: yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And I think the classic the classic cases where you worked in college, you were running Chick-fil-A because you were delivering it to us at one of our big outreach events at Liberty called Scare Bear.
Justin Lucas: and
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: I remember, the hey doc, I got some extras.
Justin Lucas: Oh man.
NextGen Matters: Thanks, buddy.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, for real.
NextGen Matters: ah What I'm saying is Chick-fil-A has done that.
Justin Lucas: For real. go
NextGen Matters: That is their reputation because it's in their DNA.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: It's friendly with function, high functionality.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: They do their job well, but they also have that EQ.
Justin Lucas: Right.
NextGen Matters: And if you can't pull that off, well, then I won't say any other fast foods, but you can work down that street you know on that other one.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. right yeah
NextGen Matters: So I say even the person you know ah delivering the the the food or or providing any kind of service, they still have to have that face that says, we value you.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Oh yeah, absolutely.
NextGen Matters: you really created that well within your team.
Justin Lucas: who
NextGen Matters: But then next question to go a little deeper level is, so what can you do to create the culture of welcome within your students?
Justin Lucas: Yeah. so here's what I would kind of like, you I think you have to back up a little bit even with that.
NextGen Matters: Sure. Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: Cause like it's people and process. So if you have all of the incredible people, but they don't have the process to make those things work, like it just doesn't really work well. Like you can have incredible people, but if they don't know what they're doing, it doesn't matter. um So I won't go into all the detail. You know, if any of you guys want to like reach out to me, I can tell you how we do everything. But the reality is, is what we say is a little bit different. We, instead of people saying, me back up. Most people will say, we we chart this from entry to exit.
Justin Lucas: right from the moment they walk into the parking lot to the moment they leave like if that's not bad but I think it's inadequate i think it's a little incomplete what we say is from entry to re-entry what we're doing is we're trying to say how do we get people to go you know basically to come back and to just to keep coming back and so you know clear signage in parking lot high energy we when we get to the check-in tent you know Our people are trained to be welcoming and awesome.
NextGen Matters: Okay.
Justin Lucas: We have a separate area for first-time guests. And we have students.
NextGen Matters: Good.
Justin Lucas: So our student leadership team, one of those things that's kind of like tied to that is student leaders are taking rotations and they're at that tent. They're helping students feel comfortable when they come in They're being inquisitive.
NextGen Matters: I love that.
Justin Lucas: They're taking down information. um Then during the service, those first-time guests are getting, like our check-in team, adults, are handwriting cards for them. They get mailed out next day.
Justin Lucas: But then at the end of the night, our student leaders are, excuse me, our student leaders are actually sending out text messages to the first time guests.
NextGen Matters: Love that too.
Justin Lucas: So for us, we look at it and we say, you know, ah we can like create all of this, but if it's not students engaging students, we have far less retention.
NextGen Matters: I
Justin Lucas: And so we try to incorporate our student leaders in the middle of it.
NextGen Matters: absolutely agree with that. I absolutely agree with that.
Justin Lucas: And so our, Yeah, I mean, you you've got to. I mean, one of the things that we see, you know, students, adolescents, their brains are hardwired for rebellion because they are looking for autonomy. What's mine to own?
Justin Lucas: And so if we can get students to own the ministry, it'll just be far more effective.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: And so we include our student leaders on our greeter teams and our parking teams and our setup teams. We put our student leaders like in the follow up teams like they're they're there. And we but we have people developing them for all of those things in that character profile.
Justin Lucas: Same like, hey this is the kind of person you need to be when you get there. Be intentional. Follow up. Find the kid who's not engaged. Like just a whole whole thing.
NextGen Matters: and
NextGen Matters: So you can accomplish, I'm being a little sarcastic when I say this. So a student ministry leader, youth pastor, whatever, you know, can can accomplish that just by doing a couple of talks once, a twice a year, right?
Justin Lucas: yeah us no Yeah, absolutely.
NextGen Matters: goes little deeper than that, doesn't it?
Justin Lucas: Absolutely. No. Yeah. So for for us, we have a student leadership team. We have a middle school team and we have a high school team.
Justin Lucas: And ah they run through the course of the entire school year. And they're getting cultural leadership and evangelism development throughout all of that.
NextGen Matters: Wow.
Justin Lucas: But then we have layers that go deeper. this is a totally different conversation on leadership, but we have layers that go even deeper than that with our disciple making intensives, with launching movements in schools, with doing what we call summer project, which is an eight week Synth initiative.
Justin Lucas: But in all of those things, we talk about character. We talk about what it looks like to to love people well, to care for people well. But we also in our talks, like, we put together the intentional next steps thing. So like every talk has a very actionable um application point, but then the groups and then their, in their conversations and then their dynamics are really helping students like walk these things out. So we are regularly talking about what it looks like to be an invite culture where we're constantly inviting people in, where we're loving and caring for each other as brothers and sisters and where we're,
Justin Lucas: We're like engaging a lost world. And so you don't, you don't build a welcoming culture through a couple of talks. It has to be a core value. Like for us, we have four core values as a whole church and community is one of them.
Justin Lucas: So it's pervasive and all that we do, it permeates everything.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: And that's just how it has to be. So if you want a welcoming environment, it has to be the thing or one of the things.
NextGen Matters: Okay, so let's go from, we we have helped a new slash newer student feel welcomed.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: and But what about the student who's been in the church all these years, your own boys, for example?
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: You know, I think sometimes they can be left out. I mentioned to you off the air that as a pastor's son myself, no one ever looked at me and said, hey, Rich, thank you for being here tonight.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: It was assumed I would be there because that was, air quotes, my job as a pastor's kid to be in church.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And if for some reason I wasn't, which I never was allowed to skip, but if I wasn't, um anyway, you know I'm saying.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: So I think sometimes we can overemphasize
Justin Lucas: Yeah, absolutely.
NextGen Matters: The internal, just us, that's a group mentality. And you know my heart and passion that we want to be a ministry, not a group. Or then we maybe swing the pendulum or take the the steering wheel to the car, the other extreme to go.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: We're so focused on the new person that we seem to forget. Has someone really given an authentic, caring
NextGen Matters: Shout out connection piece to those who are on the inside.
Justin Lucas: Hmm.
NextGen Matters: So talk us through that.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: How do we make sure that everybody, no matter if it're on the inside or they're just newer, feels like i was valued, loved, and cared for tonight?
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. So we talk a lot about At Mercy Hill, the language we use is from connected to the crowd to committed to the family. And we do that through what we call the Acts 2 flywheel, which is gather, group, give, go.
Justin Lucas: And we hope that people get into that and just keep keep compounding in their discipleship. So we get people into the gathering.
NextGen Matters: Yes.
Justin Lucas: We want to help them stick by building relationships. But one of the things that we do is we get them plugged into groups.
NextGen Matters: yes
Justin Lucas: And so the yeah I'm a firm believer that it's really, really difficult to have a welcoming environment without a solid groups ministry. So you, because the reality is, it's like for us, we can have at our back to school event, we had 500 students there. Like it's easy to kind of just ease into the background, but I've also had ministries like,
Justin Lucas: I've had everything from three students in the ministry to like 500, you know. And so like for for those in here is like, oh, he's just the megachurch guy. It's like, well, I've also done this with like small environments.
NextGen Matters: Yes, you have.
Justin Lucas: And so and so the the reality is, is like this is a a truth that transcends church size.
NextGen Matters: I know you have.
Justin Lucas: If you do not have opportunities for church,
NextGen Matters: Good.
Justin Lucas: those students, for every student to walk in and build friendships, you will have a hard time getting people to stick. So they have to be building friendships and you do that through community and you do that through closing the circle.
Justin Lucas: Now, a while back, Fuller Institute kind of came out with this research that said like we used to do the one to five, like one liter to every five adults, but they're saying, Hey, if we can flip that and we have five gospel centered adults for every one kid,
NextGen Matters: gentlemen
NextGen Matters: Good.
Justin Lucas: like they're more likely to stick. And so we, we push students to say, be a part of a group. So like they're in the gathering already, right? Uh, be a part of a community group, uh, like, like get involved, be known and loved by those leaders, be known and loved by peers in that group.
Justin Lucas: Then we ask them to join a serve team. We say, Hey, like, we want you to really stick here. And all of those leaders, all of those team members that are there, those adults are being trained to build welcoming environments for the people on their teams.
NextGen Matters: Hmm.
Justin Lucas: And so, we We're saying, hey, the more you can get involved in the family, the more welcomed you're going to feel. But kind of a side note on that, and we still live in a sin-fallen world. And so our I'll put it like this. Our 11th grade had this massive cultural issue about a month ago just kind of blow up.
Justin Lucas: And, um man, we saw it in their attendance, they were just dropping off. You see like 40 11th graders, and then one week it's like 20, then 12. And it's like, what is going on?
Justin Lucas: Well, there was a culture issue and the way that we may had to make them feel welcomed was to kind of step into their world and say, how do we shepherd and navigate conflict amongst these people?
Justin Lucas: And as we did that, you start to see restoration and reconciliation. And and so welcoming is a a huge thing. Um, and, know you know, we naturally gravitate towards the first time guests, like you're saying, toward making the the kids, you know retain and keep coming back.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: But, It's an ongoing shepherding issue.
NextGen Matters: Yeah. What you just shared, interesting enough, excuse me, with the Fuller Institute, the research that was done on that.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: I'm a simple guy, but I saw that same need back and the on the West Coast when I was serving out there.
Justin Lucas: Oh, yeah.
NextGen Matters: We actually had five, let me say, like concentric circles.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: of of touch points. um I wanted ideally students to be in, whether they knew it or not, they were already in a group.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: i just If they were on the roster they attended, in other words, the same grade, same gender for contact purposes.
Justin Lucas: Yeah,
NextGen Matters: um I'll make it really quick, but on breakouts on Sunday morning after my my lesson, my sermon, my talk, whatever you want to call it, that quick touch point on reviewing the lesson and some application, that was same grade, same gender.
NextGen Matters: But Justin, you probably remember this in classes with me back in the day, but but then on Wednesday nights, we pivoted to going to home groups based on byke based on high school campuses.
Justin Lucas: yeah. yeah
NextGen Matters: And then even within that, that then took the the big high school ministry down to smaller gatherings, But what they had and what they had in common was the same high school slash neighborhood because any Christian school slash homeschool then was in that group.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: ah But even within that, after the conversational style of lesson, they also had breakout groups.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And those were intentionally mixed, same gender, but every 12th grade was in ninth grade, 11th grade, 10th grade.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: So what we were creating was on Sunday morning, you you connected, let's take take a ninth grader, for example, a boy, a ninth grade young man was connecting with other ninth graders at different schools.
Justin Lucas: and
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: But if he went to Wednesday night, he was now intentionally connecting with those who are 11th and 12th grade. The goal was, you know, to get them to rise up as mature follow of Jesus as a ninth or 10th grader.
NextGen Matters: If my love than 12th graders were rising up in their own walks with Jesus.
Justin Lucas: Right, right, right.
NextGen Matters: What was also happening there was they had more, more adult connections because they had a host family.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: um Then we also wanted them in discipleship groups. and accountability groups and that was four and five three and four then the fifth one was a serving team and just exactly what you created and i was just realizing again in my simple mindset was the more adults they connect with the greater the chance they have to stay in our church and they did and the greater connection they have with their peers
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And that really was one of the best ways to break down clicks and in small group. You know what I'm saying? by By small group is that the click thing.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Because now they're they're being integrated into more than just one social gathering.
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: so I love how you put that together. um And the one thing I said, it's corny, okay? It's corny, y'all. You can go ahead chuckle if you want.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: But on Thursdays, I simply called it Thank You Thursdays. I asked every one of our leaders on the Wednesday night to touch base with everyone who attended in their in their small group to say thank you.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And it honestly, and and just to say thank you for coming.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And I said that no matter if it was our lead pastors, kids who were in the high school ministry, matter if it was them,
Justin Lucas: yeah yeah
NextGen Matters: my own son to others. I don't care who they are. Everyone gets a authentic, genuine, thank you for coming. And then I wanted the student leaders to do the same thing as they saw him at school.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Cause again, they were in the same campus group. They probably see each other in school the next day. I just felt like, man, if I know I belong, I'm, I'm going to be here.
NextGen Matters: Think of the adults that keep bouncing from our churches.
Justin Lucas: Right, right, right.
NextGen Matters: Lynchburg has 400 churches in the greater LYH.
Justin Lucas: Hmm.
NextGen Matters: And constantly we are seeing people. lie I tried that church while I did that church for while. I'm into this church now. And I'm sure you see it in Greensboro.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, all over, man.
NextGen Matters: um And it usually comes down to, i just didn't feel connected.
Justin Lucas: We see it a lot.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: This is not an adolescent need, although adolescents scream for connection.
Justin Lucas: Right.
NextGen Matters: It's also an adult need.
Justin Lucas: We're all looking for belonging, right? I'm going to, by the way, I'm going steal the thank you Thursday thing because I think it's brilliant.
NextGen Matters: Absolutely.
Justin Lucas: um
NextGen Matters: It's corny, but you could have it.
Justin Lucas: but but But here's why I think it's brilliant. You know, um everyone is asking the question like about autonomy, especially students.
NextGen Matters: Right.
Justin Lucas: Like they want to know what's theirs to own. and So when if a leader writes out and says thank you, it actually celebrates that autonomy and says, hey, you made a choice to be here. I'm so glad you did.
Justin Lucas: Like, I, I think it's brilliant. So I'm going to steal it. I'm going to be setting up a meeting with my, my staff probably the next week.
NextGen Matters: yeah
Justin Lucas: Hey, we're doing this.
NextGen Matters: Well, even before that, buddy, my goal personally as a student pastor was every every adult, this is in the weeds, okay, but here we go.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Every adult got from me, ah like my eyes looked in their eyes and I said, I want to thank you and say why of them serving that, whether it was Sunday, that event on the weekend, the Wednesday night.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: man yeah
NextGen Matters: get Now I really value that as a volunteer.
Justin Lucas: Love that.
NextGen Matters: Now I have the, i'm we're I'm on the other side of that now.
Justin Lucas: Yeah. Yeah.
NextGen Matters: So I wanted to make sure, and specifically the one who was newer, new or newer, I really wanted them to know from me, i would say chase them down You what I'm talking about.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Oh,
NextGen Matters: Make sure I try to connect with them.
Justin Lucas: yeah. yeah so
NextGen Matters: um I got the same student that wants to talk to you after every Wednesday night lesson. You know what about? I said, excuse me for a minute. And i wanted to go find that one who was new or newer say, I want to thank you so much.
Justin Lucas: Oh yeah.
NextGen Matters: The simplicity of just authentic care.
Justin Lucas: Yeah?
NextGen Matters: Anyway, I got to keep moving this. Grand slam. So what we're doing is the same question I'm using for all three of these five.
Justin Lucas: Oh.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And here it is. What would be your grand slam when it comes to welcome and have two bullet points on this?
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: Describe what you would both love to see within the ministry, your Grand Slam, and then describe within the personal life of your students, the Grand Slam, the big win.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay. All right. So I would say a first time guest rolls up to the student ministry, gets plugged in, falls in love with the gospel, gets saved.
Justin Lucas: So meaningful connection begins with a meaningful connection with Christ. So falls in love with the gospel, gets saved, falls in love with the ministry, gets plugged into a group. um They begin to build that there. They become they they kind of step off of the sideline or the bench. They become an inviter and they invite their unsaved friends.
Justin Lucas: When their unsaved friends arrive, they are met by students and leaders who make them feel seen, valued and known. And then that, you know, this like second generation now, first time guest gets excited to keep coming back, eventually gets saved, gets plugged into the ministry.
NextGen Matters: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: They become an inviter. Now let's go back to the first time guests, right? The first one, that person sees the effectiveness of being an inviter and building a welcoming culture.
NextGen Matters: Yeah, yeah
Justin Lucas: And then that impact and how God's used them spurns them on for greater impact and And they step further into the missions pipeline, doing DMIs, launching movements, joining summer project, whatever it looks like, church plants.
NextGen Matters: i
Justin Lucas: And they go, hey, if God could use a welcoming culture and an invitation from me in that simple environment, what else could he do through my life?
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: That would be a grand slam from a student perspective or ministry perspective. I don't know.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Maybe that's both.
Justin Lucas: Another grand slam for me is a group leader. a group leader who looks over, sees a student who is disengaged and takes it upon themselves to go make them feel connected and plugged in.
Justin Lucas: No one had to tell them how to do it. They just go do it. That to me, maybe it's not a grand slam, but it is definitely a home run.
NextGen Matters: You don't have to keep coaching them.
Justin Lucas: Yes. Yes.
NextGen Matters: We've learned to coach them. They own it.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: and
Justin Lucas: Cause at that point they're owning culture, not just the process.
NextGen Matters: Yeah. Right. Because again, it's the, the, the goal is Christ likeness.
Justin Lucas: Yes.
NextGen Matters: The glue is relationships.
Justin Lucas: Yes. Absolutely.
NextGen Matters: Cause I've heard some parachurch organizations talk about relationships are the goal. if they can know being like Jesus and completing the mission of Jesus is the goal. Come on, but the glue
Justin Lucas: Yeah. Yeah.
NextGen Matters: his relationships.
Justin Lucas: Absolutely.
NextGen Matters: We're going to begin to land this plane. And I got something to share on this kind of a, when it comes down to this statement. So here we are. When it comes down to it, welcome is not a side value.
NextGen Matters: It in reality is the structural integrity of a spiritually fit ministry. You know, worship. Worship can lift the hearts. And the word, of course, can shape the mind and change a life.
NextGen Matters: But if a student walks into your room and feels unseen or unknown or even unnecessary, the impact of everything else will become diminished.
NextGen Matters: So welcome is where the gospel becomes tangible. It's where relationships, I love this, you ready, become the runway for transformation.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: It's where the outsider discovers they have a place and the regular attender realizes they have a purpose. So because as we get to the end of the day, ah keep saying it, Christ-likeness the goal, but relationships are the glue.
NextGen Matters: And a ministry that truly welcomes students is a ministry where the Holy Spirit now has the room to work deeply, consistently, and beautifully in the lives of these students that God has entrusted to your care.
NextGen Matters: So here's my dream. Dream with me. Here is a room full of students. Ready? Students who instinctively move toward the new person because welcome has become their reflex. It's just automatic, not just their responsibility.
NextGen Matters: It's a spirit thing, just not a functional thing.
Justin Lucas: Yeah, yeah.
NextGen Matters: Students also, dream with me, right? Students also create a culture that's so warm, so caring, so genuine, so others focus, that someone who's new feels like family, even before the first worship set comes on, or eat just need before you get up to do your lesson or your talk.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
Justin Lucas: Mm-hmm.
NextGen Matters: It's already like they've made up their mind. I belong here.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And then dream with me, a room full of students whose friendships become the living proof of the gospel.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Hmm.
NextGen Matters: What's the essence of the gospel? Jesus connects us to the Father, right? So these friendships are now living proof of that kind of love, bridging differences, healing loneliness, and showing the culture and the world around us that Jesus Christ and his community is the best place to be.
NextGen Matters: We are the hottest ticket in town. It's not because of what we do.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: It's because of how we love. Come on, right? So this is why your welcome matters. And this is why we must teach our students to be the caring hands and the feet of Jesus.
NextGen Matters: And this is why spiritually fit ministries will create that caring and welcoming environment. Every episode ends with a call to action. I've asked Justin to kind of give us his on the quick. Justin, how is I as a leader?
NextGen Matters: How could I personalize a sense of having ah a presence and a heart of being a welcoming person?
Justin Lucas: Yeah. And I do some, do some self evaluation are when it comes to relationships, when it comes to welcoming, are you the kind of leader your team could model their leadership after?
Justin Lucas: think it's a deep evaluation question. So from the personal standpoint, man, take a look. How are you doing? Are you that kind of person?
NextGen Matters: Then how do I model it? And again, not to showboat it, not to be a Pharisee, but like 1 Corinthians 11, 1, follow me as I follow Christ.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: So how could I model it?
Justin Lucas: Yeah. And I think you just got to do it. i don't i think it has to be a core value.
NextGen Matters: Hmm.
Justin Lucas: Like you have to look at it and today i am going to hyper-intentionally find the kid who's disconnected and help them get connected.
NextGen Matters: Hmm.
Justin Lucas: Today i'm going to approach the leader and say thank you like you talked about. Today I'm going to find the kid that I think may be super connected and ask them if they will help other kids get connected.
Justin Lucas: The model is just just to simply lead the way and just to do it.
NextGen Matters: Yeah. Yeah. And then finally is give us an action point at how can I teach this?
Justin Lucas: Yeah, man, I will tell you The phrase, we participate, not spectate, has been the biggest help in our ministry with our team.
NextGen Matters: Hmm.
Justin Lucas: And so and we by modeling it, we naturally teach how to do it.
NextGen Matters: Yeah.
Justin Lucas: By writing things down like a character profile, we give the culture that we're looking for. But by looking at your leaders and giving them these simple, like repeatable phrases like participate, don't spectate, we let them know what we expect out of them.
Justin Lucas: And so if you want to teach your team how to do it, man, be super, super clear that it's an expectation. But then give them the support to help them accomplish it as they need it.
NextGen Matters: Wow. Justin, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, your your life with us.
Justin Lucas: Yeah.
NextGen Matters: And,
Justin Lucas: Oh, man.
NextGen Matters: And this has been good. This has been fun. So listener, thank you so much for joining in the Next Gen Matters podcast. If today has ministered to you, I want to hear from you.
NextGen Matters: Rich at nextgenmatters.com. I have my email also in the show notes and I'll have Justin's email there as well for you to reach out to him.
Justin Lucas: yeah
NextGen Matters: I'd love to hear from you. Sincerely, love to get some feedback on how this has been of benefit to you. Whether you listen to it at the beginning of when this is being released or a year or two from the release date.
NextGen Matters: It doesn't matter. Reach out. Love to hear from you.
Justin Lucas: yeah absolutely.
NextGen Matters: If you've not yet subscribed to our Thursday to an email, please do. You can find the link in the show notes on that. And also make sure you, you know, and you know the drill, right? Like and follow these on social platforms and get this word out.
NextGen Matters: I am praying that God will grow this, not for my sake, but I sincerely want to see this be a resource to leaders to then help empower them to help their leaders become more effective.
NextGen Matters: Justin, again, thanks for coming.
Justin Lucas: Absolutely.
NextGen Matters: And lastly to say, your leadership matters because your ministry matters because the gospel matters.
Justin Lucas: It's been joy.
NextGen Matters: Take care and have an exciting week.
