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#21: Why Witness? 5 Ministry Vital Signs pt.4
64 Plays12 days ago
Episode Show Notes
In this episode, Rich sits down with longtime friend and student‑pastor Mike Camire of Parkway Baptist Church (Moseley, VA) to explore what it really takes to build a culture of witness in student ministry. With only 4% of today’s adolescents affirming core Christian beliefs and professing faith in Christ, the urgency is real — and the opportunity is massive.
Mike shares how Parkway has cultivated a sending culture rooted in John 20:21, where students see themselves as everyday missionaries sent into their schools, teams, neighborhoods, and digital spaces, including Mike sharing the story of Parkway’s long‑running public school tailgate ministry, From structured evangelism training to organic lifestyle witness, this conversation is packed with practical frameworks and real‑world stories that will inspire any ministry leader.
Only 4% of adolescents profess saving faith in Christ.
That means 96% need the good news of forgiveness and freedom in Jesus.
This leads us to answer four vital questions:
- Who will reach them?
- What can be done?
- What will you do?
- How do we build a culture committed to sharing the gospel?
Enjoy this episode and give us your feedback in the comments!
Resources Mentioned
Next Gen Matters – https://www.nextgenmatters.com/
North American Mission Board’s BOB Prayer - https://www.namb.net/
Barna Group - https://www.barna.com/
Email for Rich Brown (NGM): rich@nextgenmatters.com
Email for Mike Camire (Parkway Baptist Church) mcamire@parkwayfamily.org
Subscribe for NGM Thursday Tools email
Watch this episode on YouTube
BOB Prayer:
- Burden for lostness
- Opportunities to share
- Boldness to step into those opportunities
The Bible (Scripture references in order: John 20:21; Matthew 28:18–20; Philippians 1:27; Ephesians 2:1–5)
Timestamps
00:01 – The urgency of evangelism among today’s adolescents
00:44 – Introduction to the episode and guest Mike Camire
02:11 – Misconceptions about evangelism and redefining “witness”
03:29 – Building a “sending culture” in student ministry
05:23 – The story of Parkway Baptist Church and student-led growth
09:59 – Practical strategies for cultivating a culture of witness
13:21 – Tailgate outreach: engaging public schools creatively
21:21 – Vision for students living on mission daily
30:38 – Recent wins and student testimonies of sharing faith
32:15 – Encouragement for ministry leaders to model and teach evangelism
36:28 – Why witness matters: the urgency of reaching the next generation
40:06 – Final application: personalize, model, and teach the gospel
Recommended
Transcript
The Challenge of Engaging Adolescents with Christian Beliefs
00:00:01
NextGen Matters
According to the various research, mostly from George Bonner, only 4% of today's adolescents would agree with the core essentials of Christianity and state that they have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
00:00:16
NextGen Matters
You know, that means that 96% of all adolescents need the good news of freedom and forgiveness that comes only through Jesus Christ. Which brings us to a few questions.
00:00:28
NextGen Matters
First, who will reach them? Second, what can't be done about this? Third, and what will you do about this? And then, how can we create a culture committed to sharing the gospel of Jesus?
00:00:44
NextGen Matters
That's what today's conversation is
Introduction to Next Gen Matters Podcast
00:00:46
NextGen Matters
all about. And 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.
00:00:57
NextGen Matters
Well, welcome, Mike Kamary. Actually, welcome to me because I'm in their studio here at Parkway Baptist, Mosley, Virginia, which is the west side of Richmond, Virginia. So welcome, Mike, to the show. Yeah, happy to be here. Excited. Thanks for making the drive. Oh, you're
Exploring the Vital Sign of 'Witness'
00:01:11
NextGen Matters
welcome. Today, we're looking into the fourth of our five vital signs we've been walking through this series, which are worship the word, welcome, witness, and then the last one will be on work.
00:01:23
NextGen Matters
And when I think of witness, when I think of evangelism and gospel-saturated youth ministry, I think Mike Kamary. You were the one that I that tapped and chose for this one. Mike and I have known each other for For a long time. Long time. Long time. This last episode, I had Justin Lucas and Mike and Justin actually both came in as freshmen the same year as I was their prof in 2004. And they both graduated together in 08. So, yeah, you both are at the 40 years of age. And that's when I started being your professor. It's crazy. It's wild. Awesome. And both of you guys are just top shelf, top tier student pastors, and I'm just so blessed to have this time together.
Role of Evangelism in Parkway Students
00:02:09
NextGen Matters
So we're going to get right into it.
00:02:11
NextGen Matters
We're talking in this episode about creating a culture of witness. Now, I know there's a lot of misperceptions that I have when I hear the word witness, because I grew up in one of those 1970s old school Baptist, Thursday night, soul winning, put the suit on and go invade somebody's living in a room for Jesus. yeah They heard the four happy hops, the four spiritual laws, you know well-intentioned people, but it was like, get in their face, get up in their business, get in their grill and just hammer them to air quotes, make a decision.
00:02:44
NextGen Matters
And and and i I grew up with that. And I was thinking, man, it's a lot of high pressure. are we like sales reps for Jesus? So there's a lot of, let's say, misperceptions out there about witness. And when I'm saying witness, I'm right away saying that witness, I see it, Michael, and you would you understand this because we've both talked this many times, is both visual and verbal.
Building a Sending Culture at Parkway
00:03:08
NextGen Matters
sure We have to show it and then we share it. right It's not either or, it's yes and. So we're really coming from that that framework or that baseline of we want to visibly demonstrate the gospel of Jesus so then we can verbally share it with those that would then have an open heart to hear the message of Jesus. So we're going about creating this culture of witness.
00:03:29
NextGen Matters
um What role do you see evangelism slash the W, the witness, takes place in the life of Parkway students? Yeah, Doc, that's a great question, and it plays a vital role. It's an important role in the life of our student ministry as as we have tried to build what we call a sending culture within our student ministry.
00:03:53
NextGen Matters
And that's really based off of John 20, 21, where Jesus says, just as the father has sent me, I now send you to his disciples. Right. But for us, really, it's not just a student ministry culture that we're trying to build. It's it's a churchwide culture that then bleeds over into our student ministry. Right.
00:04:12
NextGen Matters
that then bleeds out into the daily lives of our students. And so I believe to to set that healthy sending culture for your students, it's got to be a a healthy sending culture for the entire church. Absolutely.
00:04:26
NextGen Matters
I have served in churches where the students, let's say, got behind the gospel command sure you know from Jesus and the adults did matter of fact is my very first church i was asked by a high school student i was a rookie dude i was like 22 23 years old and i remember one of the teenagers asking me hey pastor rich how come the adults don't share jesus like we share jesus wow i mean how do you answer that you don't want to throw anybody in the bus But he was right. Right. It was a valid question.
00:04:59
NextGen Matters
So I love I love Derek. I love your lead pastor. This this church has always been, least in time and the era I've known it, has been about growth right now. Hopefully you can't hear it but there's construction going outside this sound booth, the soundproof booth yeah or roof because the church is continuing to grow. So even now there's
Student Faith Ownership and Mission Engagement
00:05:20
NextGen Matters
construction going on. Right. right and Praise the Lord.
00:05:23
NextGen Matters
Yeah. Yeah. It's been it's been amazing. And I've got a have an interesting perspective on what the Lord's done here over the years. As i I came to church here the second Sunday that we planted Parkway, which was all the way back in 2002, was a junior in high school.
00:05:42
NextGen Matters
And the only students that were here at the time were myself, my brother, and two other students. yeah Yeah, yeah. And so we had no choice but to start sharing our faith and inviting students to church. If we wanted to build a student ministry, we had to start showing our faith, living our faith out, but also sharing it. And so we grew to to what the Lord has us at now. And so it's been amazing. And and it's it's been a unique perspective that...
00:06:10
NextGen Matters
um I praise the Lord for it because it's just such an amazing thing to think back on all that the Lord has done and his faithfulness through the years. Well, and for the listener to know, um Mike, as a college student,
00:06:26
NextGen Matters
in his youth ministry classes, was actually starting ah student ministry in this church plant. Right. Because I remember even his various projects with us as professors, he was going home two hours away, Lynchburg to the Richmond area and doing ministry.
00:06:44
NextGen Matters
So, and you've been here all these years. Yeah. All these years. I mean, so you literally from... the beginning created a culture of what I would say these five W's and you all could use different words, but for me, you know, these, these, these vital signs and one of them being the sense of evangelism and witness.
00:07:04
NextGen Matters
So that's very cool. Yeah. So what is, what else is your students, what are they doing to do they identify that? i mean, you can set say it again, Rich, you can have the, the value of we need to be about the gospel. Right.
00:07:20
NextGen Matters
But do your students own it? Yeah, that's ah that's a great question too, Doc. i I pray, it's a daily prayer of mine for our students that they would live on mission each and every day.
00:07:33
NextGen Matters
and not just live it out because I tell them to, but that they would have the passion, right? They would have the love. They would have the desire to want to spread the gospel, to to to be that witness in in a dark culture that is the public school campus. I would argue even some of our Christian school campuses are very dark spiritually, and even
Integrating Mission into Student Activities
00:07:56
NextGen Matters
homeschool co-ops are very dark spiritually. And so, um what what what we've seen is we've seen students over the years really
00:08:07
NextGen Matters
jump in on that vision, on that that that culture that we're setting in being bold in their faith and sharing Christ with their friends. Just recently, I had one of our students come to me and she had gone on spring break in Florida and she came back just so excited to tell me about how she shared her faith with just random people that God put in her path. Wow.
00:08:31
NextGen Matters
that That she was just like, okay, Lord, you obviously sent sent this person in my path. I'm going to tell them about you. um And she'll she'll tell me straight up, Doc. She'll say, and she this has this has happened multiple times with this one particular student, which is wild to me.
00:08:47
NextGen Matters
But she'll say, mike Pastor Mike, I was scared, but I knew I had to be obedient. and wow And so that's the win for me when they see living as a witness, sharing the gospel as being an obedient disciple of Jesus.
00:09:00
NextGen Matters
And so they understand that that the saving work is is the Holy Spirit. But their obedient task is to live their faith out and share with compassion, but share it confidently.
00:09:14
NextGen Matters
To create this culture, um
00:09:18
NextGen Matters
What are you doing? Let me say structurally speaking, but then also led by the spear organically speaking. And we talked a lot about that with Justin last week. There is that.
00:09:31
NextGen Matters
Yes, we do need to have a healthy structure, but also we also want to see it become just like you just said, it's lifestyle, it's organic where students are just owning it themselves. So what steps have you taken so that your students can own this culture? Yeah, yeah. ah So what we try to do is we try to constantly speak this culture into everything that we do.
00:09:57
NextGen Matters
So from teaching on midweek to our retreats, our D-Now weekends, our mission projects we do, our camp that we do, we speak this culture, we speak this vision. And really, it's not a vision that I've made up. It comes straight from Scripture. It's the Great Commission, right? And so just constantly speaking that over and over and over again. So, for example, as we teach on midweek or during our midweek times on Wednesday nights, we always bring it back to a missional edge or a missional point of how do we how do we apply this to our lives? But then how do we how do share it with someone this week? Thus the sending that you're talking about. Right.
00:10:44
NextGen Matters
And then ah we we always pray. Like one of my one of my prayers, I got this from the North American Mission Board. They have this acrostic that they go by that that you pray for Bob. All right. And so B stands for a burden for lostness. Right. So we so we pray every every week. Lord, give us a burden for lostness around us. Then O is opportunities. God, would you give us opportunities to share our faith with someone?
00:11:09
NextGen Matters
And then the ah the last B is give us the boldness to step into those opportunities to to share Christ. And so we we pray that every week. In fact, I'm the announcement guy on Sunday mornings, and that's part of my prayer on Sunday mornings for the entire church as we set the culture, not just again for the students, but for the entire church.
00:11:29
NextGen Matters
And so and then being intentional with with our our D.N.O. weekends, they they are they are missional weekends. So they're essentially an at home mission project for a weekend where we train our students in evangelism and then we have projects set up and we send them out to go and put feet to that training. And you call them what? Immediately.
00:11:51
NextGen Matters
We call them Live Love Weekend. I know you do because have a t-shirt. Yeah, yeah. Live Love Weekend. Plural, I have t-shirts. Yeah, that's right. Mike always hooks me up. That's awesome. And then even our camp, our summer camp, it's ah it's a camp that's focused on mission where I call it a spring training. I know you're a baseball guy. yeah So I call it a spring training week for us where we go and we're we're trained and we're equipped in evangelism and service. We go put feet to that immediately. But the whole point of that is to bring it back home with us and implement it
Community Engagement through Tailgate Ministry
00:12:20
NextGen Matters
every single day.
00:12:21
NextGen Matters
So live, love, loud. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. There you go. When you think about, well, something i want to I want to bring in too is before I go to the next question, I do want to mention this.
00:12:36
NextGen Matters
For years, Michael has had an incredible inroad to the local public school systems, plural, here, including his own home high school. Yeah.
00:12:48
NextGen Matters
And you've done something called fifth quarter. Now, you didn't know this was coming up. I didn't. But I would bring him into my campus outreach class semester after semester after semester after semester. He was known when he'd come visit. Oh, that's the yeah fifth quarter guy.
00:13:04
NextGen Matters
You know, not fifth quarter. I'm sorry. The tailgate. tailgate guy. My bad. The tailgate guy. um And you'd even bring your own team down. You'd serve us hot dogs and burgers. You would show our college students how you would do a tailgate by bringing us your tailgate.
00:13:19
NextGen Matters
Take a moment and walk through with a listener what you've done and to hopefully create a spark or an interest of what they could do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the the tailgate ministry we've had for years has just been incredible.
00:13:35
NextGen Matters
And so we've been able to enter into the public school campuses by offering free tailgates before football games or even one of our middle schools calls us every year to come and do a a tailgate before their faculty student fundraising game.
00:13:53
NextGen Matters
Wow. And so ah basketball game. And so we show up with a trailer. It's actually the trailer that our church first used to plant in where we hauled all of our supplies to the local elementary school to unload, set up, take down, pack back I've been in a church like that. We called them mighty movers. Yeah. They were the mighty movers. So we use that trailer and we we outfit it with a grill. Wait, wait. i can I can hear those in our church plant right now. Yeah. They're nodding their heads. Amen. Amen.
00:14:23
NextGen Matters
Yeah, yeah, they they get
Unifying Students through Mission Participation
00:14:25
NextGen Matters
it. But we we put grills in there. We put a sound system. We've done popcorn machines, snow cone machines, and we roll it out to... You bring the party. We we bring the party. And look, I love music. I know, you're the DJ too. I DJ on the side. I know you dear I got a gig this weekend, you know, and so...
00:14:43
NextGen Matters
So yeah, so we show and we bring the party. But what I love and the whole purpose of it was to give our students an opportunity to invite their friends to something fun before a football game. Because several years ago, there was a ah a huge problem with students on football days.
00:14:59
NextGen Matters
They'd go to their friend's house. They would raid their mom and dad's liquor cabinet, get drunk, show up to the game drunk. And it just cause a lot of issues. So I said, hey, how can how can we how can we make an impact right there on that that public school campus. And so this gave us an opportunity for our students to invite friends to something fun, safe before football game and, and give them opportunity then to have follow-up conversations. Cause we all gave them t-shirts. I'm a swag guy too, right? you know Gave them t-shirts. So they wore the tailgate crew t-shirts to school and then people would stop them in the hall and say, Hey, you're that church that showed up and we had that, that tailgate. right Like, like,
00:15:35
NextGen Matters
why Why did y'all do that? and And it gave our students a perfect opportunity to share. And that's what I'm talking about when I say visually, Share the gospel. Right. Because I know you are given certain boundaries, parameters, hundred which you can and cannot do. 100%. Like, for example, some campuses, you've told me, you cannot have any kind of religious literature. Right.
00:15:55
NextGen Matters
Or others, they may allow, you know, the life book or something. Right. It depends on campus. Depends on the school. Yeah. So listen or think about that. You know, you've got know the house rules. Right. So Mike plays well in the sandbox. He plays well in the playground of the rules. So you'll honor those. Right.
00:16:10
NextGen Matters
But you are visibly demonstrating the love and I say the message of Christ because it now goes through your students. Here's the cool part. right Because i would imagine you would have students that if they have those tailgate shirts on, they're now identifying themselves with their local church right going back on a Monday to and into their high and to the high school.
00:16:38
NextGen Matters
they've identified themselves with their church. Now their game is on. Right. hundred percent. Yep. ah Absolutely. And that was, and that plan by those rules was important, which then led me to recruit leaders from our church who bought into the vision for the tailgate ministry.
00:16:56
NextGen Matters
They ran the tailgate. So they weren't the ones necessarily talking to the students. They were serving. It was our students who were talking to their peers. And that's what I'm talking about. Right. Because now that's part of your equipping students to do the ministry. Right. Exactly. I also know, I know you told me before, because sometimes in our ministries, we'll have, unfortunately, we'll have...
00:17:18
NextGen Matters
conflict when it comes to, well, these students go to a public school. These students go to the local Christian school. These students are homeschooled. These students are kind of a homeschool slash co-op. right And then you were bringing in a lot of your homeschool students because you have a large percentage here too.
00:17:36
NextGen Matters
um But they were part of this. I remember you telling me that because you shared that in the classroom, that that was your way of getting them involved in being missional. So it broke down that.
00:17:46
NextGen Matters
Ready? Well, I don't know anybody finishing at home. Right. Unsaved. Right. Because now you're making them part of the mission. You want to go to that little bit? Yeah. Yeah. So we would. I'm thinking Brett right away. Yeah. you would Yeah. Yeah. yeah we would We would have those homeschool students, again, building that culture.
00:18:06
NextGen Matters
they knew why we were doing what we were doing. It wasn't just about grilling hot dogs and giving free food away. No, it was about being a light on a public school campus. And so that did give our homeschool students an opportunity to come and be involved. And so they would come and and and they would they'd be having conversations with students. and And if they came to the high school that we did it at where they they lived in in that same district, they ended up seeing students that they do life with outside of school anyway. And so they were able to make some of those natural connections. And again, as bridge builders to to be on mission and to to share Christ.
00:18:44
NextGen Matters
And another component that I really appreciate is it was allowing your students to see themselves as one student ministry and not over the homeschool version of the ministry or where the public school version of the ministry or or vice versa, you know, or the Christian school. Right. That we are one.
00:19:02
NextGen Matters
And now we are working together, Philippians 127, striving as one person for the faith of the gospel. And I love that you are allowing them to become even more and more involved with, um and and then the next episode, we're going having Dakota from Fredericksburg, Virginia, talking about their mission trips and how they do the work of the ministry, but there's so much overlap. Right, 100%. Because evangelism here, the witness, bleeds also right into you're equipping saints to share the gospel, but they're also doing various things. So let me back up.
00:19:32
NextGen Matters
Structurally, you have various mission projects. I know you're very big on that. um And then also even at your midweek gatherings, when it comes out even your prayer time, you are praying missionally with them, with with Bob. Right. Say that again. the three B, the three three letters. A burden for lostness, opportunities to share, and boldness to share when those opportunities yeah come. So what about Bob?
00:19:55
NextGen Matters
Right. There you go. Sorry. Bad throwback to the Yeah. Shot, by the way, shot 30 minutes from Winsburg, Virginia. There you go. There you go. Change your world right then. So you're you're having the prayer requests. You're taking a mission trip. You're creating these environments. I know you have various events.
00:20:12
NextGen Matters
I've spoken at a few of them before where it's definitely about the gospel. Yeah. um But what would you say to your, I call your grand slam. I've been asking this question these last few episodes.
00:20:25
NextGen Matters
What would be your grand slam, your huge win, when you see it both for what you'd like to see in the ministry and even in the personal eyes of your
Strategies for Continuity in Student Ministry
00:20:35
NextGen Matters
students. Let's start with the ministry sake. yeah what You already have a lot of wins, but you're visionary, you're still growing. So what would you love to see God move among you in your midst, even deeper and even wider? yeah Yeah, I think i think what i what I would love to see is obviously students continue to adopt this culture, this vision, this missional culture, missional vision um as a student ministry in the sense that they would truly live life each and every day as if they were on a mission trip. um right And and that that they would see these opportunities that God gives them
00:21:17
NextGen Matters
as opportunities to make his name great. And so they hear from me all the time too, that that they don't just go to school. They don't just go play on a sports team. They don't just go to the grocery store. They are sent each and every day by God to be on mission, to carry the gospel, to be a heralder of the gospel. And so for us, I think it's it's continually speaking that vision, but also modeling that vision. So having on the student ministry side, having our adult leaders model that for our students and and that we continually grow in that together. It's one of the reasons why I've kind of changed my language when it comes to
00:22:00
NextGen Matters
ministry events. I don't call them events. I call them opportunities. Why? Because everything we do, we want it to be a ministry opportunity. Yes, a ministry opportunity to come and experience ministry, but also this is an opportunity for students to do ministry with other students. It doesn't matter if that's a ah a fun game night, like a level one event, you know, or level two, of whatever. Like,
00:22:26
NextGen Matters
Everything that we do is going to be an opportunity to experience ministry together. And and so that's kind of how we'veve we've grown and will continue to grow that as far as or in the ministry.
00:22:37
NextGen Matters
It's something I realize that every one of us, and I'm talking to you as a listener. Every one of us, Mike, myself, in ministry, we always have this constant friction, this constant slash opportunity of every few years, there's a complete flip of who we have in our ministry. Oh, yeah.
00:22:59
NextGen Matters
yeah So you may have a junior and senior class currently, which is just incredibly on fire for God, incredibly deep, incredibly... Impact players for the kingdom's sake.
00:23:13
NextGen Matters
But you already see it. You got a sophomore class. I'm just hypothetically going there. But you have a sophomore class that is just apathetic as all, you know, and you've tried everything. There's no there's no trick. It's just got to be the Holy Spirit of God. And they're resisting.
00:23:26
NextGen Matters
You have a freshman class that's looking at the next class above them. And all of sudden now they're left middle school in their way excited to get into high school. But now that freshman class is looking at the sophomores going, okay, that must be the normal.
00:23:41
NextGen Matters
And you can already see the projection. I'm going to lose one or one or two classes, which are like outstanding. And it's like, I've got to rebuild the team. right And even when it comes to casting vision, all that, that's that tension of student ministry. Right.
00:23:58
NextGen Matters
You know, you want to talk about that a little? Yeah, that's especially when it relates to being missional. Absolutely. Yeah. And not settling for group like that you've heard me say a million times. yeah Don't settle for group. Lean into ministry. Yeah. And I think you you hit the nail on the head. And i've been doing this for a long time, Doc. And and and you do. yeah I call it the ebb and flow of ministry. It is. Right.
Seeing Gospel Potential in Every Student
00:24:17
NextGen Matters
And and it is. And sometimes.
00:24:19
NextGen Matters
I think the student pastor can get so like, so focused in on that, that, that that struggle, right? That you just described that that he can lose sight of, of, of the gospel potential that's still in those students.
00:24:34
NextGen Matters
And that's why I talked about this last night at our midweek. It's even the apathetic kids, I see gospel potential in them, right? Because whether they realize it or not, they have natural leadership,
00:24:48
NextGen Matters
influence and tendencies anyway. And if they just, if they just, man, flipped that for for good, if they flipped that for for for gospel purposes, bro, they'd be tearing it up for King Jesus. So what I do in those situations is I just, I take time and I pray and I ask the Lord to to grab a hold of their heart and and that the Lord would use me to continue to inspire them and encourage them in the things of the Lord, to encourage their parents, to partner with their parents in doing the same thing, to that that the Lord would just continually draw them to himself, that they would experience the awesomeness and the faithfulness of King Jesus and realize that he has a great plan and purpose for them yeah to carry the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Right.
00:25:39
NextGen Matters
Christianity is boring.
00:25:42
NextGen Matters
Unless. Right. Christianity is boring. i will do that when I speak in a big setting. Right, right, I'll let it hang in the air like I just did. Right. And all the adults in the room are what? Yeah, where's he going? Oh, no. Christianity is boring unless you're involved in the mission. Right.
00:26:00
NextGen Matters
Because God did not create us to watch. He created us to do. Right. Right. We're not to be in the stands. We're to be on the field. That's right.
00:26:10
NextGen Matters
And when a student begins to, first of all, generally repent, be born again, they are on team Jesus. Right. And that sometimes they can get a little apathetic. So can you and I. Yep. Okay.
00:26:22
NextGen Matters
Yep. But once they get involved in sharing the gospel, and I've told, I've told teenagers this as that guy back in the day, I would say when you lead,
00:26:35
NextGen Matters
that first person to faith in Christ, it will completely change your life. Game-changing. Instantly. yeah And there's no a looking back. Right. Right. Because what you see, Doc, is you see in that moment, you see the Holy Spirit do his work.
00:26:51
NextGen Matters
And for a student to experience that, bro, like then then all of this yeah comes to life for them. Yep. And they're like, oh, man, yep i I want i wanna to experience more. cause then And then it reminds them of their own salvation.
00:27:06
NextGen Matters
Exactly. Transformative work that that's that God's done in their life. It reminds them of that. I was them. Right. Yeah, exactly. It's Ephesians 2. I was there. It's Ephesians 2, yeah. I was dead. yes, yes. Only Jesus can raise the dead, baby. Right, right. Right? Yes. And and I love also what you were saying is yeah being on mission.
00:27:25
NextGen Matters
Something I tried so desperate in my day of youth pastoring was to say, especially if you're in a public school setting, When you enter the threshold of that door every day, I begged and I urged them, stop, take that breath.
00:27:41
NextGen Matters
Jesus, I'm now entering the mission field. right To actually have in the mindset, I am entering the mission field. Because the most the most unreached age group of any age group in this country is adolescents.
00:27:59
NextGen Matters
And yet the most open to the gospel, the most receptive to the gospel are adolescents. We got to close that gap. hundred Now, so I got off track and i'm I'm okay with that. I got off track. but But I also want to ask you about like, what is your your your big vision of what you see in your own students?
00:28:16
NextGen Matters
Where it's not Pastor Mike and the leadership team around. They're on their own at Crosby, different schools around this area. And what will be your vision, your dream for what you like to see in them?
00:28:27
NextGen Matters
Yeah. So i kind of I kind of told them this last night at our midweek. i thought I told them, I just, I said, look, guys, like, I want to see you run with Jesus.
00:28:38
NextGen Matters
I want to see you love Jesus with all that you are. Know that that you are a child of the King. Not give in to the lies that that the culture tries and to to throw at you.
00:28:51
NextGen Matters
But when those lies come that you would recognize them as lies because your our our our vision for the semester comes from my Romans 12, 9, where it says, love must be genuine. Hate what is evil, but cling to what is good. And so that's been that's something we repeat every week.
00:29:09
NextGen Matters
And so I told him, look, I want you to cling to what is true, cling to what is good. And what is that? It's Jesus and his word and just run with him and see where he leads and guides you. So so really, for me, my vision for our students is they would just be obedient to whatever God calls them and tells them to do.
00:29:25
NextGen Matters
I
Creating Expansive Vision for Student Involvement
00:29:26
NextGen Matters
just I want them to be obedient. If God if that's if that's saying. God telling them to go plant to church, man, be obedient, go plant a church. Go be a doctor, man, go be a doctor on mission. Go be a teacher, go be a teacher on mission. Which is your wife. Right, which is my wife, right? yep Go be a go be a restaurant worker on mission. But the way that they can the way that they grasp that calling when it comes is if they're living that mission out right now.
00:29:50
NextGen Matters
And that's what that's what we're trying to help them do and trying to raise them up to do. That's awesome. So listen, I want you to think about what would you do And what would be your to create a culture of the gospel in your ministry? And what would be your vision? So I want you to think about that. You know, what would be your vision for the big win in your own ministry and what would you like to see in the lives of your students?
00:30:17
NextGen Matters
Begin thinking, praying and working toward that. We're gonna be landing this plane soon as I like to say, but have you seen some wins recently in the ministry in regards to your students demonstrating the gospel, both let's say visibly and verbally?
00:30:33
NextGen Matters
Yeah, so we just we recently had— You shared the one young lady. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was just the other week on spring break. but But yeah, we recently just had our Live Love weekend for this year, and um we were able to partner with a couple of churches in our area to do some some outreach that they do particularly in kind of a— um an interesting area of our city where a lot of people live in motels. And so they were able to make supply bags, goodie bags for them, write them notes, write them notes with scripture on them and things like that, and then go and take them to the motels where these people living.
00:31:15
NextGen Matters
And so some of our students that that did that came back and were like, I had no idea that that that was happening 20 minutes down the road from where I live.
00:31:27
NextGen Matters
But also I had students come back saying, hey, I actually talked about Jesus for the first time, you know, or I actually prayed out loud over someone for the first time. Wow.
00:31:41
NextGen Matters
And I want to keep doing it. i want i wanna I want to go back and do it some more. you know And so those are just some some quick some quick wins. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Yeah. And so that that that man experiencing that and providing opportunities. I think that's the big thing is we can We can teach, we can quit, we can instruct all day long, but what are those tangible opportunities that we can provide for students to live this out and experience it yeah for themselves?
00:32:10
NextGen Matters
That's so cool. I was just going ask you any encouragement you have for our listeners yeah in regards to this. Yeah, I think i think for for for listeners, if you're in student ministry, whether you're a a student pastor, ministry leader, volunteer leader, i think I think this just has to be a passion of yours, a genuine passion, not a fake passion, because students today can sniff out the fake, right? And so I think it's got to be a compassion or a passion of yours. And I think about Christ's compassion Matthew chapter nine, where he looks out. into the town and he has compassion because they were the people were were like sheep without a shepherd and it moved him right to start to start saying and praying like hey the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few in fact that's something we pray as a church at 1002 based on loop 10 2 uh at 1002 in the morning and 9 38 in the evening we pray that as a church that god lord of the harvest we know that the harvest is plentiful
00:33:10
NextGen Matters
would you raise up and send out more workers? And that's on your phone. that's all yeah You have that on your alarm. That goes off yeah that goes off on my phone every day. think you're my office once and that happens. Yeah, and that's that's just a prayer trigger. Our our church has done that. But here's here's the cool thing. I've kind of added this within the last couple of years is, yes, Lord of the harvest, we know that the harvest is plentiful.
00:33:32
NextGen Matters
The workers are few. Please raise up and send out laborers. But if that is me, If you're calling me to go into the harvest, if you're calling me to go be on mission as a missionary, as a church planter, help me be obedient and you go. wow you know And then I think another thing too, just real quick, is to educate students on what the gospel is, why the gospel matters. Educate students on lostness so that they can they can have that that burden. They can start building that burden and then equip them, right? Equip them to share the gospel.
Discipling Students for Church Multiplication
00:34:04
NextGen Matters
Equip them to grow in their faith.
00:34:06
NextGen Matters
And then help them engage, help them engage in opportunities to to to share Christ, to live their faith out and just watch what the Lord does with it. At the end of the day, i mean, it's it's it's all him anyway, but but just great opportunities for students to grow in that, to learn and man to be to be released, to be launched, to go and be on mission.
00:34:28
NextGen Matters
Yeah. So, hey, y'all get this. Pastor Mike is soon becoming Dr. Mike. Yeah. dr d dr d j mike you know Yeah, Dr. Mike. MC, Mike Kamari. You're getting your DMIN, Southeastern. Yeah.
00:34:42
NextGen Matters
And you just completed your dissertation. I did. Your ABD, which is all the dissertation, got all the work done. Then your doc your your dissertation, you defend your dissertation in the next couple of weeks of this recording.
00:34:55
NextGen Matters
Could you give us the quick on what your dissertation is? Yeah. Because listener, this is awesome. This is real life. It's not like, let's go study rocks. Right. all Right. Yeah. No. um What I did, what I decided to do was I built an intentional strategy to disciple and mobilize our students here at Parkway for the, for the purpose of church multiplication. So for the purpose of church planting. So I have a huge heart for church planting. I have a huge heart for student ministry. So how do I merge those together? And so it's a strategy all about how do we raise students up that by the time they graduate high school, they would consider choosing a college career that would be in an area of one of our church planting partners to go and be a part of the ministry and be a part of the outreach that they that that church plant partner is is trying to do in the area that God has called that church planter.
00:35:47
NextGen Matters
And I know that's just not theory because an hour ago he told me that a young man he led to Jesus as disciple is now few hours away from here, Virginia Beach, who has started a church. And Mike, you just said you had some recent high school graduates yeah who are now attending school down there to exactly do right what you just said. So you're not just...
00:36:08
NextGen Matters
living in a theory, this is real to you. yeah And this is what you're already doing. Just now you get a doctorate out of it. right That's pretty
The Urgency of Sharing the Gospel
00:36:16
NextGen Matters
cool. right i got some closing I got some closing thoughts. I wrote these down and I want to make sure that you get this. Here it is.
00:36:23
NextGen Matters
When you look at the various numbers, I'm talking about statistics of of adolescence. When you look at the numbers, witness stops being out optional and witness must become urgent.
00:36:35
NextGen Matters
If, and it's true, 4%, if only 4% of today's adolescents understand and embrace the gospel, that means 96% of the students, the ones you see at the mall, the high school football game, or at a park, they're living without the hope, the forgiveness, and the freedom that Jesus offers.
00:36:55
NextGen Matters
That reality should not discourage us. It actually should awaken us because God has placed us here in this generation for his purpose.
00:37:07
NextGen Matters
Witness matters because eternity matters. It matters because the gospel is still the power of God for salvation. Come on. And it matters because students are far more ready to respond than we often assume. right. Yes. So the question should no longer be, should we share?
00:37:27
NextGen Matters
But will we step in to the mission Jesus has already entrusted to us? A spiritually healthy ministry just doesn't, what I put here is believe in the gospel, right you know in in the brain theologically. right It actually champions the gospel. button It doesn't. It trains students to see that their world through a missionary lens, to love their friends enough to speak up and to live with a confidence that's rooted
00:37:59
NextGen Matters
in the gospel and in Jesus Christ. Because when students begin to visibly and verbally share the good news, everything changes. Yes. You stop being a group, you become a ministry, and the kingdom of Jesus advances. You are changing just not this generation, but Michael, it's the
Ensuring Gospel-Centric Ministry Efforts
00:38:18
NextGen Matters
generations to come. That's right.
00:38:19
NextGen Matters
That's right. That's the cool thing. When the the episode I had my wife on talking about her own pre-adolescent and older child conversion to Jesus, We're now praying over our grandkids yeah because someone shared the, I got excited there, didn't i Because someone shared the gospel of that young girl growing up in Michigan. Right.
00:38:38
NextGen Matters
I now have a beautiful, godly wife who does all she can for our own family and for the students that she now serves in the university context, knowing that she will now hopefully impact their families. right The gospel advances. yeah right to go so So I always want to share a dream at the end. So dream with me, a room full of students. Here it is. Students who are seeing their everyday environments Schools that are, I'm sorry, students that are seeing their everyday environments, their schools, they're they're they're even their group chats they're in right as their God-given mission. Yes.
00:39:14
NextGen Matters
Students who can also clearly and compassionately articulate the gospel in their voice, not a script that we've given them, in their voice, where the confidence rooted, not in themselves, but rooted in the Holy Spirit. Yes.
00:39:31
NextGen Matters
and then students who understand they are living in the most spiritually fertile time of their lives right here and right now. and that they will live on mission.
00:39:44
NextGen Matters
That's why witness matters. That's why we must teach our students to live out loud the gospel message. And this is why spiritually fit ministries create a gospel advancing culture. Mike's going to take us home with three quick calls to action.
00:40:01
NextGen Matters
How do I personalize it? yeah How do I model it? And then how do I teach it? Yeah. Yeah. I think, yes. Everything you just said right there, man, that's that's what...
00:40:12
NextGen Matters
That's what excites me about ministry. So I think, again, going back to what I said earlier, it has to be a passion of yours, right? to To know that when we witness, we're doing exactly what Christ told the early church in Acts 1-8, right? that That we are his witnesses, right? to To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth, right? we we We are testifiers of what Christ has done, right? What Christ has accomplished and what Christ offers only in him.
00:40:40
NextGen Matters
And so you got to have a passion for that. And then as you model it, share stories. I think that's that's ah that's a big a big piece of it too, is share stories of of ah of where you just bombed a gospel message or or where someone like completely rejected you. like That's okay. you know but You're still obedient, right? And then even take students with you as you go or as you meet with students. I love doing this when we meet students out in what I call third places, right? Yeah. Your home, your office, and then a third place where you hang out. For me, it's Chick-fil-A.
00:41:15
NextGen Matters
So always, always meeting students at Chick-fil-A. always, always try to meet leaders at Chick-fil-A because i recognize there I have, I have a mission to the staff and to the other people that are eating there as well. And so taking students and and letting students watch you be missional um where, where the Lord takes you where the Lord has you and then teach it. Yes.
00:41:39
NextGen Matters
Have series do a Wednesday night series, do Sunday morning sessions on What is the gospel? What does it mean to live on mission? What is the Great Commission? Because I think Barna put out a study a couple years ago where they did a study on the Great Commission, and only 50% of church-going people— Adults.
00:41:57
NextGen Matters
Right. Knew what the Great Commission was. So three years ago, I made it a goal for our student ministry. We were going to memorize Matthew 28, 18 through 20. We were going memorize it, and that was going to be who we were. so So continually find those times to teach it. And even in your normal series, like even if it's not just a gospel-focused series, bring the gospel in Have good gospel invitations to your talks. always be sharing the gospel, praying the gospel over your students.
00:42:25
NextGen Matters
That's so good. Michael, thank you. It's always a pleasure to yeah to get with you and to to hear what God is doing. And every time I'm with you, you encourage me. Likewise, bro. Well, that's what we should be about. That's yeah to encouragement dude that's it. and i also You're not living back in the day.
00:42:42
NextGen Matters
There's always something new and fresh of a new story, a new, a new I call it a God win that God is doing in and through your own personal life in your ministry. I love it. So listener, thank you again for listening to the Next Gen Matters podcast. And I hope that this has been such an encouragement to you guys.
00:42:59
NextGen Matters
Remember, your leadership matters because your ministry matters, because the gospel matters. Take care. God bless. And let's live on mission. Woo! Let's go. Let's go.