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#25: Color War, 400 Students, and the Power of the Gospel (Interview with Matt McClay)
76 Plays1 month ago
Episode Summary
In this episode, Rich Brown sits down with longtime friend and student pastor Matt McClay to discuss how intentional outreach events can become powerful tools for gospel engagement. Broadcasting from Barboursville, West Virginia, the conversation centers around Lewis Memorial Baptist Church's annual Color War outreach event, which recently drew nearly 400 students and resulted in multiple gospel decisions.
Matt shares how a burden for the lost students in his community—where only 4% profess a relationship with Christ—has shaped the vision and strategy of his ministry. Together, Rich and Matt unpack the philosophy behind large-scale outreach events, the importance of keeping the gospel at the center, and practical lessons on leadership, volunteer development, student ownership, and church-wide engagement.
Great outreach events are not about entertainment; they are about creating intentional environments where students can invite friends, experience authentic Christian community, and clearly hear the gospel. When leaders know their mission, equip volunteers well, and keep Christ at the center, events become more than activities—they become opportunities for life change.
The episode also highlights a powerful testimony of a student who came searching for acceptance and ultimately responded to the gospel after experiencing genuine love and community through the ministry.
7 Key Ingredients in this Episode:
- Find Your "Why"
- The Gospel Must Remain Central
- Students Reach Students
- Excellence Builds Credibility
- Outreach Is a Whole-Church Effort
- Develop Leaders While Planning Events
- Relationships Open Doors for the Gospel
Resources Mentioned
Next Gen Matters: https://www.nextgenmatters.com/
Email for Rich Brown (NGM): rich@nextgenmatters.com
Email for Matt McClay: m.mcclay@lmbc.org
Get your free Event Guide
Subscribe for NGM Thursday Tools email
Watch this episode on YouTube
The Bible (Scripture references in order: Psalm 71; Hebrews 12:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:2; Deuteronomy 16:16)
Color War Highlights
Sample of photos
Tons of photos
Highlight video
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
03:21 - The Lostness of the Community
08:50 - Inside Color War
11:17 - The Gospel at the Center
17:20 - Building Better Outreach Events
22:37 - Getting Leaders, Parents, and Students to Buy In
30:46 - Why Events Matter
33:00 - A Life-Change Story
36:26 - Find Your Why
39:38 – Conclusion
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:01
NextGen Matters
Well, hey friend, welcome again to the Next Gen Matters podcast. I'm Rich Brown, and I'm so glad you're here. I am actually with a dear friend of mine, a very close friend of mine. His name is Matt McClay. He's not in my office, I'm in his.
00:00:13
NextGen Matters
Right in the Huntington, West Virginia area, technically Barbersville. And today we're going to be unpacking about putting together a youth event. But before we go there, I got a question for you. Have you ever done a youth event where you actually had the fire department show up at your church?
00:00:30
NextGen Matters
Because I saw this last night when I was here visiting. Yeah, I saw a few fire trucks. Three fire trucks. Three fire trucks with multiple firefighters with a large, let's say crane with a hose ready to do some business.
00:00:47
NextGen Matters
So we planned for the fire department to come. It wasn't an emergency response. they they were They were part of the plan. was proactive, not reactive.
Youth Events and Community Impact
00:00:55
NextGen Matters
Exactly. So you know we we're were glad to have them. But of course, Rich, we're glad to have you with us too.
00:01:03
NextGen Matters
Rich shared the the gospel. He gave the gospel message for our event. And we're blessed that several students responded yeah and trusted Jesus as their savior last night. Last night's event is his large event at the end of the school year, backslash beginning of the summer. Yes.
00:01:19
NextGen Matters
Color war. So think tons of paint. five gallon buckets from Lowe's wherever, tons of paint with your your pool noodles and white t-shirts.
00:01:30
NextGen Matters
And they, legally speaking, go to town on each other. Zero injuries. Praise God. Well, I did see one. Never mind. And then, of course, at the back end of that, and we're going to have links in the show notes to his site where they're they with their their drone videos and everything. It's powerful stuff. And then he drops all kinds of, I'll say powder puff or powder, I guess you'd say,
00:01:53
NextGen Matters
And it looks like napalm went off. It's just incredible. It's like if you have pollen issues, they look like pollen issues, but different colors of pollen. So Matt, we're going to unpack this. We're gonna talk about what does it mean to and the why. You know, why do we do silly games, outreach events like this? But not just why, but even the what. We're going to get a little more tactical and practical with what we're going to be doing. So hang on. Check this out because this It's one of the biggest and best, let's say best done events I have ever seen.
Church Context and Student Engagement
00:02:28
NextGen Matters
And Matt, I mean, five star all the way, buddy. Five star all the way. So it's called Color War. you had close to 400 students. We're still working through some of the data. Right now, we're putting the putting the visitor cards are being entered as we speak. Yes, they are. So we think you had over 100, at least over 100 first-time visitors. And this is not like metropolitan X, Y, or Z city. This is this is in West Virginia, and that's not a put-down or a cut-down.
00:02:55
NextGen Matters
it's just It's more rural. Say rural five times. I can't do it. now I'm not going to try it at home. you You can't do it either, I know. Uh, here we are, you know, outside of Huntington, West Virginia, like I said, your population, your student population here is what? 14,000? 14,123. Within drive. Yes, he knows the data. He paid Thomas Rainer and Thomas gave him the data. 14,123. In a minute drive of this church building right here. Yep.
00:03:20
NextGen Matters
Man just got his doctorate. So he did his research on a lot of this. And actually there's a poster up there on his wall that gives the data of his area. Because this is not to be ADHD on this. I'm not jumping on a squirrel wagon right now. That poster represents what we're talking about. Literally next to his desk, it says, And gives stats.
00:03:44
NextGen Matters
and he gives the stats And that's a powerful poster, a daily reminder to you. That is the why you do these outreach events, because students reach the gospel. What's the percent of students that know Jesus? 4%. Yep.
00:03:58
NextGen Matters
yep And we didn't make that number up. No, that's that's that's national, and it's local here too. Yep. Yep. 96% do not have a faith-based relationship through the grace
Outreach Event Strategies
00:04:08
NextGen Matters
of God through Jesus.
00:04:10
NextGen Matters
So when you had, last night, almost 400 students there, many of admire are your own students who are in Christ. But as you're going through the data, I was just with him for breakfast. Going through the data, you had some of your students bringing five, six, ten.
00:04:26
NextGen Matters
Your wife said last night, one of the girls, the two sisters brought their entire volleyball team? Their entire travel volleyball team. That's insane. That's what it's amazing.
00:04:36
NextGen Matters
That's awesome, dude. So let's go back in time. You've been in this church since you were five years old. Your dad moved here when you were little kids, Texas, right? that Tennessee. Tennessee. One of those T's. Okay.
00:04:48
NextGen Matters
And you moved here at five as your dad became the worship pastor and he still is. Still is. And yeah I met you years ago, but I didn't realize this.
00:04:59
NextGen Matters
You were, when I was teaching residential liberty, you were in my intro youth class your last semester, just taking the intro youth class as an elective. And I didn't know this at the time, there's 200 in that class.
00:05:10
NextGen Matters
And I didn't know you then. Years later, as God has me starting Next Gen Matters, you and I connect and you tell me your story. You're calling into ministry. Yeah. Yeah, I was a government major online or not online residential at Liberty University. And I just had a few electives left. I was last semester of the senior year. And you're you're looking for the easy way to come on, a simple ride home. yep And I thought, well, there's an introduction to youth ministry class. I loved my youth ministry in in high school. I loved my youth pastor.
00:05:42
NextGen Matters
I'd like to check this out and hopefully it won't be too difficult of of a class. So I didn't understand at that point God was using that as one of several pushes for me to get into youth ministry and God ended up bringing me home to here to Huntington, West Virginia. i continued volunteering in the youth ministry here at Lewis Memorial. And in 2011, I became the student pastor at Lewis Memorial. So and you've been here ever since. I've been here 15 years.
00:06:10
NextGen Matters
It's wild. So what we're looking at now and even unpacking in this episode didn't happen overnight. It has been a long and hard journey, but it's one of faithfulness.
00:06:22
NextGen Matters
And sowing and now reaping. Sometimes we think of that verse in the negative, and it has the negative connotation, but this is also the positive. You've sown righteousness. You've sown godliness. You've sown the the the seeds of the gospel.
Execution and Participation in Events
00:06:37
NextGen Matters
You have so many students now still living for Jesus over all these years. Some of you, some of these people even here in this church still. Yeah, we're getting really close to having some students who were in our youth ministry 15 years ago sending their kids to our student ministry. wow So we're we're really close. So that's exciting. That's awesome.
00:06:57
NextGen Matters
So you've been doing outreach events for a long time. You have two big big ones in the year, your fall, Thanksgiving, that take us there.
00:07:08
NextGen Matters
So at the at the end of the fall, kind of the fall fall semester, the week before Thanksgiving, so it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving week, because in in West Virginia, Thanksgiving week is kind of a holy week. because that's when rifle season comes in for deer, specifically for antler deer in West Virginia. So the schools know better than to try to have school during that week because all the guys will just be out in the woods anyway. So school breaks for Thanksgiving week. So the Wednesday before Thanksgiving week break, we have our not so traditional Thanksgiving dinner outreach. The the the main idea is it's kind of like a potluck of Friendsgiving for teenagers. We ask them to bring a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
00:07:51
NextGen Matters
food items. So you're talking, cranberry sauce. you were talking pizza, McDonald's hamburgers, so Taco Bell, Chinese food, everything in between. So it's this amazing smorgasbord of, of teenage oriented food. So we asked them to bring a non-traditional food item and also a friend or two. And usually our, our students are very, very great. Just incredible about bringing both. They bring their friends.
00:08:16
NextGen Matters
paper give dessert too? Oh, there's there's dessert. a lot of Krispy Kreme donuts. Amen. and And last year, Krispy Kreme is about 45 minutes away. Somebody brought hot Krispy Kreme donuts.
00:08:33
NextGen Matters
I would say the kingdom of Jesus pretty much here. Revival almost broke out right there. Exactly. So that is your big outreach event for the school year. But you also have what we just had last night. At the end of the year, color wars.
00:08:46
NextGen Matters
At the end of the year, and just really now you're introing to the summer program as well. Yes. And you been doing this color war? We've been doing it off and on for for quite some time, but we've done it consistently as an end of school year event for the past five years.
00:08:59
NextGen Matters
So coming out of COVID, we started doing that and we're kind of in this, probably a lot of student pastors have school districts maybe
Gospel Focus and Personal Stories
00:09:06
NextGen Matters
in what I call kind of the lame duck year between time of the school year, but where the seniors have to be done. So all the grades are pretty much in and you're just buying time yeah until, and until summer break begins. So there's not, there aren't many extracurriculars or there's not much homework due. Great time to have an outreach event. True. True.
00:09:25
NextGen Matters
So let's go there. So you the last few years you've done it consistently and it's been growing. So all you have to do is say color war and they're they know what to expect.
00:09:36
NextGen Matters
They're absolutely bringing their friends. But for us watching and us listening, what's going on? Walk us through. What do you do? So kind of a play by play. We have a God's really blessed us with a building here that's dedicated to our student ministry, and college, young adult ministry. So we invite students over the course of two weeks. Our students are taking.
00:09:58
NextGen Matters
invitations that have all the information on them, hand delivering them to their friends and and their peers at schools. And then we asked them all to be here at 645 that evening.
00:10:09
NextGen Matters
They line up outside the building to get checked in. So if they're guests, they fill out a first time visitor card. If they're regular attenders, we check them in in our attendance system. Then they go inside and we feed them pizza.
00:10:21
NextGen Matters
We had, I think, 60 boxes of pizza. Had. We went had as the key word because they're all empty now. Yeah. And they're actually stacked up because this is the next day I'm with him. They're stacked up, you know, the behind us here. It's kind of a it's going to be a great bonfire. A leaning tower of yeah pizza.
00:10:38
NextGen Matters
You know, there's no difference between youth pastor jokes and dad jokes. There pretty much is and pretty much the same.
Encouragement for Youth Leaders
00:10:43
NextGen Matters
Okay. Especially when you're a 40 year old youth pastor. Yeah. Yeah. It blends really well. Doesn't it So the students also get a white t-shirt with our student ministry logo on it at check-in. So they got their pizza, they have their t-shirt. Then we take them into our auditorium where they're given the gospel message. And the gospel message is really the central part. We build everything else around that. So it's not a kind of a five minute drive by. It's a it's a deep message. You gave me like 30 minutes.
00:11:11
NextGen Matters
I gave him 30 minutes. ninety He took about 90. I'm joking. But he but but Rich did an incredible job explaining to our students the what the gospel is and use the demonstration, starting with a dirtied color war t-shirt.
00:11:27
NextGen Matters
Oh, yeah. Explaining the problem of sin, wearing that dirty color war t-shirt. And then i have a paint drenched shirt, I said, but I have a sin drenched life. Exactly.
00:11:40
NextGen Matters
then partway through the message. I had to help him because the shirt was so drenched. It it was hard to get off. i he We took the shirt off and put a brand new wear a white shirt on to represent new life and Jesus. So I was walking through in the gospel presentation, walking through seven reasons, there's more, but seven reasons why people just resist the gospel.
00:12:02
NextGen Matters
You know, i won't go through those seven right now, but the point was all of us seem to resonate with one, two or three of those BC before Christ, you know, and here's the deal. The auditorium seats about 200.
00:12:14
NextGen Matters
We had close to 400 students and then adults. for cook Anyway, so, uh, Did I say fire code? Nobody said fire. The fire department was there. They were there. But nobody said anything about fire code. Guys, there were students sitting behind me. look behind me and go, oh, there's the choir.
00:12:32
NextGen Matters
There's other students over here. Oh, here's the band. i mean They were right in the front. It was every seat was taken against the walls. Students in the floor, students in the aisles. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. And yes, so I was walking through with my dirty shirt and I asked him toward the back end of my talk to come bring me up a white shirt because I kept saying, how can I, can I just clean myself up? And I had a wet sponge and I was rubbed in new, new paint with it. And they're, oh, gross, and new paint with it. And then trying trying to get clean. I can't clean myself.
00:13:02
NextGen Matters
I have to have, and that's where the gospel comes in. to have holiness because without holiness, no one can see God. That was the initial premise. But how can I be holy when i receive his holiness and the beautiful transaction of 2 Corinthians 5 21. So Matt brings me out the white shirt and I'm kind of doing this like i have this on, but yet I have this white shirt. I could have freedom and forgiveness in Christ, but do I really want And that was a cool thing. When you helped me lift that shirt off and I put the new white shirt on, your students erupted in cheering.
00:13:36
NextGen Matters
And it was it was cheering and in praise to the Lord. Yeah, it was organic. It was made spontaneous. I got jacked. i was like, yes, he wins. It was beautiful.
00:13:48
NextGen Matters
All the students there without Jesus, think about the power of what they're witnessing, not just from the guy in the stage, but from their own peers. That was to me a powerful shout out to the gospel of Jesus.
00:14:00
NextGen Matters
So yeah, gospel is presented. Gospels presented. We had a response time. Yep. And students were given the opportunity to respond to the gospel and to let us know that they responded to the gospel. yep then when many did And many did. Many did.
00:14:14
NextGen Matters
when then when that section was When that segment was over and the response time was finished, we dismissed out of our building into the parking lot for the color war. And you the the first two games we divided boys and girls because sometimes boys can be more aggressive, but sometimes the girls are more girls can get it aggressive. yeah But the first one we did was paint dodgeball where we have buckets of paint.
00:14:38
NextGen Matters
It's washable paint, but it's not entirely washable. And we had foam dodgeballs and they would dip the dodgeballs in the paint and throw them at each other. And and that was that was a lot of fun. Then we went to a game where it was kind of like noodle tag, pool noodle tag, only they dipped the pool noodles in paint. Five gallon buckets of paint. Five buck gallon buckets of paint and tagged each other. No, don't tag. They slap. Yeah.
00:15:03
NextGen Matters
The politically correct way is tagging. Yeah. But the the reality is that is making they walloped each other. the Which is my own my my hook, my opening intro to talk is that y'all came here for one reason today and that's to mess somebody else up. And they cheered. But then I said, but in reality, you want to get messed up. They cheered louder. Yeah. get sick They just wanted to get covered in pain.
00:15:23
NextGen Matters
I got I got. names Yeah. So after after that's that game is was over. We did. We call it just call it the color powder free for all. We line them up in a single file line and put five gallon buckets of chalk.
00:15:36
NextGen Matters
color powder on each side 12 six on one side six on the other and when we say go they each get little three ounce cups three ounce clear cups when we say go they can run to the buckets up the powder fill their cups up with powder and throw it at each other and it's just like a a cloud of colored it looks like pollen oh yeah it's every color pollen that you ever that you never knew existed What's crazy is here, I was out watching it with my iPhone. I'm recording a lot.
00:16:08
NextGen Matters
Okay. And by the way, we'll have links for you because this is up on his social media platforms, including you paid a highly professional gentleman. He used to work with Craig Rochelle out there. Yeah. They lives here and he's, he hired him to do the drone. Look, the video looks incredible. So we have we'll have links to you for that.
00:16:26
NextGen Matters
But what I loved is I was with the parents. And the little kids, they're all like, it's like a football game. They're watching it from the stands. They have where they're located up here on the ridge. There's a a side road and there's people even up there looking down, watching it. You had an audience it It was amazing. And you have some people from the community sometimes come and watch, but then the rest of the church kind of rallies around it and watches and they're excited. And even before we have the event, we've already made announcements and had prayer times on Sunday morning. So the whole church is is is aware that this is more than just games on the parking lot. They know the gospel was just presented. So it's just this amazing spirit of kind of intergenerational,
00:17:11
NextGen Matters
oneness and connectedness around this mission. So it's, it's, it's exciting. Yep. Yep. So let's get into this a little bit. Back to the Thanksgiving. Through Next Gen Matters, I have in the past, I have put together a cohort, which is also even available for anyone, anytime, just kind of a one-on-one with me and and you, for example.
00:17:31
NextGen Matters
And you and your, back then, your resident, who's now a student pastor down south, you and your resident, you hired me in to do this cohort called Engage, where I walk you through a ton of material, handwritten material, on how to develop an outreach event and then actually have you plan out the event, which we met four times for sessions and then three times just for more coaching, including one after the event.
00:17:59
NextGen Matters
How did it go? And you share with me, and you already had a very successful event, but just it was just last month on the phone, we were talking, you said, I can't believe it, looking back, the growth that only you have done, let's say professionally, but even your students have grown.
00:18:16
NextGen Matters
and then numerically because they've owned the vision. Let's walk through some of that a little bit. So it really, if I can back up just a hair, two things were working together at the same time. yes I started the D-Min, Doctor of Ministry program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and started working on my research project And in my research, we talked about a little bit already, discovered there are 14,123 students within a 10 minute drive of our church and only 564, 4% of them have a faith alone relationship with Jesus.
00:18:53
NextGen Matters
That became the why. That became the urgency. Yes. And the urgency, the gospel urgency that we started realizing and that we were putting up in front of the students on a weekly basis.
00:19:08
NextGen Matters
monthly basis, then the engaged cohort that became the plan to address the urgent need. So it's not just a matter of trying to turn out numbers, right?
00:19:22
NextGen Matters
We're trying to create a exciting event, but it's a matter of making a gospel impact. So the urgency that we were that that I was experienced personally as a student pastor and then as it was transmitting to our leaders and our students,
00:19:37
NextGen Matters
The engaged cohort came along at the same time and provided the rails it's good for the train to move. yeah So we've seen starting in 2022 when we did the the outreach for the first time after the engaged cohort, I think we had 150 students attend and it's caught on.
00:19:59
NextGen Matters
And this last year, this last school year, we had 360 students attend this event. And each of these events, we've had students give their lives to Jesus. Our students have become passionate about inviting students because they know there's a plan. They know there's a plan for the gospel to be shared. They know it's going to be an event that is going to engage, no pun intended, yeah is going to engage them as far as having a good time relationally, but also engage them spiritually. So that that's really provided the rails for the train to run on over the past four or five years. And I've taken that, you you didn't just catch fish for me, you know you taught me to fish through the Engage cohort. So I started applying it not only to our Thanksgiving dinner, I've been applying it using the same framework for our color war.
00:20:50
NextGen Matters
And, you know, provide various forms, walk you through it. And that's the fun part of it because you're actually building a real event. And I'm here off to the sideline helping coach, coach you with that. and then follow up with you. How did it go?
00:21:03
NextGen Matters
But what's so beautiful for me to see is now you can then take that and implement on that, not only to other events, but you can now incorporate this into equipping, that's your job, pastoring, is to equip your people.
00:21:16
NextGen Matters
Yes. To the point where now you have a new young man you've just hired, been married a month, 20 years old, right? And he's offices right behind us you're watching on YouTube. Ben and his wife, he's going to be going through it again. You just reached out to me said, hey, can we do this again? said, let's go. Bring it on. And we're going to be planning a whole new event yeah that that kicks off our school year. Yeah. yeah yeah and and And Ben is going to be heading, I go like this because he's literally on the other side of the wall, but Ben is going be heading this event up.
00:21:43
NextGen Matters
and And I covered that with him this morning. We were grabbing some some biscuits and all. Amazing. Got these massive biscuits. We do biscuits right in West Virginia. I think they're like 35 pounds of biscuit. It's huge.
00:21:54
NextGen Matters
Anyway, so we' were walking through that. I was, and then Matt with with him, and I said, no, Ben, we're going to have you be preparing the event. because that's all part of your leadership. And I'll be providing that sideline conversation with, like I said, like that, the guardrails, but then you're the hands on, you're his mentor, you're his shepherd, not just his supervisor, you're his shepherd and helping him learn because this is all part to me of 2 Timothy 2.2, you're discipling another generation of leaders.
00:22:21
NextGen Matters
So very cool. Now let's let's step back a minute in your event. I think there's three, at least three relational keys that we need to make sure that an outreach event really takes place. One, the students. Students have to buy it.
00:22:33
NextGen Matters
Two, parents. Parents have to buy in. Three, your local church. And really with that, your senior leadership. Your pastor started this church back in the day.
00:22:45
NextGen Matters
He's been pastor here since 1982. yeah So for over 40 years. And what's crazy is Matt's been on staff 15 and he's still the youngest tenured pastor here. They've all been together like like an old 70s rock and roll band or something. We're like Kiss. there' still Well, that's what i saw last night. A bunch of students. go Yeah, we looked like it last night. I actually said, man, this looks like a Kiss concert. Everybody's dressed up, right? Anyway, the the thing that's so cool is you've had this longevity. You personally, but even your team.
00:23:11
NextGen Matters
But... Your lead pastor buys in. This whole church buys into student ministry. I mean, many of us in ministry, myself, I'm pointing me right now, didn't always have that in a local church.
00:23:23
NextGen Matters
You know you're blessed. You are blessed. And the fruit of so much of what you do, I'm saying from the outsider's perspective, is because from senior leadership down, they buy in. It's not, those students are off in that separate building because I know your students are actually in the service on Sundays because I've preached there and they're there.
00:23:41
NextGen Matters
And I love it from the top down, your church buys in. So yes, your students have bought in, parents have bought in and your church buys in. But let's go back to the students.
00:23:53
NextGen Matters
And there's actually one other group I failed to mention. And that's your leadership team. I want to start with them right now. My observation, you asked me this morning, was my observations.
00:24:03
NextGen Matters
This is a five star. I rarely see an event this well organized to have close to 400 students and so tightly run. Here's some of my takeaways.
00:24:17
NextGen Matters
You had a large number of adults here and they weren't just college age. These are parents and even some grandparents. You a multi-generational leadership team.
00:24:27
NextGen Matters
That's huge. A multi-generational leadership team. Everyone had a role to play. I'm not here to judge. I'm here to enjoy. You asked me to come in, I spoke.
00:24:38
NextGen Matters
I'm just enjoying it. But from the super fan perspective, not a judge, from the super fan perspective, what I saw was every adult had a role to play.
00:24:49
NextGen Matters
They were hustling, literally like running around, trying to get from here to here to help students to do their jobs, do it well. I'm a big fan of saying we must have friendly and function, both. They did both.
00:25:02
NextGen Matters
Then as talking as the evening is winding down, i was grabbing my diet Pepsi there out of the kitchen, out of the fridge, and couple ladies are in there working in the kitchen. And one of your leaders, Sarah, who's been with you a long time now, and her husband both, said to me how Matt is one of the most organized youth pastors. He is so organized.
00:25:21
NextGen Matters
And she was bragging on you how organized you were. It's so funny. She pointed to the planter forms that you had put together for this event. She goes, look at this planter form. I just smiled. Yeah.
00:25:33
NextGen Matters
Never seen that before in your life, huh? I loved it. And, but she was so excited to say her youth pastor is so organized. And this is what she said. It's easy to get behind someone who's organized.
00:25:47
NextGen Matters
Let that hang in the air. It's easy to get behind someone and work with someone who's organized. Yeah. You respect your leaders. They're professionals. You treat them as that.
00:25:59
NextGen Matters
I noticed this. You communicate. She talked about the prayer prompts. You already told me about the daily prayer prompts in your group, me, church center, whatever you want to use. But I said, could you pull some of them up on your phone?
00:26:12
NextGen Matters
And she did. And she's going through every day the prayer prompts. And I go, that's cool. I went over to your planner form. I said, hey, wasn't there prayer request on the planner form? See, in the planning, we talk about this in the cohort, nothing's going to happen without a power of prayer. Exactly. And what is your prayer game plan to get your church involved and your leadership team and your students involved? So that went from the paper into your group he and your leaders believed in that.
00:26:39
NextGen Matters
Matt, that was awesome. I just want say props to you, buddy. well We have an absolute all-star team of leaders and you just, you can't do anything. impactful, large scale events without... They're the heroes. Yeah, they they are the heroes. They are the heroes. And one of the best things that we can do is just resource them. And like you said, treat them treat them like professionals. Many of them have professional type jobs and responsibilities and You may have heard somebody say before, if it's Christian, it ought to be better.
00:27:09
NextGen Matters
yeah And when when we empower and give leaders room to room to be leaders and and make decisions and handle people, they they come through. yeah they So your leaders bought in. yeah Amen. Your leaders bought in. You communicated well.
00:27:27
NextGen Matters
They had tasks. They knew what to do. I saw it. they Everyone, all hands on deck. And they've done it well. They've done enough. I know you have some that work week to week with you. And some of the ones I was talking with, they're more, let me say, seasonal.
00:27:41
NextGen Matters
Yeah, we have some parents that are that are in a love in a life group. And it's a life group, small group at our church made up almost entirely of parents of teenagers. And they help. They're kind of our auxiliary team that help with big events. Your special ops They've all been through the training, the background checks, the process of becoming a leader. And they serve on an as-needed basis. I love that. They always come through for us. love that.
00:28:06
NextGen Matters
Your students, because you've communicated so well week after week after week, we are here to be on mission for Jesus. We are here to be creating the culture of the gospel within Refuel, namely your ministry.
00:28:19
NextGen Matters
And when they were inviting their friends, their friends came. To me, nothing... and Impact only takes place, humanly speaking, if the students own it. You know, we can create the great infrastructure, have the biggest thing, but if they don't buy in and they don't believe in it, it's not going to happen.
00:28:40
NextGen Matters
Your students buy in, they believe in that. How'd you get there with them? I think something that's important is students need first need to experience the power of the gospel themselves.
00:28:50
NextGen Matters
And we need to remind them daily of who they are in Christ. And as students are as students are finding their identity in Christ and their life is being changed and renewed daily through Christ, they they want they there are people in their life they want to see that happen to.
00:29:09
NextGen Matters
And by being able to connect that passion with an event with an opportunity. yeah And for them to know that the gospel is going to be clearly presented, it gives them the confidence to invite their friend.
00:29:24
NextGen Matters
And I i think making keeping the gospel presentation, the gospel message, the central part of the outreach event, give students confidence. Not a tag on or not a big switch. Yeah. to To where students understand it's going to be a lot of fun. Students know it's going to be, it's going to be memories in the, yeah, memories to to be made. It's all about the gram, come on.
00:29:45
NextGen Matters
But they also know that they're going to have the, that their friends going have the opportunities to give their lives to Jesus. that becomes that becomes the push. And as you as it happens from year to year to year, and they see the consistency of, we're going to give the gospel, we're going to give the gospel, they become confident and they become passionate about every year more and more about getting their friends under the sound of the gospel. Wow.
00:30:14
NextGen Matters
So you had your leadership buys in, your students buy in, the church buys in. And like I said, your your your leadership as well from the church buy in. Wow. That was some of my takeaways.
00:30:25
NextGen Matters
It was done with excellence, done well. The students were laughing, having a blast, but it was all with the intentionality. Now, some people have said to me over the years, because at in the university setting and residential, I taught a number of courses, and some, too, specifically were around the administrative side of ministry. And some would say, well, we don't we don't want to be event-driven. I can see that because we want to be...
00:30:50
NextGen Matters
90s phrase purpose-driven but highly intentional we want to be gospel driven we want to be biblically centered yes yes and yes but some will occasionally push back on an event thinking it's maybe not it's just fun and games it's not spiritual here's my quick take back the church was birthed at an event uh that's jewish culture they had three major events every year and Jewish men and families attended those large social gatherings with a spiritual center or core.
00:31:25
NextGen Matters
And of course the church was born at Pentecost. I think even more with students because students are social, they long for, they need, and they're attracted to relationships.
00:31:38
NextGen Matters
And we can provide just not a positive, you know positive alternative to the culture. that's still not that that That's still not enough.
00:31:48
NextGen Matters
What we're creating is a godly community that unsafe students can come and see and become a part of. Yes, absolutely. and And so we're using how they're made by God in adolescence. They're very relationally hungry.
00:32:05
NextGen Matters
Well, let's do that for the gospel and let's give them something enjoyable. Why don't have adults push back and say, well, that's just a bunch of games. i'm thinking adults, don't you all get together and you do card games or something together or you you watch a TV show together? you Because we're all relational. We're all ideally, we all have a sense of social connection.
00:32:25
NextGen Matters
So you're providing and you're using the means or the tool of social connection, but for the spiritual purpose of the greatest purpose, and that's the gospel. Quick story, we're going to land this plane really soon here, but quick story I saw last night.
00:32:38
NextGen Matters
I will change her name. It's a real young lady. She's 14. I met her. But your wife April walked up to me as massive amounts of students were checking in and she shared with me about a young lady who's in line right now that visited your ministry for the first time ever three weeks before for an hour and a half in your wife's office unloading some real hurts, some real junk, some real stuff. I'm an atheist. I'm trans. I'm this, I'm that. Like she was, like your wife said to me, she's just like, I felt she was pushing my buttons, like trying to get me to react, to get the Christian to go, to get angry. And your wife was just so gracious and so spirit filled. And so like, just so mellow.
00:33:19
NextGen Matters
Well, we're glad you're here. You don't have to believe in God to come here. We want you to, but you're here. We love you. She came last night. And at the very end, and I realized who she was because your wife physically described her and I saw her. She was seated on this.
00:33:36
NextGen Matters
I'm on the stage. She's seated right in front of me because, again, a lot of were having to sit on their backsides on their bums because there was no room for them in the end. All the chairs were gone. She's literally in front of me looking right up.
00:33:50
NextGen Matters
And I didn't know at the time, but the Spirit of God was speaking to her. Because after when you said, okay, let's go. And I have a six second clip on my phone of literally they were, they screamed and they ran, literally ran out the doors.
00:34:03
NextGen Matters
Let me say Sarah, that's not a real name, but let me say Sarah stays behind to talk to me. And she starts sharing some of the things, how she feels so loved here, Matt. She comes from a mom and dad who had been split for years, abusive background. I'll just leave it at that.
00:34:20
NextGen Matters
She goes, I find love here. I'm loved here. She kept saying that Matt. I realized this is the girl that your wife talked with. It it really is. This is the same one. And I says, well, what about you and Jesus?
00:34:34
NextGen Matters
She goes, I prayed with you to receive Jesus in my life. I said, if that was a sincere prayer of faith in your heart, and I asked them to pray loud.
00:34:45
NextGen Matters
Yeah. Not just in their brain, but out loud you did to confess Christ as Lord out loud. And I says, if that really is you, you now are a new creation in Christ. You have new life.
00:34:58
NextGen Matters
And then your wife came up. And when I asked her to share that news of the gospel with your wife, dude, you got a good lady.
00:35:10
NextGen Matters
out kicked my coverage. There you go. I got to use that one Your wife, as soon as this young lady said to April about her own salvation that 15 minutes earlier, 20 minutes earlier, your wife just starts to tear right up and cry, hugs this girl and says, you have been on my prayer list for the last three weeks.
00:35:35
NextGen Matters
I've been praying for you every day that you receive Jesus.
00:35:39
NextGen Matters
That's why we do outreach events. And that's why I love partnering with you. You are one of the dearest friends I have. I mean that. And I love your church and I love spending time with you. Any closing thoughts you have for encouragement or anything to our listeners? And by the way, you're one of those listeners. so My encouragement would be to find your why.
00:36:01
NextGen Matters
it's It's great to have a game plan. You need a game plan, but you need to know why you're doing what you're doing.
00:36:09
NextGen Matters
What's the spiritual condition of the students in your community?
00:36:16
NextGen Matters
It's easy in church environments to be isolated from the lostness. We need to be in our communities and we need to know our communities. And once you have a why, you can deal with just about any how, how to get it done.
00:36:33
NextGen Matters
You're willing to make sacrifices. You're willing to stay a little longer. You're willing to have conversations that you'd rather not have. Go, go. yeah What is your why?
00:36:43
NextGen Matters
My why the 14,123 students who are within a minute drive of our church facility. My prayer is that that's becoming the why of our student ministry. yes I see it becoming the why of our student ministry.
00:36:58
NextGen Matters
When we have a burden for the lost, all of the other things that we're trying to do as a church kick into gear. It's like a body that wakes up.
00:37:08
NextGen Matters
yeah Because when you're trying to reach the lost, you have no choice but to go to the word and to go to the Lord because you need his power and need is you need his strength. You have no choice but to disciple your students because they're the ones who are going to reach their peers. When we get a burden for the lost, when we have the why, it wakes us up as the body of Christ and causes us to do what he's what what he's called us to do.
00:37:33
NextGen Matters
Wow. Wow. Praise God. Well, hey, there you go. Matt, can they reach out to you? Absolutely. yeah I love to connect with student ministry leaders. Well, your, on the show notes, I'll have your your email address and some links to what they do.
00:37:48
NextGen Matters
He's a great resource. And he's now Dr. McClay. won't be operating on anyone anytime soon. Which makes us a paradox. That's not a good way. That's not a good way to end a show.
00:38:01
NextGen Matters
So, hey, thanks again for watching and and for listening. And if you haven't yet subscribed, Matt, what should they do? You need to subscribe. You need to follow this guy. I've learned so much. I so appreciate you. I love what I do. And my last closing thought was this. I don't care how long I stay in this game of life.
00:38:22
NextGen Matters
And as long as Jesus gives me breath, I still want to share the gospel with the teenagers. that I can't, it's just, if you're called, you know, you know that you know, okay.
00:38:32
NextGen Matters
To be sharing the gospel with these students last night, to be speaking God's word to teenagers fills my heart more than anyone would know, unless you have that calling, then you know what I'm talking about.
00:38:44
NextGen Matters
The drive, the passion still there. I still love getting up, the not just trying to make them laugh, but just be a man who just loves them and loves God.
00:38:57
NextGen Matters
gets to share, hears the hope of the gospel, freedom and forgiveness in Jesus. this note There's no better role in the world, guys. If you're doing student ministry, you know what i'm talking about.
00:39:09
NextGen Matters
It's a blessing. All right, well, we're out. Take care. Have a great week.