Who Is Shaping the Identity of Gen Z?

WEBVTT

00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:01.903
Think back to when you were a teenager.

00:00:01.903 --> 00:00:02.947
What were you like?

00:00:02.947 --> 00:00:04.108
Were you shy?

00:00:04.108 --> 00:00:07.943
Maybe you were on top of the world and everybody loved you.

00:00:07.943 --> 00:00:09.688
Did you have it all together?

00:00:09.688 --> 00:00:11.913
Maybe you had nothing together.

00:00:11.913 --> 00:00:14.404
Maybe you felt awkward in your own skin.

00:00:14.404 --> 00:00:18.463
Maybe you wanted to know if anybody cared, if anybody loved you.

00:00:18.463 --> 00:00:22.772
Maybe you were just confused on what your purpose was in life.

00:00:22.772 --> 00:00:25.414
And then, as you got into college, nothing helped there, because they don't teach you what your purpose was in life.

00:00:25.414 --> 00:00:29.245
And then, as you got into college, nothing helped there, because they don't teach you what your purpose is.

00:00:29.245 --> 00:00:32.152
They are there to teach you what.

00:00:32.152 --> 00:00:35.987
They're there to teach you and to get you moving on that treadmill.

00:00:35.987 --> 00:00:40.384
But then you become a young adult and you're wondering what is my purpose?

00:00:40.384 --> 00:00:42.287
Why did I go to college?

00:00:42.287 --> 00:00:44.332
Why did I graduate from high school?

00:00:44.332 --> 00:00:46.127
Where am I going with my life?

00:00:46.127 --> 00:00:52.689
If these are any of the questions that you had when you were younger, or maybe you are in one of those stages right now.

00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:58.832
Today's guest, benjamin Croshaw, has a ministry and a message for you.

00:00:58.832 --> 00:01:03.551
He is a student ministry pastor and he works with truefaceorg.

00:01:03.551 --> 00:01:07.281
They help you find your identity in Christ.

00:01:07.281 --> 00:01:37.602
This was a very meaningful conversation for me, and in the middle of this I had a wow moment for what I think has been one of my struggles in my youth and I think that's why this guest resonated with me so much and I had to have him on, especially during this tribute to masculinity, because there aren't that many men who have a heart for the youth, but Benjamin Croshaw does, and you are going to be blessed by this conversation.

00:01:37.962 --> 00:01:39.365
My name is Anna Murby.

00:01:39.365 --> 00:01:41.590
This is Honest Christian Conversations.

00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:42.753
Let's get to it.

00:01:42.753 --> 00:01:52.384
Honest Christian conversations, let's get to it Before the episode starts.

00:01:52.384 --> 00:01:53.727
Make sure you follow the show so you never miss another episode.

00:01:53.727 --> 00:01:57.602
Benjamin, thank you so much for coming on the show to talk with me today.

00:01:57.963 --> 00:02:01.111
I love the videos you've been doing for the Path.

00:02:01.111 --> 00:02:09.287
I watched the first one and I was choking back tears because I resonated with it and I binged watched all of them.

00:02:09.287 --> 00:02:13.461
I read the first chapter of that book, which is also very amazing.

00:02:13.461 --> 00:02:24.610
I never got into Pilgrim's Progress, although I did go to a Christian high school, so it was something that was required reading, but I just didn't find it interesting.

00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:32.331
But I did find this very engaging and your ministry, true Face, is amazing as well.

00:02:32.633 --> 00:02:46.177
All of this to say I guess I kind of somehow resonate with Gen Z for some reason, and I don't even know what Gen Z generation is, but I know I'm not it because I'm in my 40s, so I think I'm the tail end of millennium.

00:02:46.177 --> 00:02:52.491
I don't know, but I know I'm not Gen Z, so it's funny, but I just resonate.

00:02:52.491 --> 00:03:02.962
I think it just harkens back to the days when I was younger and I really wished I had something like your platforms to speak to me in a way that I really needed.

00:03:02.962 --> 00:03:13.151
I am ready to jump in and hear everything you have to say of how you got involved with True Face, but before we get to that, give us a brief overview of how you came to Christ.

00:03:13.420 --> 00:03:16.965
Well, we can talk about all of it, ana, we can talk about it all.

00:03:16.965 --> 00:03:19.247
And I'm not in Gen Z either.

00:03:19.247 --> 00:03:22.127
So I grew up in a Christian home.

00:03:22.127 --> 00:03:24.344
Preacher's kid Going to church was fine.

00:03:24.344 --> 00:03:26.228
I loved the people at my church.

00:03:26.228 --> 00:03:29.830
I just had absolutely no interest in following Jesus.

00:03:29.830 --> 00:03:30.884
I wasn't opposed to it.

00:03:30.884 --> 00:03:34.048
Just go to church on Sunday, say hey to everybody.

00:03:34.048 --> 00:03:36.485
Really small church, everybody was really sweet.

00:03:36.485 --> 00:03:37.483
I loved them.

00:03:37.483 --> 00:03:42.240
But it just never crossed my mind to connect it to Monday at school.

00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:45.127
So all growing up that was just again.

00:03:45.127 --> 00:03:51.008
I wasn't mad, I wasn't anti-God, it just wasn't my thing.

00:03:51.008 --> 00:03:53.073
I guess your typical preacher's kid Apathetic.

00:03:53.173 --> 00:03:54.782
I guess Apathetic.

00:03:55.342 --> 00:03:56.844
Maybe people talk about.

00:03:56.844 --> 00:04:05.027
I think sometimes it felt irrelevant and I thought God was the emperor up in the sky.

00:04:05.027 --> 00:04:08.447
So I just didn't think God cared about my Tuesdays.

00:04:08.447 --> 00:04:10.814
I didn't think he cared about my dating life.

00:04:10.814 --> 00:04:22.228
I think he wanted me to pray and read my Bible and go to church and then after that we were kind of done and I could move on with the rest of my life and didn't really see how he was interested in any other part of my life.

00:04:22.428 --> 00:04:23.610
And so, again, it wasn't.

00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:25.994
Irrelevance is the best way I can think of it.

00:04:25.994 --> 00:04:41.807
And so it was the summer after my freshman year in college and on the outside things were going pretty well in my life in college, and my old student pastor said we're going to our summer camp, that we took the youth group every year, and he said we need a chaperone.

00:04:41.807 --> 00:04:43.730
So I'm aging myself now, Anna.

00:04:43.730 --> 00:04:45.434
Back in the day we had chaperones.

00:04:45.434 --> 00:04:50.069
Remember those days, right, yes, we call them small group leaders now, but back in the day, chaperones.

00:04:50.069 --> 00:04:52.869
And he said we don't have enough chaperones, Can you go?

00:04:52.869 --> 00:04:55.067
And I said well, am I going to have to miss a week of work?

00:04:55.067 --> 00:05:02.886
And he said, unfortunately, yes, and I was like charge of the seventh grade boys.

00:05:02.886 --> 00:05:05.747
I did a terrible job as far as being a chaperone goes.

00:05:05.747 --> 00:05:12.134
And there was a guy up there speaking who was just red-faced and angry the whole week just letting us have it.

00:05:12.213 --> 00:05:16.757
You know, I don't know if you've been to one of those churches where the priest is looking at you.

00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:30.149
But somehow the last night Holy Spirit just got a hold of me through this red-faced mean priest and brought me up to the altar and I laid down and I was just at the end of myself.

00:05:30.149 --> 00:05:33.290
I was tired of my life being all about me.

00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:42.625
I mean, all my relationships revolved around me, all my thoughts revolved around me, and I didn't realize it at the time, but I was just miserable and so I went up.

00:05:42.625 --> 00:05:43.509
I'm like crying.

00:05:43.509 --> 00:05:46.204
My seventh grade boys are like what happened to Benjamin?

00:05:46.204 --> 00:05:47.086
You know, are you okay?

00:05:47.086 --> 00:05:50.494
And I got up and never the same after that moment.

00:05:50.494 --> 00:05:51.422
It really was.

00:05:51.422 --> 00:05:56.572
I knelt down at the altar and stood up and life has never been the same since then.

00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:00.141
Praise God that is that is awesome.

00:06:00.221 --> 00:06:03.564
Your story reminds me of my son who's 13.

00:06:03.564 --> 00:06:04.745
He's kind of.

00:06:04.745 --> 00:06:05.706
Your story reminds me of my son who's 13.

00:06:05.706 --> 00:06:06.045
He's kind of meh.

00:06:06.045 --> 00:06:08.067
You know he goes to youth group.

00:06:08.067 --> 00:06:13.230
You know it's like pulling teeth telling him hey, you should read your Bible, spend some time with God.

00:06:13.230 --> 00:06:15.172
He wants to have a relationship and he's just like.

00:06:15.172 --> 00:06:17.194
He's just kind of he's not there yet.

00:06:17.194 --> 00:06:23.418
So your story gives me hope that maybe it'll happen just the way that is supposed to.

00:06:23.418 --> 00:06:29.831
So that is that is wonderful, and I am noticing a trend that you seem to really enjoy being around the younger people.

00:06:34.444 --> 00:06:35.728
We were talking this past weekend.

00:06:35.728 --> 00:06:49.379
We had a retreat and we were talking about where you feel this kind of special, like what tugs at your heart, and everybody has these different groups of people that come to mind when you think about oh man, somebody should get involved with them.

00:06:49.379 --> 00:06:55.853
I started working in student ministry when I was still a teenager, so 19 year old.

00:06:55.853 --> 00:06:58.165
I started working at a camp.

00:06:58.165 --> 00:07:14.309
My sister signed me up and, you know, agreed for me to do all these things, and so I was, in between my sophomore and junior year in college, working with high school students who were exiting their junior year of high school, and it was like that from the beginning.

00:07:14.309 --> 00:07:18.822
That was where God was pulling me was towards teenagers.

00:07:19.062 --> 00:07:28.572
That is the reason why I had to have you on during my tribute to masculinity, because there are not many people who say they have a heart for teenagers.

00:07:28.572 --> 00:07:30.754
My pastor is the same way.

00:07:30.754 --> 00:07:32.961
He loves teenagers.

00:07:32.961 --> 00:07:35.206
He's like they're annoying but he loves them.

00:07:35.206 --> 00:07:40.485
And you guys kind of are about the same in that whole area of you.

00:07:40.485 --> 00:07:41.728
Just have a heart for them.

00:07:41.728 --> 00:07:52.230
He started out in the youth group and now he's the pastor of our church, but he still loves the youth and that is not something you hear very often from any Christian.

00:07:52.230 --> 00:08:00.012
I think it's like you know, sometimes they go, I'll go there, but it's not really what I want to do.

00:08:00.012 --> 00:08:01.084
I'd rather do this.

00:08:01.084 --> 00:08:03.427
But that's the next generation.

00:08:03.427 --> 00:08:06.569
They need to have people, especially ones who care.

00:08:06.569 --> 00:08:18.509
It is important that they see that you care, so I think that's why you have thrived so much in it is because you care and they see that I mean teenagers can smell it when you're not authentic.

00:08:19.802 --> 00:08:22.802
You better believe it, you absolutely better believe they can.

00:08:22.802 --> 00:08:24.084
That is so true yeah.

00:08:24.105 --> 00:08:25.607
You better believe it, you absolutely better believe they can.

00:08:25.607 --> 00:08:26.247
That is so true.

00:08:26.247 --> 00:08:30.314
Yeah, so tell us about True Face and how you got involved with them.

00:08:30.495 --> 00:08:38.960
Yeah, so I'm going to tell a very long story in a very short period of time.

00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:57.679
But I graduated college, worked at a small church in student ministry among 55 other things, went to a big church, worked in student ministry, then went to a parachurch ministry where I was working in the high school camp ministry which was a big part of my heart because that's where I came to know Jesus was at a camp, you know.

00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:01.227
So a big passion for weekend retreats and summer camps.

00:09:01.227 --> 00:09:07.801
And so I started speaking a lot the D Now Disciple Now weekends and stuff.

00:09:07.801 --> 00:09:13.602
I was kind of the flavor of the month there for a little bit when it came to in the student world.

00:09:14.804 --> 00:09:21.363
And I wrote a book for teenagers called Know God, k-n-o-w God, and did really well.

00:09:21.363 --> 00:09:25.511
And then I wrote another one and it did not do well at all.

00:09:25.511 --> 00:09:31.881
And then I wrote another one and nobody bought it except my mom and my aunt, and we launched a camp and it lost a ton of money.

00:09:31.881 --> 00:09:38.243
So things started unraveling and then simultaneously things were unraveling at home at the same time.

00:09:38.243 --> 00:10:03.947
So I kind of went on this collision course of trying to hold things together at work, trying to hold things together at home, and it was all kind of unraveling in front of me all at the same time and so then got divorced and then kind of stepped out of any kind of formal ministry, which you know makes sense, and really went into, you know, what we would call a valley season.

00:10:03.947 --> 00:10:11.288
I'm not comparing myself to Moses, but I just wrote a series on Moses, but Moses out in the desert.

00:10:11.749 --> 00:10:12.672
Wandering around.

00:10:12.672 --> 00:10:15.539
I completely get that.

00:10:15.539 --> 00:10:24.475
I had my own situation like that too, after a big mental blow and thought I was going to be doing a ministry and it didn't pan out.

00:10:24.475 --> 00:10:29.051
You're wandering around, you're trying to figure out what am I supposed to do now?

00:10:29.051 --> 00:10:30.725
What does God want me to do now?

00:10:30.725 --> 00:10:32.230
So yeah, I completely get that.

00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:33.243
I think Elijah.

00:10:33.243 --> 00:10:38.041
He was doing these things in ministry and then he fled to a place called Beersheba.

00:10:38.041 --> 00:10:41.667
He was out there and then eventually God said go back.

00:10:41.667 --> 00:10:55.028
And a really funny set of circumstances, how God had me go back and I wasn't mad at God, I wasn't mad at the church, I just was keeping my distance.

00:10:55.028 --> 00:10:57.649
So God and I were good.

00:10:57.649 --> 00:11:05.828
It was just all y'all I had a problem with, because I trusted you and you had hurt me and I just was dealing with my own wounding.

00:11:05.828 --> 00:11:07.686
If you weren't related to me, it was.

00:11:07.686 --> 00:11:10.927
You know, I wasn't unfriendly, it just my arms were crossed.

00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:14.389
And so in the second half of COVID, there was a lot going on.

00:11:14.389 --> 00:11:18.851
God was beginning to help me learn how to grieve and peer under the hood of my own soul.

00:11:18.851 --> 00:11:20.322
But my work?

00:11:20.322 --> 00:11:29.169
I was struggling to find work for the first time in my adult life and reached out to Robbie Angle, who's the president of True Face, and like, hey, I'm reaching out.

00:11:29.169 --> 00:11:32.731
I've never done this before, I'm not good at this, but do you have anything?

00:11:32.731 --> 00:11:36.682
So he started sending me these projects to edit and so at one point I called him.

00:11:36.682 --> 00:11:38.604
I said, hey, who is this for?

00:11:38.784 --> 00:11:42.869
Like I know some of these ministries y'all have like a what do they call it?

00:11:42.869 --> 00:11:43.830
Like a psychographic.

00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:45.130
It's kind of this person.

00:11:45.130 --> 00:11:46.793
This is the target person.

00:11:46.793 --> 00:11:48.695
He said, oh yeah, it's Brad.

00:11:48.695 --> 00:11:50.782
And I was like, well, tell me about Brad.

00:11:50.782 --> 00:11:54.673
And he said Brad is a middle-aged, stuck Christian.

00:11:54.673 --> 00:12:05.495
And so he started to describe Brad and I was like I think that's me, I think I am Brad, you're talking about me, and so I'm at it and God worked it out in only a way that God could.

00:12:05.495 --> 00:12:09.230
It's like having me be the chaperone at a camp where I come to know Jesus.

00:12:09.230 --> 00:12:16.073
Right, god's having me edit these resources that are targeted to me.

00:12:17.076 --> 00:12:19.923
And so then Robbie started wrangling me in a little bit more.

00:12:19.923 --> 00:12:22.451
Can you go from 10 hours a week to 20 hours a week?

00:12:22.451 --> 00:12:25.809
And he's pulling me in and I get to know the True Faith staff.

00:12:25.809 --> 00:12:35.952
It's a very small staff, but they absolutely practice what they preach, which is, you know, high trust, authentic community where we can be known and experience, you know, grace and all this stuff.

00:12:35.952 --> 00:12:37.586
And I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:12:37.586 --> 00:12:39.827
But y'all take it easy here.

00:12:39.827 --> 00:12:49.955
But I think they were really patient with me as I learned to uncross my arms and connect the dots between loving God and loving others and trusting God and trusting others.

00:12:49.955 --> 00:12:53.937
So I'm a big fan of True Face because I am True Face.

00:12:53.937 --> 00:13:06.875
I am the True Face demographic and really helped me walk my way out of the valley back into engagement with the community and with what God's doing in the kingdom, his timeless kingdom.

00:13:06.875 --> 00:13:08.221
That's awesome.

00:13:08.562 --> 00:13:13.052
So what kind of demographic does True Face work with?

00:13:14.140 --> 00:13:16.625
Yeah, historically it's been for everybody.

00:13:16.625 --> 00:13:24.650
It started 30 years ago and they started off working with business leaders to create these high trust environments.

00:13:24.650 --> 00:13:45.773
And then, some point along the way, they wrote a book called the Cure that you may have heard of, and this was really about for people who had spent a lot of time in the room of good intentions and exposing them to the room of grace and talk about the difference between living in this performance-based walk with Jesus, where you're doing everything for God, versus doing things with God, you know.

00:13:45.773 --> 00:13:53.807
And so they had reached just a lot of people who felt stuck, you know, had not experiencing a ton of peace and freedom in their lives.

00:13:53.807 --> 00:14:00.231
And so then, you know, it was a lot of different ways some small group studies, some in the church, a lot of stuff for individuals.

00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:07.647
And then Robbie and I, who both have, like you have, teenage kids of our own, started thinking well, what do we want to say to our own kids?

00:14:07.647 --> 00:14:10.357
Started with our biological kids.

00:14:10.357 --> 00:14:11.562
He has a couple teenagers.

00:14:11.562 --> 00:14:15.456
I have a teenager and a 12-year-old who's kind of like a 30-year-old.

00:14:15.456 --> 00:14:20.261
So she's kind of she's a tween, she's like a tween middle-ager.

00:14:20.261 --> 00:14:22.903
You know what I mean.

00:14:23.303 --> 00:14:26.546
And then it kind of expanded out to the students in the student ministry.

00:14:26.546 --> 00:14:36.793
I work with 30 students in the student ministry I work with and then by the time we were done, I was doing a ton of Gen Z, gen Alpha research, a ton of work and research with Gen Z.

00:14:36.793 --> 00:14:48.485
All of us were doing a ton of work, but by the time we were done it was just a project for everybody.

00:14:48.485 --> 00:14:50.188
So it really was.

00:14:50.188 --> 00:14:53.583
If you're 15 or you're 50, the path.

00:14:53.583 --> 00:14:54.952
I don't know if you've seen the cover.

00:14:54.972 --> 00:14:55.818
The cover's pretty cute.

00:14:55.818 --> 00:14:58.229
Yeah, absolutely gorgeous cover.

00:14:58.229 --> 00:14:59.582
It's for anybody.

00:14:59.582 --> 00:15:04.594
But this was part of what our attempt to reach the next generation.

00:15:04.594 --> 00:15:08.490
But this was part of what our attempt to reach the next generation because we had reached a lot of believers who were stuck.

00:15:08.490 --> 00:15:17.871
But that represents a lot of years of maybe walking in performance, walking in religion, where we're like what would happen if we caught them before all of that?

00:15:17.871 --> 00:15:28.067
What happened if we got to your 13-year-old son before he got, or got to him while he was still, as you say, meh, you know, trying to figure it out?

00:15:28.067 --> 00:15:29.350
So that was the big goal.

00:15:29.940 --> 00:15:31.744
Yeah, and you absolutely nailed it.

00:15:31.744 --> 00:15:34.530
I was looking through the website for True Face.

00:15:34.530 --> 00:15:35.033
I love that.

00:15:35.033 --> 00:15:40.832
You've got groups and everything and you just you can see that you just want to engage.

00:15:40.832 --> 00:15:56.307
That's what the whole website is is engaging come alongside people, help them out of their stuckness, their legalism, which I was steeped in for many years, until I was 30 years old, and I'm still chipping away at some of it now.

00:15:56.307 --> 00:16:00.100
It's a process but it's definitely by God's grace.

00:16:00.301 --> 00:16:21.033
I have been leaps and bounds different but yeah, the Path, my goodness, that's probably a book I'm going to definitely get and have my son read and I would love to have my eldest read it too, but she's kind of going through her prodigal child phase so she doesn't like reading anyway.

00:16:21.033 --> 00:16:27.624
But maybe I'll just have her watch those little videos because they were enough to choke me up, all of them so far.

00:16:27.624 --> 00:16:44.029
And, yeah, I can see how it resonates with everybody because I think, like I said, it resonated with me because of who I once was and what I wish I had had somebody say to me back then.

00:16:44.029 --> 00:16:58.884
And, of course, teenagers they haven't gone through anything yet, but you're doing to them what I wish someone would have done to me, and maybe they won't appreciate it right now, but at some point, while they're going through things, they're going to remember you know what?

00:16:58.884 --> 00:17:05.770
I read this somewhere or I heard this somewhere, and it's going to resonate and they're going to be like oh my goodness, this was from back in the day.

00:17:06.362 --> 00:17:26.231
I remember that I got to get out of this situation that I'm in, so it's evergreen material, apparently because it resonates with 40-year-olds who have five kids, and also with young people too, which is God is so good, that is so beautiful that he can make that happen.

00:17:26.231 --> 00:17:28.508
His word does not return void.

00:17:28.508 --> 00:17:32.932
It doesn't matter what age you are and how far you've gone.

00:17:32.932 --> 00:17:35.006
I just I love it.

00:17:35.921 --> 00:17:39.079
No, I appreciate all of those kind words.

00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:44.462
I think these truths are timeless right.

00:17:44.743 --> 00:17:44.903
Yeah.

00:17:45.862 --> 00:17:46.303
It just.

00:17:46.303 --> 00:17:55.868
Maybe the sequence, maybe that's not a great word, but the path, the steps along the path, may be a little bit different.

00:17:55.868 --> 00:18:05.376
So when I started in student ministry the student ministry I was working with at the time, who had four students, by the way, so they were a band, by the way.

00:18:06.567 --> 00:18:10.155
So, I was out there, they would play some songs and then we'd switch places.

00:18:10.155 --> 00:18:13.845
I was out there and they would play some songs and then we'd switch places.

00:18:13.845 --> 00:18:29.672
It was called Insight, which I-N-C-I-T-E, so after a while changed the name to Sons and Daughters, because I was thinking what is it that I want If I only have a limited number of things that teenagers could remember by the time they're done with youth group?

00:18:29.672 --> 00:18:31.596
I want them to understand identity.

00:18:31.596 --> 00:18:34.930
You are sons and daughters of King Jesus and he's a good Father.

00:18:35.109 --> 00:18:46.126
So along this journey with Tal, tal's the main character, the architect taking this leap with Jesus, the first step after that is the table, which is all about identity.

00:18:46.126 --> 00:18:54.146
Well, for me and Ana, this may be true for you as well when I took that leap with Jesus at camp, it immediately went into two different things.

00:18:54.146 --> 00:18:57.289
One was like trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.

00:18:57.289 --> 00:19:11.420
So trust, and then you get involved, you start doing things to what my view of God was and how I think God viewed me.

00:19:11.420 --> 00:19:23.076
I still kind of saw God as the emperor up in the sky, but I was just getting more gold stars than I was before, but I didn't see God in the way he describes me.

00:19:23.076 --> 00:19:39.416
I have it up there, chosen, holy, dearly loved saint, that's out of Colossians, and seeing that I'm a loved son of King Jesus, who's a good father, and that that is a my identity as his son, is not something that can be stripped away, it can't be earned, it can't be taken.

00:19:39.416 --> 00:19:42.913
That that is true of who I am as a follower of Jesus.

00:19:42.913 --> 00:19:47.846
I'm, you know, sealed by the Holy spirit, I am his kid, I am his child and really starting there.

00:19:47.905 --> 00:19:50.471
And really starting there, that's where we started on the path.

00:19:50.471 --> 00:19:59.430
Because if we went straight into okay, trust, it's like well, who am I trusting here?

00:19:59.430 --> 00:19:59.790
I'm trusting God.

00:19:59.790 --> 00:20:02.785
Well, I'm getting a lot of different pictures about who God is and I'm hearing a lot about who God is and who is God.

00:20:03.066 --> 00:20:08.905
Anytime we start looking at our creator, then eventually it shapes our identity the creator and the created.

00:20:08.905 --> 00:20:09.807
They go hand in hand.

00:20:09.807 --> 00:20:14.636
And the same with vice versa how do I see myself is typically connected to how I see God.

00:20:14.636 --> 00:20:15.699
So we started there.

00:20:15.699 --> 00:20:17.508
That was one of the places that we started.

00:20:17.508 --> 00:20:29.788
That was different from how I grew up, which before we get to faith, before we get to learning and what it looks like to grow, or what it looks like, these gifts of spending time with Jesus.

00:20:29.788 --> 00:20:38.832
Before we get there, let's start with who you are as a son or a daughter of King Jesus, who is a good father, so the truths are timeless.

00:20:38.832 --> 00:20:46.409
We just started there, as opposed to starting with faith, as opposed to starting with more knowledge and more behavior, or something like that.

00:20:46.608 --> 00:20:58.422
Yeah, hey, friends, have you joined the Honest Christian Conversations online group yet?

00:20:58.422 --> 00:21:06.969
If you haven't, you're missing out on a perfect opportunity to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ.

00:21:06.969 --> 00:21:10.194
This is a community for those who want to go deeper in their relationship.

00:21:10.194 --> 00:21:22.073
You can do Bible studies together, ask the questions you have biblically and get the answers that you might need or maybe you're somebody who has answers to somebody else's questions.

00:21:22.073 --> 00:21:24.172
You can leave your prayer requests.

00:21:24.172 --> 00:21:26.132
You can leave your praise reports.

00:21:26.132 --> 00:21:28.644
This is a community.

00:21:28.644 --> 00:21:38.653
This is what church is supposed to be, and I am so glad that I finally took that step to make this group so that people's lives can flourish in Jesus name.

00:21:38.653 --> 00:21:45.556
Also, if you haven't signed up for the mailing list, you're missing out on an opportunity there as well.

00:21:45.556 --> 00:21:53.744
I send out a weekly email chocked full of so much awesome content that I don't have time right now to share it all with you.

00:21:53.744 --> 00:22:03.153
But when you do sign up for that mailing list, you get my seven-day free devotional that I created just for those who sign up for the mailing list.

00:22:03.153 --> 00:22:15.930
If you haven't joined either of these, you can go to my website honestchristianconversationscom and sign up there, to my website honestchristianconversationscom and sign up there, or you can use the links for it in the show notes.

00:22:15.970 --> 00:22:19.076
Identity is something that's definitely important to know.

00:22:19.076 --> 00:22:26.778
I mean nowadays the way they're throwing things out they're trying to the colleges and high schools.

00:22:26.778 --> 00:22:30.468
Elementary schools are trying to shape what they think you are or what they say you should be.

00:22:30.468 --> 00:22:38.474
Elementary schools are trying to shape what they think you are or what they say you should be, and everyone's questioning their identities in more ways than they should be, and it's no more.

00:22:38.474 --> 00:22:47.321
It is very important nowadays to actually know what your true identity is, because we're all searching for truth.

00:22:47.321 --> 00:22:49.711
We want that absolute truth.

00:22:49.711 --> 00:22:55.515
Some people say they don't, but then you say, well, how do you know that you don't really want absolute truth?

00:22:55.515 --> 00:22:56.798
How would you know?

00:22:56.798 --> 00:23:04.275
So everyone wants some absolute truth and we all need that anchor of you know who we are.

00:23:04.275 --> 00:23:06.719
It's what we're all looking for.

00:23:06.719 --> 00:23:08.468
We want to know why are we here on this earth?

00:23:08.468 --> 00:23:13.239
Am I really just here to die one day and turn to dust and that's it?

00:23:13.239 --> 00:23:16.571
No one wants to live for that.

00:23:16.571 --> 00:23:18.592
You have to have something to live for.

00:23:18.771 --> 00:23:22.474
Yeah, yeah, and I think you could speak into this too.

00:23:22.474 --> 00:23:30.134
You know people have said well, now we're in a post-Christian culture, so what is it like now to try to reach the next generation?

00:23:30.134 --> 00:24:03.125
No-transcript, because they're getting fed information, information, information, but a real, authentic something.

00:24:03.125 --> 00:24:04.509
Real and authentic.

00:24:04.509 --> 00:24:06.393
The value of that is elevated.

00:24:06.393 --> 00:24:07.876
Well, that's the gospel, right?

00:24:07.876 --> 00:24:08.726
Yeah, that's what.

00:24:08.946 --> 00:24:15.813
When Jesus walked around, when Jesus met the woman at the well, it wasn't a bunch of information, it was an authentic encounter.

00:24:15.813 --> 00:24:19.449
And then she left knowing just a little bit more, but not a ton more.

00:24:19.449 --> 00:24:21.654
She became the first missionary to Samaria.

00:24:21.654 --> 00:24:52.010
So it was Jesus asked a lot of questions, he told a lot of stories and he did very little preaching, right, but he looked people in the eye, he listened to them, he asked them questions, and so I think that's what the next generation is searching for, and I think that gives us maybe more freedom than maybe it did in the late 90s and early 2000s, where it was get a bunch of people to show up for the pizza party and then you know you can talk to them about Jesus and stuff like that.

00:24:52.090 --> 00:24:59.108
It's like no, you can be as real as you should be or as you are, because if you're not, they're going to see through it.

00:24:59.108 --> 00:25:01.414
So you might as well show up as who you are.

00:25:01.414 --> 00:25:05.830
If I'm going to talk to my students about identity, well, I better check myself right.

00:25:05.830 --> 00:25:17.846
I can show up as a loved son of King Jesus, who's a good father, and not find my identity in any other aspect of what I'm doing, and so I can just show up as myself, and sometimes that just means me saying I don't know.

00:25:17.846 --> 00:25:22.547
Sometimes that means me opening up about you know, it was a tough week for me and I don't.

00:25:22.547 --> 00:25:25.715
I'm not like TMI oversharing with my students or anything like that.

00:25:25.875 --> 00:25:29.751
But, modeling authenticity, to be like yeah, I don't know, we're in this together.

00:25:29.751 --> 00:25:40.714
I don't have any answers for you on that, but let's journey together and talk about it, and I think that has an even higher value than it used to and has an even higher value than me saying here.

00:25:40.714 --> 00:25:42.465
Let me give you some more information.

00:25:42.465 --> 00:25:44.309
They got a lot of information right now.

00:25:44.490 --> 00:25:46.013
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00:25:46.013 --> 00:26:25.992
They want someone to care, and if you don't care, they know it and they're not going to trust you, they're not going to open up to you, and, working in a student ministry, it is very important that they know you care, because that's where you can build the trust, that's where, like you said, you can plant the seeds of what their true identity is and that's where you can start building this relationship where you're sharing the gospel with them in full and then maybe they're more willing to trust God because he sent them somebody who's showing them what Jesus is really like you know Now, you sound like a student pastor.

00:26:27.605 --> 00:26:30.652
You sound like a really good student pastor.

00:26:30.652 --> 00:26:34.098
I don't know what you were saying at the beginning about like hey, that's not my calling.

00:26:34.098 --> 00:26:37.991
Did we record what you just said?

00:26:37.991 --> 00:26:40.003
Because that was.

00:26:40.003 --> 00:26:45.657
You get the soundbite from your own self, not the guest.

00:26:47.729 --> 00:26:57.481
I think it's because I I didn't feel that when I was in youth group or even the college years.

00:26:57.481 --> 00:27:00.923
I think that's what I was missing.

00:27:00.923 --> 00:27:03.325
I had all the knowledge.

00:27:03.325 --> 00:27:06.226
I'd been going to church since I was a little kid.

00:27:06.226 --> 00:27:07.946
I knew everything.

00:27:07.946 --> 00:27:09.626
I knew all the Bible stories.

00:27:09.626 --> 00:27:12.548
I was very legalistic, I was very good.

00:27:12.548 --> 00:27:18.691
I didn't question things, I didn't have any doubts quote unquote because if I did, I was a bad Christian.

00:27:18.691 --> 00:27:21.251
I didn't have any of that stuff.

00:27:21.251 --> 00:27:25.834
I was the good girl and nobody noticed me.

00:27:25.834 --> 00:27:32.156
Whenever I went to youth group, the pastor's daughter always gave me the stink eye and I have no idea why, because she never even talked to me.

00:27:32.356 --> 00:27:40.127
It was a big church that I went to at one point and every single Sunday they kept asking me if I was new and it's like nope, I was here last weekend.

00:27:40.127 --> 00:27:41.731
No one ever sat with me.

00:27:41.731 --> 00:27:44.005
I was super shy and quiet.

00:27:44.005 --> 00:27:47.952
It was a really awkward experience for me and I didn't feel loved.

00:27:47.952 --> 00:27:52.107
I didn't feel seen, I didn't feel appreciated or anything.

00:27:52.107 --> 00:27:58.402
By the time I was able to start driving myself to college group, I only went if I felt like it.

00:27:58.402 --> 00:28:00.529
No one was going to keep me from going.

00:28:00.529 --> 00:28:02.396
I have my own car, I don't have to go.

00:28:02.396 --> 00:28:12.742
I don't feel like doing this and I think I just missed that authentic connection from a church family that truly cared.

00:28:12.923 --> 00:28:20.365
It wasn't just about numbers or having fun and playing the games, making the kids excited to come.

00:28:20.365 --> 00:28:25.381
There was no substance there and I think kids are wanting substance now.

00:28:25.381 --> 00:28:35.667
They've been oversaturated with stimulation, with all the things that are inauthentic, the fake reels and everything.

00:28:35.667 --> 00:28:45.286
Ooh, I got it all together and people are just getting overloaded and they're tired of it and everyone just wants something real that they can hold on to, that they can go.

00:28:45.286 --> 00:28:45.787
You know what?

00:28:45.787 --> 00:28:47.411
This is truth.

00:28:47.411 --> 00:28:48.452
This is real.

00:28:48.452 --> 00:28:57.515
I need this and I think that's what I missed in my youth years, so maybe that's why I can speak to that now.

00:28:58.580 --> 00:29:00.385
You're speaking to it powerfully.

00:29:01.589 --> 00:29:02.111
Oh, thank you.

00:29:02.401 --> 00:29:06.290
And yeah, everything you're saying, I'm like, yeah, how do I double A in that?

00:29:09.300 --> 00:29:13.172
I'll talk to your youth ministry anytime if you want.

00:29:13.172 --> 00:29:23.421
I've been through some stuff ministry anytime if you want.

00:29:23.421 --> 00:29:24.041
I've been through some stuff.

00:29:24.041 --> 00:29:31.825
But yeah, I think people who are pouring their hearts and their time and their effort and authenticity into the youth today, in my opinion I appreciate them.

00:29:31.825 --> 00:29:50.630
I don't know how everyone else feels, but you all should have more hats tipped to you for this, because it is not easy, especially with all the things they're able to learn, all the things they can find on the internet, even if they're not really looking for it pornography.

00:29:50.990 --> 00:30:01.295
These kids don't know what it's like to have to go catch the phone that's ringing and it's on the wall and you can only go so far with the cord.

00:30:01.295 --> 00:30:02.464
They don't know what that's like.

00:30:02.464 --> 00:30:08.653
They don't know what it's like to hear that really obnoxious, high-pitched squealing of you getting on the internet.

00:30:08.653 --> 00:30:10.405
They just they have it.

00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:14.131
You don't have to go to a dictionary anymore to figure out the things you want to know.

00:30:14.131 --> 00:30:15.064
You can get online.

00:30:15.064 --> 00:30:18.464
You can go on YouTube to a dictionary anymore to figure out the things you want to know.

00:30:18.464 --> 00:30:18.906
You can get online.

00:30:18.906 --> 00:30:19.387
You can go on YouTube.

00:30:19.387 --> 00:30:25.606
Their world is so different from their parents' world, from anything, and they probably think that we just can't relate to them anymore.

00:30:25.606 --> 00:30:27.791
And it couldn't be further from the truth.

00:30:27.791 --> 00:30:33.211
We all, at the end of the day, we are all the same in the fact that we all just want to be loved.

00:30:33.211 --> 00:30:36.750
We want to know who we are and why we're here.

00:30:36.750 --> 00:30:44.784
And, yeah, if they can see that you're a real person who doesn't have it all together, and I think they can trust you a little more.

00:30:45.644 --> 00:30:49.511
Yeah, yeah, it's really.

00:30:49.511 --> 00:30:53.945
I mean, I have a boy in my group awesome kid, shy, quiet.

00:30:53.945 --> 00:31:01.605
They got a soccer match where they're playing in the state tournament and showing up.

00:31:01.605 --> 00:31:04.912
This is like student ministry 101 from back in the day.

00:31:04.912 --> 00:31:09.126
You show up and it makes a huge difference.

00:31:09.126 --> 00:31:11.952
It makes a huge difference just to show up in their lives.

00:31:11.952 --> 00:31:25.806
I do think again to the point that you're saying when you're talking about the dictionary, the internet, all this at your, so then it becomes it's like all, it's like eating fast food all the time, all the time, right.

00:31:25.806 --> 00:31:30.501
And then you're you start like, huh, I'm kind of craving a home cooked meal.

00:31:30.501 --> 00:31:32.744
I kind of want a salad.

00:31:32.744 --> 00:31:33.806
I never want a salad.

00:31:34.426 --> 00:31:35.729
Yeah, yeah.

00:31:36.108 --> 00:31:41.476
Inundated this way, and I just want something different from that, and this is what the gospel offers.

00:31:41.476 --> 00:31:44.583
This is what authentic community offers.

00:31:44.583 --> 00:31:57.353
It's something so different from AI or fake news or all this stuff that you were talking about that's being thrown in front of them, and so we carry with us something that is perfectly positioned for the next generation.

00:31:57.353 --> 00:32:01.496
So we're talking about a generation of people who have information overload.

00:32:01.496 --> 00:32:06.009
They're looking for something that's authentic, and it has to do with an encounter that's real.

00:32:06.009 --> 00:32:14.730
Well, that's Jesus, right, jesus is perfect for the next generation, and so that's why we did this too.

00:32:14.730 --> 00:32:18.561
The experience guide is because, like my students, I don't know.

00:32:18.561 --> 00:32:23.894
Yeah, the path experience guide is to create these physical experiences.

00:32:23.894 --> 00:32:27.027
About half the students in my student ministry read.

00:32:27.027 --> 00:32:29.941
The other half wouldn't read if you paid them to read.

00:32:29.941 --> 00:32:34.491
We have those animation videos that you're referring to, so if you read.

00:32:34.511 --> 00:32:44.700
In a group we can watch this five minute video, because some of them are not going to read the chapter, and then it's not like just a couple of discussion questions, but we get to actually live it out and play it out.

00:32:44.700 --> 00:33:06.117
We talk about shame and you can write down on a dry erase board some of the messages that have been given or you have attached to about who you are in these negative messages attached to, about who you are in these negative messages, and we speak truth over each other where we can mark those out and replace them with truth that comes from God, and one of God's favorite ways to speak is through other people, speaking truth over your life.

00:33:06.117 --> 00:33:19.247
We have this affirmation exercise that we do at the very end, where you speak into, you speak some affirming words to each other, and that I mean that's just a huge deal for people who just don't hear that very much, which are teenagers these days.

00:33:19.247 --> 00:33:21.749
I guess adults don't really hear it that much either, for that matter.

00:33:24.387 --> 00:33:27.539
Yeah, it's a beautiful ministry getting involved with youth.

00:33:27.539 --> 00:33:31.631
I was actually involved with the youth for a little bit before I had my.

00:33:31.631 --> 00:33:34.950
I think it was my third or fourth child, I can't remember.

00:33:34.950 --> 00:33:44.390
But I look young enough to where a couple of times people thought I was in the group, which I guess is kind of flattering but also embarrassing.

00:33:46.141 --> 00:33:48.189
Now you're noticing I wasn't here last week.

00:33:48.189 --> 00:33:51.490
You know all this when I was a teenager, right.

00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:53.528
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:33:53.528 --> 00:33:56.761
But yeah, I enjoyed being in the youth group.

00:33:56.761 --> 00:34:23.561
I would have loved to have stayed, but as my kids two of my kids were getting older and I knew they were going to be joining and I want to be their mom hanging out in their youth group, it's like that's your going to encroach on their territory because they might need that space where they don't feel comfortable telling me things but they might feel comfortable telling somebody else and yeah.

00:34:23.561 --> 00:34:25.208
So yeah, but it was.

00:34:25.208 --> 00:34:27.840
It was always a blast to be involved.

00:34:27.840 --> 00:34:31.891
I mean, we had parties where you could wear your pajamas.

00:34:31.891 --> 00:34:33.806
We had dance parties.

00:34:33.806 --> 00:34:36.248
They did silly things on the stage.

00:34:36.248 --> 00:34:38.481
Dramas we had dance parties.

00:34:38.481 --> 00:34:39.503
They did silly things on the stage.

00:34:39.503 --> 00:34:47.085
Are there any stories you can tell us about things that you do in your ministry that are silly, or sometime where you remember something really funny that happened?

00:34:47.326 --> 00:34:49.351
This is just the first thing that came to mind.

00:34:49.351 --> 00:34:55.431
We do have a few yearly annual traditions.

00:34:55.431 --> 00:34:59.559
When I first started and again it was pretty small.

00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:12.403
After, I think after a couple of years, we worked up to like I don't know 11 students or so, and it was Super Bowl Sunday and our student ministry starts at 3.30 and the Super Bowl is usually like 6.30 Eastern or something like that.

00:35:12.403 --> 00:35:17.244
So we still have our youth group, and so set it all up like this football theme, right.

00:35:17.244 --> 00:35:22.324
And so then I was like all right, we're going to play football, and so split up the two teams.

00:35:22.324 --> 00:35:25.291
And we started and they're looking at me like what do we do?

00:35:25.291 --> 00:35:28.347
Like have you never played football before?

00:35:28.367 --> 00:35:30.860
And they're like no, I was like watch football before, and they're like, no.

00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:32.041
I was like, are you going to watch the Superbowl?

00:35:32.041 --> 00:35:33.143
And they're like, no.

00:35:33.143 --> 00:35:35.545
I was like, are you going to watch the Super Bowl?

00:35:35.545 --> 00:35:37.108
And they're like, maybe I don't know.

00:35:37.108 --> 00:35:40.711
And so I was like, okay, this is not the football crowd, which is totally fine.

00:35:40.711 --> 00:35:44.155
We'll figure out what crowd this is and we roll with it.

00:35:44.275 --> 00:35:54.349
So this year now, which is like five years later, super Bowl Sunday, we played football again and it was like half the students really got into it.

00:35:54.349 --> 00:35:58.621
So we decided next year we're going to do like a full on, we're going to paint the field.

00:35:58.621 --> 00:36:06.871
There's a couple of guys in my church who are going to be refs and then some of my other students are going to do the halftime show, and so we're going to do a full.

00:36:06.871 --> 00:36:10.126
We're going to have our full on Superbowl at youth group.

00:36:10.126 --> 00:36:13.532
It may work, it may not work, but we're going to give it a shot.

00:36:13.532 --> 00:36:22.699
We just started working on our own little kickball field for people who want to do kickball, making it a little more of an official looking field.

00:36:22.699 --> 00:36:32.405
So just your classic student pastor taking things and trying to make them a way bigger deal than they actually are.

00:36:32.405 --> 00:36:41.235
But we have people who like to get out and play games, and part of me creating these games is to get people moving a little bit for their own mental health.

00:36:41.675 --> 00:36:41.856
Yeah.

00:36:42.179 --> 00:36:42.802
One of my students.

00:36:42.802 --> 00:36:47.211
They've just been in their room on tablets and devices all week.

00:36:47.211 --> 00:36:52.512
I'm like, even if you don't play, just get up, move around, get outside, look people in the eye.

00:36:52.512 --> 00:36:54.157
You make interaction contact.

00:36:54.157 --> 00:37:05.567
But we have all kinds of like you know this art setup where where we're doing all kinds of crazy stuff artistically, so it's not like hey play a game or you can't do anything yeah, you have these outlets.

00:37:05.867 --> 00:37:14.706
However, on the super bowl sunday, I'm like you're gonna have to either be a fan or you're gonna have to play, or you're gonna be a part of the halftime show and you're gonna have have to come up with what that is.

00:37:14.706 --> 00:37:17.875
So it's going to be fun because they're entertaining.

00:37:17.875 --> 00:37:18.797
They really are.

00:37:18.797 --> 00:37:19.760
They're awesome.

00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:23.847
I remember my son last year in youth group.

00:37:23.847 --> 00:37:31.467
They did a costume thing around Halloween and like a contest and they gave the winner a little trophy.

00:37:31.467 --> 00:37:43.246
My son won and that was his first year in youth group so he was really pumped about it because he's short and shorter than everyone else and everyone always says you don't look like you're 13.

00:37:43.246 --> 00:37:44.947
Well, he was 12 at the time.

00:37:44.947 --> 00:37:56.295
He dressed up as Frodo Baggins and he had the whole get up and everything and he won and he was so excited and they did like this big presentation for him and everything.

00:37:56.356 --> 00:37:57.376
He was thrilled.

00:37:57.376 --> 00:38:06.581
So, yeah, youth group can be super fun.

00:38:06.581 --> 00:38:09.291
It can be a blessing to these kids because maybe that's the only time they get to see that someone cares.

00:38:09.291 --> 00:38:09.793
So it's again.

00:38:09.793 --> 00:38:15.753
It's wonderful that you were involved, that you have such a heart to want to do this For True Face.

00:38:15.753 --> 00:38:20.367
Is that a ministry opportunity that anyone can get involved in?

00:38:20.889 --> 00:38:21.150
Oh yeah.

00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:21.820
Okay.

00:38:21.820 --> 00:38:28.885
So if my audience is listening to this and they're super pumped and they just want to get involved, where would they go to do that?

00:38:29.065 --> 00:38:32.882
Yeah, so you can check out anything at truefaceorg.

00:38:32.882 --> 00:38:43.503
But to look at the stuff that we've talked about, taking a look at a little bit of the animation videos that you've talked about, the path book, the path experience guide, truefaceorg forward.

00:38:43.503 --> 00:38:48.072
Slash the path so that's T-R-U-E-F-A-C-Eorg.

00:38:48.072 --> 00:38:54.407
Forward slash the path T-H-E-P-A-T-H so you can see a chapter, a sample chapter, for free.

00:38:54.407 --> 00:38:59.235
You can check out our animation videos, see what the experience guide in the book is all about.

00:38:59.235 --> 00:39:06.634
And I think to me the experience guide is even more powerful almost than the book.

00:39:06.760 --> 00:39:11.199
Now, some people they want to read the book and be like let me check this thing out and see what it's all about.

00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:13.784
I totally get that before they're like jumping in.

00:39:13.784 --> 00:39:27.992
But for people who want to live out these truths or maybe question or talk about these truths, we really did work very hard to create actual experiences so to move things from the left side of your brain to the right, into your emotions, into your body.

00:39:27.992 --> 00:39:30.284
So I do.

00:39:30.284 --> 00:39:42.293
For people like your son, who involve their student ministry, doing something like that, an experience guide might be a way to engage his heart that other things aren't grabbing a hold of right now.

00:39:43.780 --> 00:39:48.351
So it would be a good tool for student ministry to try to do.

00:39:49.804 --> 00:39:50.829
Yeah, we're halfway.

00:39:50.829 --> 00:39:53.489
All the animation videos are almost done.

00:39:53.489 --> 00:39:54.644
We're done with four of them.

00:39:54.644 --> 00:39:55.802
So I'm waiting until we're dropping one per week over the next four weeks until they're all done.

00:39:55.802 --> 00:39:56.146
I'm waiting until they're almost done.

00:39:56.146 --> 00:39:59.576
We're done with four of them, so I'm waiting until we're dropping one per week over the next four weeks until they're all done.

00:39:59.576 --> 00:40:05.481
I'm waiting until they're all done, and then we're going to start the Path Experience Guide with the student ministry that I work with.

00:40:05.481 --> 00:40:09.271
But yeah, I think it's super powerful because you can watch the video as a group.

00:40:09.271 --> 00:40:10.380
It's five minutes long.

00:40:10.380 --> 00:40:15.730
You don't have to, like I said, wait on them to make sure they did their reading to show up ready to talk about it.

00:40:15.730 --> 00:40:21.340
You can just watch it and then jump right in with your discussion and these interactive, immersive experiences.

00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:22.061
Okay.

00:40:22.061 --> 00:40:31.112
So I have one more question before we go Would those videos be something that an eight-year-old or younger would be watching?

00:40:31.112 --> 00:40:43.079
Because I have an eight-year-old who she asked some pretty deep theological questions and yeah, I think she might like it, just because visually they might like the videos.

00:40:43.079 --> 00:40:48.952
I just didn't know if it was something that you thought people with younger kids might get something out of it too.

00:40:49.380 --> 00:40:56.152
Yeah, I have a seven-year-old and, yeah, I would watch these videos with her and see if she had any questions that came up out of it.

00:40:56.152 --> 00:40:59.780
Would watch these videos with her and see if she had any questions that came up out of it.

00:40:59.780 --> 00:41:11.385
Now, tal's journey the main character into seeking success and then finding it to be unfulfilling and looking for other options that's probably not going to connect with people who haven't experienced a lot of disillusionment in life.

00:41:11.385 --> 00:41:20.813
But especially once you get to episode three, once Tal has taken the leap into identity, into trust, into shame, into community, absolutely.

00:41:21.034 --> 00:41:24.909
Okay, yeah, that's what I was wondering, because I was like these are cool.

00:41:24.909 --> 00:41:29.608
I'm going to make my kids watch these Might as well.

00:41:29.608 --> 00:41:31.673
Yeah, it wouldn't hurt.

00:41:31.673 --> 00:41:35.860
There's so many non-good shows nowadays.

00:41:35.860 --> 00:41:43.088
It's like anytime there's anything good, it's like binge, binge, child binge, it's okay, exactly.

00:41:43.088 --> 00:41:43.590
All right.

00:41:43.590 --> 00:41:44.893
Well, thank you, benjamin.

00:41:44.893 --> 00:41:47.625
So much for coming on and talking to me today.

00:41:47.625 --> 00:41:50.331
This has been a very encouraging conversation.

00:41:51.260 --> 00:41:52.143
Thank you for having me.

00:41:53.105 --> 00:41:53.987
Thanks for listening.

00:41:53.987 --> 00:42:01.059
If you enjoyed the episode, leave a review for the podcast wherever you are listening, or click the link in the show notes.

00:42:01.059 --> 00:42:07.353
If you have feedback for me, use the leave a message or voicemail links also in the show notes.

00:42:07.353 --> 00:42:14.673
You can check out my website honestchristianconversationscom to leave a review or feedback as well.

00:42:14.673 --> 00:42:18.204
Join the community and become part of something bigger than yourself.

00:42:18.204 --> 00:42:20.208
I look forward to our next conversation.