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How do we move students from sporadic volunteer projects to living lives of Kingdom Work? In this conversation, Christ’s Church of Oronogo’s Local Impact Minister Maggie Schade reveals the transformative approach that's reshaping how youth engage with community needs.

Maggie shares a compelling vision where service isn't just something students do, but fundamentally shapes who they're becoming. Drawing from years of experience connecting students with community partners, she unpacks the critical distinction between channeling energy versus creating it, and how letting students take ownership of ministry opportunities produces lasting fruit.

The discussion takes a powerful turn when examining prayer as the true engine of mission work. Through vivid examples from international partners, we discover how perspectives on prayer within youth ministry often need radical realignment. Rather than seeing prayer as supplementary, we are challenged to place it at the center of our community engagement strategy.

You'll gain practical wisdom on developing focused community partnerships, creating meaningful pathways for student service, and helping passionate teens identify their "next right step" after transformative experiences like CIY MOVE. We also tackle the sometimes-controversial topic of international missions, exploring ways to develop global frameworks for ministry that connect students to God's worldwide mission, whether overseas or in their own backyard.

Whether you're a seasoned youth minister or just beginning to explore community engagement with students, this episode provides both inspiration and actionable steps to help your ministry move beyond one-time events toward cultivating lifelong kingdom workers. Start your journey today by taking one small step that could transform your approach to student ministry and community impact.

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BTE4.16 Getting Students Engaged in their Communities with Maggie Schade and Brittany Shoemake

Getting Students Engaged in their Communities with Maggie Schade and Brittany Shoemake

Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event youth ministry podcast, presented by Christ in Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. Today we are going to be talking to a really good friend of mine, a MOVE speaker, you may recognize, but, more importantly to me, she is on staff at the church that I attend. She is our local impact minister, so she maintains a lot of really cool relationships with all of our local mission partners and, yeah, I want to talk with her about how we can help students along in this journey of getting involved in the work that God is doing in their communities. Her name is Maggie Shade. You're going to love her. It's going to be great. But before we do that, we're going to talk to an absolute CIY legend. Director of Engage, brittany Shoemake.

You are. You're a legend. You've been doing this a long time.

I feel like you have said that before, but it still is not true.

It is true. How long have you been on staff?

I just passed 18 years actually 18 years 18 years.

You don't look old enough to have worked anywhere for 18 years.

It has hit that realization now when I'm looking at students that are going on engaged trips that I have been working at CIY longer than they have been alive.

Absolutely brutal. That hit me in the spring yeah.

I mean not that far off. You started when you were in college right.

It's amazing. I don't think he'll mind me sharing this. I was having a conversation with Jason French about Move and he was just like you know, man, I just don't want to like overstay my welcome on stage. You know what I mean.

He was talking about like I feel like maybe I need to like get off stage, like I'm not going to be able to connect to these kids, and he's, you know, 55 years old or something. I'm like Jason, you're not even close, you're not. You're not even close to being there yet, and you know what? We're all still young.

We're all still young at heart, so, michael turned 30 this week.

I was actually I was. I was talking about this at lunch today. I was 24 when the pandemic started, and the last like big, like life milestone that I experienced was like I graduated and got a job in 2019 yeah and ever since then it's just been like this is now you know the place that I've been, and so it's like I haven't had like a thing. That is like I was this old when this happened, so I feel like I'm that old.

You know what I mean yeah, yeah, like the mile markers, yeah, that, yeah, so like I still feel like I'm in my mid-20s yeah in a way, it's weird.

I always thought that turning 30 was for people older than me well, it's for you, and now it's for people younger than me yeah, so literally woof so when you see a 24 year old do you?

feel like, yeah, I'm in, that's it school right?

yeah, so the 24 year old should also not be in school 24 is a great year.

We're not I turned 35 this year and the fives, I think, are harder than the zeros, like I feel, way worse than when I turned 30 because then you're already on your way to that next ah, no, no, all right enough about. You're closer to what than 30 now, yeah, I know, okay, all of that to say Brittany's a legend. I mean I'm closer than you are so. Oh, geez, okay, Well, anyway, we got to move on from that.

You know what's going to keep me young? Recover, Brad. Recover. You know what's going to keep me young? You're young.

I am so excited that I get to go to Spain with Engage this year. I'm really pumped about that, me too. I did not get to do an Engage trip last summer.

So it would have been your first year at CIY not doing an Engage trip. Yeah.

Because my grandfather was in poor health and it was a whole thing and I didn't want to be out of the country and that was all just a huge bummer. But I'm back.

Going to Spain back in the game with my besties from Christchurch in Jacksonville and I'm just so pumped. Engage is such a thing that I look forward to. So here's my question for you, brittany yep, are you a? I think every single person at Christ in Youth considers it like a huge privilege to do the work that we do Under that umbrella. There are people who like brace for summer.

Okay, yeah, and there are people who like a leap into summer. Yeah, you know what I mean.

Well, it's funny you say that now, because summer for Engage has already felt like it has started like summer quotations summer because we do spring break trips and so we say it was almost like a mini summer that we had during the month of march. But uh, I leap into it, I get excited I, I leap in yeah, it's pike or your bracer or a leaper. The part of our job that we get most excited about.

I'm definitely a bracer, you're a bracer. Oh 100%.

It is true I do love traveling quite a bit, but yeah, yeah Well anyway, yeah.

It's when I think too much about it. Maybe I become a person, but it's like knowing that we also are not in the live production department.

it's true, it's true, but and I've said this before to so many people when I we take safety and all of that like as a number one priority in everything we do, especially when taking teenagers across the ocean and doing international trips, and just knowing all the question marks there, when I think too much about it, it becomes very overwhelming.

But I say that not to think that we don't care about it. Obviously we do care about it. But there is the weight that I feel all summer long, knowing that there are teenagers under our care in different countries.

That take hours to get to if something happens. But I trust the processes.

I trust that God is going to take care of things that we can't handle, that we can't control.

You know what I'm changing my answer I'm a bracer.

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