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What if the key to enriching your spiritual journey lies in subtraction, not addition? In our latest episode, we reconnect with our good friend Lane Moss, who shares his enlightening reflections from his sabbatical. Instead of adding new routines, Lane discovered the power of letting go. This revelation sets a reflective tone for our episode, as we chat with Jon Lee from Northeast Christian Church about nurturing cohesive family ministries that span from birth through high school.

Jon helps us explore the innovative strategies employed in youth leadership and the importance of transitions in a child's faith journey. From student-led teachings to the strategic timing of small groups, we examine how these initiatives help young people articulate and embrace their faith.

The episode takes a practical turn as we discuss how to empower parents to take an active role in their children's spiritual development. By offering workshops and resources that speak to generational contexts, parents can engage in meaningful faith conversations at home. We wrap up by highlighting the significance of a church-parent partnership in fostering a culture of discipleship, providing insights into building a strong spiritual foundation for young people. With collaborative strategies and church support, families can thrive in their faith journey together.

Be sure to check out the new video version of this podcast on 

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As always, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. It also helps us out if you rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and send this episode to a friend!

BTE4.07: NextGen Discipleship from Birth to Graduation: Part 1 with Jon Lee and Lane Moss

Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event, a youth ministry podcast presented by Christ in Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. Super excited for today's episode. We're going to do two of these that are not meant to be sequential, they're just two perspectives on the same idea. This is the first installation of that. So we are going to be having a conversation with a guy I like a lot.

His name is John Lee. He is at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville Kentucky Not to be confused with Southeast Christian Church in Louisville Kentucky. He's been there for about 12 years but he's in a family minister role and want to talk to him about what it looks like to have a cohesive family ministry rather than a bunch of siloed individual ministries like student ministry, elementary ministry, preschool ministry, whatever that may be. What does it look like to actually create just one big family ministry that share some really important goals and values? So we are going to do that and that's going to be great, but first you get to hear from my good buddy, Lane, hey Lane, hey, Brad. Welcome to Beyond the Event.

It's so good to be here. I know it's so good to be here. If there's one thing I like more than the event, it's beyond it. I'll tell you that right now. This is where the magic happens, that's for sure, lane.

Yeah, how are you so good? Here's a funny thing. Normally we would have had like this is the seventh episode of this podcast this season. Okay, and typically I try to get you on like episode one, episode two, because I just love you and I love hanging out with you, and that's selfish on my part. But had to wait to week seven because you've been on sabbatical, that's true, yeah, yeah, so you were on sabbatical from sometime in September to sometime in November, no October.

Yeah, that's right. September, september to middle of September, end of October.

Middle of September to the end of October. That's right, and I have not gotten to talk to you a lot about it, so we're going to talk about it right now. I love that, because I have you pinned down Right and everyone else is going to get to listen to it, and that's going to be so fun, I hope. Does that sound great to you? I mean, it sounds amazing to me. Okay, I'm curious about what you.

I know you had a ton of experiences on sabbatical. I know you went a bunch of places, got to spend time in California with our buddy Logan and Ana Love them. You got to go to the Grand Canyon. Wait, that wasn't part of sabbatical. That was pre-sabbatical, that was pre whatever. Yeah, pre-game, pre-game sabbatical by taking the kids to the grand Canyon. I love it. Uh, I feel like people go into sabbatical sometimes expecting things like hey, I'm going to come out of this feeling rested, I am going to come out of this feeling refreshed, I'm going to have new ideas. I'm getting you know like. These are the things. What surprised you, though? What did you when you got to the end? What were you like? Whoa, I was not expecting to feel that or to think that that's a good question.

I you know I intentionally I tried really hard to not go into sabbatical with a bunch of expectations. I met with my my.

We're different. Well, I had just talked to some people who had taken one and, based on their wisdom, that is why I tried to not go in with a ton of expectation. So I did try to go in with some intentionality, establishing some different rhythms and things like that. I think what I think, what I didn't expect, is it took me until about week three probably the end of week three, honestly, of six weeks. So so, almost halfway through yeah, it took me about halfway through for God to finally, um, get through to me that it needed to be more about subtraction than addition. So I went into it thinking I'm going to add all these things. I'm going to do, I'm going to do this stuff, I'm going to add this spiritual rhythm and this spiritual rhythm and this physical rhythm and these, I'm going to add these things and then I'm going to come out of it feeling really refreshed and and I, and I think that what I learned was that, um, I got to, I got to a place, like I said, about the end of week three, beginning of week four, where God finally just kind of said like there's too much, like this, we got to get rid of some stuff before we can add some stuff and not just schedule things, because sabbatical is by default, you know, at least for me, it was getting rid of a lot of schedule things. So that already happened.

But what I found was that there's a lot in my heart and in my head that needed to be given up, that needed to go, that needed to be excavated before there could be any um, anything else built and so, and so it really became a lot about, um, subtraction, and, and one of the you know, one of the primary lessons was I had to. If there was an expectation that I took into it, it was just that it was kind of an abstract one, which was just simply that I'm going to have something to quantify after this. I'm going to have some, I'm going to have some lessons learned, I'm going to have some these kinds of things, and and maybe that's true and I'm talking in circles but I realized that God wants my attention, just to have my attention, and not so that he can tell me something specific or he can do something specific, or he can. I can learn a specific, but it's just like.

No like, maybe it's just about having, it's just about giving God, it's just about paying attention to God and not about paying attention to God for some other reason or so, that something else happens, and so not having to quantify something there was, there was honestly massive freedom in that, um, and just going like oh, I don't have to quantify what my biggest lessons learned are here, I don't have to, you know, whatever else, I can just kind of be, and that was actually really, really sweet.

I love that? Yeah, because I would have the same mentality Like I've not taken a sabbatical yet, I guess I will someday you should. But like I would think, well, it's funny, my seven-year anniversary is coming up, which here we go, like technically it would make me, but I don't want to take it yet. Um so, but yeah, like, all right, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this over the course of this, however many weeks, and like just to hear you say, wait, it was actually about doing way less. Um kind of important. All right, let's do some quick hitters. Okay, quick hit, quick hitters for sabbatical. How long did it take you to shut off work brain?

You know, I, I'm. I was fortunate that it didn't actually take me all that long. I tend to do, if I don't, I don't do a lot of things really really well, but one of the things that I tend to do fairly well is I can is is work, life balance. See, obviously that changes seasonally, but whenever I go home from work, I'm, I'm pretty home, like I'm, I'm pretty, I'm able to be pretty present, and so, um and so I had that kind of going for me already just a little bit. But also we actually spent I launched, on sabbatical literally from an airport in Colorado Springs as we wrapped up our staff retreat, which was a spiritually focused staff retreat. So I was able to, I had kind of a running start in terms of shutting off my brain, which I was very, very thankful for, cause I do think that that gave me a tremendous headstart in that regard. So, yeah, so, not very, so, not very long enough, I mean less than a week inside it, just a few days.

That was beautiful. Let's talk about what a quick hitter is really quick, sorry um I like learned to slap butt better I was I was trying to, like you know, build a little rhythm, get it going, and you're just like you. Well, now I forgot them all. Sorry, 36, is that better? No one one afternoon, it sounds like, was what it was. Uh, no favorite experience. So you got to do that.

You probably wouldn't have gotten to do if you didn't go on sabbatical to a small church out there and then got to spend the next part of that week with, as you mentioned, good friends Logan and Anna Greer and their kids, who I just love and adore, and so I'll say probably that.

That's super fun. Yeah, I had one more, but I actually did legitimately forget it. I was like, oh, we're going to do like rapid fire round and then I swing hard. Well, yeah, and you know what Sabbatical is about subtraction. I tried to add a new rhythm and I shouldn't have tried to add a new rhythm and that's what I learned just now, in this moment. Well, I'm glad you had a great sabbatical Lane. I am glad that you are back. Oh, I remember what it was. Oh, what'd you miss most about work?

Besides me. Well, yeah, bill Warren, that's who it was I missed. I'm a pretty social guy and so I just I missed seeing all my friends and being able to be with those friends. And then also though also missed it was reg season, where, like, registration opens and seeing like that's always very celebratory and I always love that and it's very encouraging. It's a fun day and so it is. It's an encouraging season, to kind of see it. It's a high stress season as we try to lock in contracts and those kinds of things, but it's also a very encouraging one, and so I missed yeah, so I missed that.

Okay, but sabbatical was a gift, total, total gift yeah, well, it was not a gift for me because I had to go six weeks without seeing you, so maybe you should think about other people sometimes um, you're right, just kidding. All right, uh, it's time for the mailbag. Michael isn't here. Want to take this opportunity to give a huge thanks to our good friend, sam fleming uh for being here stepping in for michael recording the podcast today hey, sam however, sam is not going to lead the mailbag.

I am Okay, I'm in control. Jeez Control freak, I am the captain now. Sorry, michael Tim Gray, go blue. Tim Gray wants to know what your favorite Thanksgiving day food or dessert is Turkey.

Smoked turkey Like really good turkey For this, and there are people that say that they don't like Thanksgiving food. All due respect to their moms they have never had it cooked right or their aunts or their dads, or whoever cooks their or their spouse. Whoever cooks their food isn't doing it right. If you don't like it, we deep fry our turkey. Yeah, and it's so legit.

It's outrageously good deep fry. I can make an entire meal out of just the skin off of a deep fry turkey oh my gosh, it's so good, oh my gosh. It's so good. Oh, that's gross, it's the bacon of the poultry world.

Yeah, the poultry world. Some would say that turkey bacon is the bacon of the poultry world.

They would be wrong. It's not, yeah as a matter of fact it is not.

It's turkey skin. I think it is funny that your wife prides herself, oh, and she's so good at it On her Thanksgiving sides. Yeah, like, makes just a ton of them. And you said that your favorite Thanksgiving food is the one thing. That you make yeah.

So if you're, listening to this Kelly Moss. Kelly, I went over to your house one time for Thanksgiving cause I was stuck here, Couldn't go with my family. Uh, and it was beautiful, it was really great. Kelly made a ton of stuff. She made this corn yeah, that. She was like mortified by yeah. She was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I ruined this corn. This is terrible. I'm so sorry everybody about the corn and I was like this is the best corn I've ever had in my life.

Yeah, you hold yourself to a pretty high standard. It was really good. She does an unbelievable job with the sides and, oh man, that's my favorite meal of the Thanksgiving season is. A couple days after Thanksgiving, she makes an outrageous gumbo with the smoked turkey, and it is, and I pine for it all year long.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. All right, a couple more. You want to go more fun or more serious?

next, Dealer's choice. You claim to be the captain now, so I'm going to let you steer this ship.

Yeah, and I'm vesting a small portion of my power into you, oh okay. Okay, great. What is Casey Lanier? We love Casey. She's the best Casey wants to know. Uh, what is your favorite throwback ciy moment? The one you think about over and over again?

favorite throwback ci moment dude, that's tough, it's. It's tough to. It's tough to not say the bell um the the bell in 2013 had a big like 550 pound bell on all of our stages and all the complications that came with that and everything but it was, but that was really really sweet and people still talk about it, which is pretty cool. Um, um, but also um 2016,. Uh, we did this like really cool like butterfly. I was going to say the butterfly.

Yeah, I was so dope, I didn't mean to steal it. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's good we're in agreement.

It was I did love, I loved the back. It was really really rad. Like the cool, those like types of reveals are always really fun.

Yeah, I like those. I also really liked the what do we call them? Like the Joseph videos. Yeah, the Joseph mini theater, the mini theater videos. Yes, yeah, those are awesome. I don't know why, but like when I think of my old COI memories as a student Dude, I like think of that. Yeah, shout out to Ali Huffer for all of the art direction and work on that. Shout out to Ali Huffer for all of the art direction on that.

Who voiced him over? Pelsu? Was it Pelsu? To be honest, I don't know. Maybe I don't know it. It might have been Pelsu. It was someone with like a great, yeah, totally deep voice. Yep, ah, so good, uh, okay, last one Matt Berry. In your opinion, what are thanks, matt, for all these questions? Matt submitted so many questions and so you're going to hear his name a lot in the next several episodes. Matt Berry, in your opinion, what are some of the most effective tools we can supply leaders in our youth group with to encourage them to own? Wait, I cannot read. I just lost it. I just lost the ability to read. I need Michael. I miss Michael. Michael, come back, baby, come back. In your opinion, what are some of the most effective tools we can supply leaders in our youth group with to encourage their own further personal and spiritual growth okay, these might be different answers depending on what he means by leaders.

If we're talking about students or adult leaders, adult leaders, we're going to go with adult leaders. In that case, I would encourage some. First of all, prioritize your meetings with them. So make those good. Don't make those an afterthought. So don't just do kind of like this after like, hey, everybody we're touching base and I don't really have anything prepared or anything like that, we're hanging out, we're getting coffee, yeah, Like it's great to be, it's great to be like informal enough that it's conversational and giving them ownership in those meetings.

But when you have like a meeting with all of your leaders together, put energy into it, um, so that they know that, so that they know that it's valuable, Um, but in terms of their own personal growth and and growing their own faith. Terms of their own personal growth and growing their own faith, I think it varies from person to person and how those you know and how those people learn and study and everything else. But, man, I would encourage a couple of. There are some different resources on like the Bible app, on the YouVersion Bible app that are Bible through a year. I think that just getting your adult leaders in your scripture every day is massive, and so encouraging them that there are some very accessible tools to help do that. The Bible recap is a great one that does a chronological reading through the Bible every year and then has like a short accompanying podcast with it and you can do that in the U version. But there's all kinds of them, but that one's really really good. Um, Tara Lee Cobbles the girl that does that, and so her recap, kind of at the end of it, is great.

So those kinds of things, uh, spiritual formation books that are approachable and practical, like the common rule by Justin Whitmore, early um made for people by him. Um, practicing the way by John Mark Comer is a really, really good one on spiritual formation. That's really practical, easy to read um, easy to implement. A lot of those kinds of things, Um. But also I would say like, if we're going to like, maybe do the common rules with your group with like a group of leaders, um, the rhythms journal that we did at move last year, if you're a youth pastor, uh, maybe take it on to do that with. Like, get somebody see how many of your leaders want to do a 21 day rhythms challenge with you, Um, and just try to do that as a team. Do the stuff you're challenging your students to do, um and encourage it, and then and do the stuff you're challenging your leaders to do. Do it with them. You know, speed of the leader, speed of the team.

Speed of leader. Speed of the team. Speed of the leader. Speed of the team. I have a big statement. Okay, I would love to hear it. I'm going to throw it out there and you swat it down. Okay, if you feel like it should be swat down, okay, it should be mandatory for your leaders in student ministry to be in a small group Like an adult small group.

Yeah, dude, I different, different churches will take different philosophies on that, but I don't, I mean I don't disagree with it, um, like if they don't have their own authentic faith community, like that's the number one resource that you can give them to create that with your students. Yeah, that that's my opinion. Yeah, that's yeah.

You hate it. Truth bombs from Brad. We're rebranding this podcast.

Okay, we're going to go talk to John Lee. It's going to be great. I can already tell that we're going to love this conversation. Can't wait.

So I'm just excited to see how the beard's doing.

Yeah, honestly, me too. You'd have to watch on YouTube if you want to get that piece of information. But always remember, if you want to submit questions to the mailbag, you can click the link in the show notes, or you can email us at podcastcycom, or I always post something in the CY community Facebook group so you can post them there. But, uh, that's enough on that. Without further ado, let's go talk to John Right. John Lee, thank you so much for being here with us today, excited to have you.

Thanks, man, looking forward to it. This has been an exciting journey for us.

Hey, so you've been in Northeast for a long time. How long?

Yeah, so I've been on staff now for 12 years.

Which is like fairly consequential in the world of church staffing today. I mean, that's insane. So, uh well, here's what I want to ask. You were originally brought on as a youth pastor. Um, what made you want to do youth ministry specifically, like I know that's a big question. If we can do like cliff notes version, like why did you want to be involved specifically in youth ministry specifically, like I know that's a big question. If we can do like cliff notes version, like why did you want to be involved specifically in youth ministry?

CIY

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