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Confiscate every phone or teach teens how to use them well? We invite Matt Stevens from Calvary Christian Church in Omaha to unpack a wiser middle path that keeps safety high, communication clear, and discipleship at the center. Matt walks us through how his team uses a shared channel to coordinate hundreds of students on campus, why parents relax when there’s a direct line to their kids, and how simple expectations—phones away in session, focused small groups, presence over scrolling—turn devices from a distraction into a tool.

We dig into the moments that test any policy: late-night scheming, social media spirals, and the ever-present risk of missed messages. Matt’s answer isn’t a lockbox; it’s culture. He loops parents in early, treats issues as relational not punitive, and empowers student leaders to model the standard and nudge peers back to attention. That self-policing is gold, because it builds ownership that lasts long after the bus ride home. We also explore how school restrictions have already trained students to respect time-and-place phone rules, making ministry expectations more natural than many adults assume.

Along the way, we trade stories from the Superstart tour, celebrate the hospitality of host churches, and name practical guardrails any group can adopt this summer: one communication hub, clear non-negotiables, visible leaders during free time, and a consistent “if it becomes a problem” pathway. The goal isn’t to win a tech debate; it’s to form disciples who can live wisely in a digital world they won’t escape. If you’re building your trip policy now, this conversation offers a workable framework you can adapt to your context.

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BTE 5.13 Phones on Trips vs. No Phones on Trips: Part 2 with Matt Stevens and Korey Klein

Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event, a Youth Ministry podcast presented by Christ and Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. Today we are having part two of two of our conversation about cell phones. A couple weeks ago, we talked to Matt Tibbett about uh why he does not allow his students to bring phones on summer trips. Today we are talking to another Matt, to Matt Stevens from Calvary Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, about why it's important to him that his kids be able to have phones on trips. So hope that that is a uh really edifying conversation for you as you kind of navigate a tricky, tricky issue. So uh we're gonna get to that before we do that. I'm joined by the director of Superstar, Corey Klein. Hi, Brad. Hey, Corey, I'm exhausted.

Yeah. Uh in 10 seconds, tell me why. Like tell me about your whole weekend. You have 10 seconds, go.

One uh Friday morning I woke up at 3 30 so that I could go to Superstart in Virginia, and then I got back at one in the morning on one in the morning on Saturday night, Sunday morning, and then uh yesterday I uh was was involved in a wedding. Oh you can leave it at that.

Well, I was like an usher, so I had to be there early, and it was in it was an hour away and hour and a half away, and then I was an usher. And then I MC'd the reception. So the whole like, oh, I'm gonna eat dinner and get a picture with the couple, and then that's like not a thing. I'm there the whole time. Literally, part of my job was to get everybody ready for the send-off of the couple. And so I just had a long day yesterday, and now today is Monday, and I'm just tired. No one else in this room, especially not Michael, had also a long day yesterday or a whole Michael left the wedding a full he was asleep before I left the wedding, I guarantee it.

Uh I was getting into bed, I think, at 11 30.

Yeah, no, yeah, definitely not then. Okay. Did you play some video games?

Um, I was it eleven thirty? No, it was probably about eleven when I was getting into bed. But um, I got back into town, had to gas up my car. Um, I got some like flones kind of thing. Um, because allergies are are they they're coming back, they're on the rise. So back. Um and then I had to fill out a questionnaire for a potential uh juror summons. Oh wow. So how long did that take? The questionnaire? Yeah. Uh like five minutes. Okay, not too shabby. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um here's what I'll say about that. I never want to have jury duty. End of story. You know, either that or like the opposite thing would be like I want to be on like a major trial, like the OJ Simpson case and be like sequestered and it'd be like a whole thing.

Yeah. Um, if listen, if I get if I get a summons, maybe um I'll talk about it on the next uh the next mic'ed up with mic that I will have the chance to like legally talk about it.

That'll be amazing. That'll be incredible. Yeah. Um Corey, we are we're like coming to the end of this tour.

This is it. It's March now, and we're the last few weekends of superstar right now, which is just crazy.

Yeah, so um we've been underway for a long time. I've done three of the four supercharts that I'm gonna do. Um Pyle probably has a couple more, I'm guessing. One more. Where are you going?

Um Indiana, which by the time this episode releases, we'll be done. Will have already happened. Yeah, but Indiana one.

Um I'm gonna be at Indiana, but I'm not doing anything.

Yeah. Me too. Yeah, but we're gonna switch. So I'm gonna go. Oh, we are? No, I don't know. Um, me and my my sweet, sweet boss, Titus, we're gonna go out there and meet with some churches and hang out, and it's gonna be great. I love it. Um, but yeah, doing that and then going to uh Nebraska in a couple weeks and then I'm done, you know?

So which Matt, who we're gonna talk to here in a little bit, is at Calvary in Nebraska. That's where we're gonna be.

Host church. Yeah, it's gonna be wonderful. Um it's gonna be wonderful. Um, what's been uh well when you look back on the 2025 six? It's not 2025. When you look back on the 2020 still no, I don't want to do that. Shaped. When you look back, when you look back on the 2026 superstar tour, what do you think you're gonna remember?

I'm gonna remember in session three uh when any of our hosts uh looks at students and they filled out a name in a magnified glass, which if makes no sense in context right now, but if you're at a superstar, they filled out a name of a person that they're gonna share the truth of Jesus with, and that they stood up and said, I'm gonna go tell. That's what I'm gonna remember.

There you go. And it's gonna be incredible.

It's gonna be credit, it's kind of a beautiful, it's great. Every weekend.

Organizational focus for us this year. Um getting kids to share the gospel, to talk about their faith with their friends, to kind of dispense with the old like you don't talk about religion or politics at the dinner table kind of thing, and just like allow them to be the vulnerable, authentic people that they want to be and give them the tools that they need to talk about their faith with their friends and family. And we've already like share the story that you share with our staff that that like we've already seen fruit from this.

You talk about the from last year, which I share a lot of stories.

There's already someone from this year that you talked about who is like you talked about sharing like the gospel with people after like immediately after Superstart.

Was it last tour? It was last tour, but I'll share that. So about in Houston.

No, no. We already told that story on the podcast last year.

I think it had to do something with like uh Golden Corral or uh Oh, about the girl.

I know you're talking about this. It was in No quick to tell every story that you've told about Superstar.

No, Corey, no. I'm just saying I don't I need to know I share you've listened to this podcast.

So but I need one from this year. Maybe it's this the Arizona one. No, this one is just yeah, that one is they're baptizing a bunch of people. That's great. It's incredible. It's it's super cool, but it's it's not a story about a student going home from Superstar and sharing the gospel with somebody, which like I'm not gonna find it because you did it in Allskate, and this is gonna come up again in our interview with Matt. I have a horrific memory. It's so bad. I can't remember anything ever. I'm so sorry, Brad. Oh, this is cool.

Yeah, so I could talk about that. Okay. So in session three, going off what I mentioned about the thing that's in my head that it's just been awesome. I'm gonna remember for years to come. Um, we have always done that kingdom worker call in session three of Superstar. We always go through that. What Brad's talked about. We at all of our CI events, mix, move, uh, even engage when they're out uh overseas, we talk about what it looks like to be a kingdom worker. But this year we've never done it. We actually are counting decisions of kids who are standing up and saying, I'm gonna go be a kingdom worker, I'm gonna share the gospel with someone. And so far, uh, between our events currently, uh we have a few more uh events to come, but so far uh uh uh about 24 of the 2500 preteens have stood up and said that they're gonna go share the gospel. And and it I'll be honest with you, we didn't know when we say we're gonna count, like, is everyone gonna stand up? You know, is it actually gonna be a valid count? Uh but you could tell the kids who are standing up, they're they're very laser focused, like, no, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna go share. And so it's been really, really cool.

Heck yeah. It has been cool. It's been a good tour. Um it's been really fun. Like the the I keep calling it the murder mystery.

Yeah, can we when when Superstart's over, can we do a podcast episode of like breaking down the mystery play?

Um we can. Sure. Okay, great. We can also just do like a uh audio reenactment.

Oh, I love that. Like we can bring like the panel, like Rob and everyone in, and we're just talking about like like and then we bring in preteen pastors and a couple students, and they give their theories of why they thought this and that.

I don't know if you've noticed, but we have a season five documentary. Oh, I love three microphones in this very small room. So what you're describing would not be possible.

Well, Michael is right here. Uh, it wouldn't be next week. We we give it time, we set it up.

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