Ep 23 | Member Spotlight: Maverick Malone

We've put out several episodes now and we've heard a lot of great feedback from people about the different topics that we're going over . But one thing that we've been trying to do is get people from our church to come on and share a little bit about themselves and how they're connected to GBC .

We've had Brett speak and Ryan , our children's minister and worship pastor , but we can't let our normal hosts go by because , honestly , maverick , you're not just a podcaster , you do have a day job , right ?

And then my dad got saved a few years before I did about three and he worked at it at a gym , at Nautilus , and Denison and a guy from Georgetown he was training home invited him to the church .

We came , my dad came , really loved it , and then he heard about the Mexico mission trip which we still go on as a church and he made me , his wife , my sister and myself we went on that mission trip and it was exciting , it was new . Like I said , not a Christian going on a mission trip . Let me tell you that's a weird , weird experience .

But the church just piqued my interest , a lot Like the way the people love from Georgetown , the way the people acted in Mexico . It just really caught my attention . And third time's a charm , my third time going on that mission trip .

We went three years in a row and that is when I gave my life to Christ at the end of that mission and I started coming to Georgetown's youth group and Sunday service like literally , when I got back off that plane- so you grew up coming to Georgetown and you know there are some people , I know that can say this , but you're a person that went through the

youth group .

It was about a year after I got saved and the goal was I mean well , to keep growing in my faith and to keep seeking this call that God had on my life , because I barely have been to church and God called me to vocational ministry . I'm like I barely know what our youth pastor does .

I've only been here a year so I just started seeking , talking to my youth minister , talking to other youth ministers , talking to pastors and really just trying to figure out , okay , what does this mean ? And it was . It was fantastic as soon as I would tell people basically about my call .

They were fully invested in it and helping me and understand this more and how to grow not only in my walk but how to grow my walk and to take this call seriously .

And when I graduated I started , went to college , started helping out of church , a really , really small church , ended up becoming the minister there , part time minister at another church in Potsboro . Who was who ? It was really small , it started out like with three kids got it to six , doubled their growth . It was fantastic .

Went there for about two years and then God called me to Albuquerque , new Mexico , clear as day , and that's where I thought , ok , this is where I'm going to reside . I was going to basically be there a year , proposed to my now wife and she was going to move out to Albuquerque with me and like , boom , the rest is history .

And 2019 , december hits and God like called me back to Texas . Like it was clear as day and I was like there's no way I'm going back without a job . The youth minister here at Georgetown recently left . Everybody was asking me are you going to apply or are you going to apply ? And I was like , absolutely not .

I'm not the guy they're looking for , because I was 21 years old , I didn't have a college degree .

Like like , I basically went to churches who were investing in me and taking a chance and Georgetown is historically known for having these already just fantastic ministers Like if you look at our youth pastor ministers and you look at a bunch of others , but really , our youth pastor ministers , they were all super solid , super great experience and I'm just like , no ,

that's where God has them going . And so I lined up a job in Frisco . I come back and I'm kind of already discouraged and God was like hey , give George Town a call .

And I call Bobby , who's the pastor at the time , and we have lunch and basically it's like this interview process and then , little do I know , I get offered a job and then it just keeps growing , keeps growing , and I've been here since January of 2020 .

And you know I've gotten to know you over this past year and a half and , you know , grateful for the opportunity to work with you , grateful for the teenagers you know I have two , two that are one that just became a teenager and one that's going to be and thankful for the way you connect with our young people .

But you know , like all of our ministers , we we're called to the whole church , yes , but I know you get to work with our teenagers and we've got some great adults that help with that . A really good group of students . And you know , a youth minister has kind of like a job like a high school or college football coach they have .

They have people that come in and then by the time they really begin to catch hold of the vision , they graduate and you've got to continue to be pouring into the next group and the next group and next group . So what's going on with our student ministry as of today and what are some things that you're encouraged by and want people to know about ?

You need to be going to their events , you need to , you need to like that's your group .

You know , and me and my team , we've just been really developing relationships with these students who are graduating , and we keep the relationship after they graduated , and we're also making relationships with , with the middle schools that we have .

Well , fast forward to today , the middle schools we were pouring into they're now in high school , and even my team pours into the path at the sixth ministry , the children's ministry , and now , fast forward , a lot of them are in youth today .

So a lot of most of the kids who are in our youth have already had a point of contact with us before they've even stepped foot into the chapel , and who are excited and what's great about that is , as we know , the kids will . Then they're really excited to tell their friends like , hey , you need to come here , because here's what Georgetown has to offer .

It's a community you lead , literally , can come in and you will be welcome , no matter what stage of life you're in . And then the second thing is we just dive in through the Bible , like even when we do our events , even when we do fellowship . The Bible and Jesus will always be the center of everything we do .

And that is the most crucial thing in a church and I know it sounds , you know , not crazy to say , but you'd be surprised and as we've been doing that and making that the center , we can entertain the kids . But if we base to use ministry based on entertainment , well , how much different are we than the world ?

Because that's what the world's offering these kids is entertainment . And let me tell you , we can't compete with the world on an entertainment basis . But what we can do is we can provide truth . That is what we have . That is different than anything else .

So , when the student comes and they hear about the relationships , they hear that you can come just as you are . Well , what gets them to stay ? Well , yes , we're welcoming , yes , we're loving , but every single Wednesday we provide truth and gospel .

So not only are we going to know the kids names , they're going to hear a gospel message every Wednesday , every Sunday , every time that they see us , and that's the truth and that's what gets them to stay . So right now , our youth man , they're , they're just fantastic . We've done discipleship two times now . Both times it's been absolutely fantastic .

We're starting a youth leadership ministry that will help serve the youth itself and help serve our church . They know how to preach the gospel . They're taking the now middle schoolers underneath their wing , teaching them just about the Bible , so they're not even just hearing it from me Like .

Our youth right now is such in a in a health , healthy spot and we're seeing growth that will be long term , not necessarily like an explosion of just a hundred kids . We have kids who are going to , once they come , they're going to stay and they're going to bring and it's just like this healthy , consistent growth .

And it's been challenging at times but God has always been grateful and blessed us with seeing just the harvest of our labor , because it's not easy .

And you know , now I'm 36 and all those kids that were in that room are now moms and dads . Yeah , and if you entertained us for all those years , how are we going to raise our children in ? And I know a lot of people that are suffering as a result of just not being poured into .

So you know , as the pastor of the church , I am so thankful and excited to know that when one of our parents bring their teenager to your ministry , that teenager is not just going to be entertained and we're acting like we're not having fun .

And good word , when you , when I remember being 19 , talking to a bunch of youth pastors , and they were , I was in a meeting and it was just like man , what games are you running ? And I heard them just say these crazy outrageous games , like like I don't know , I'm not that creative , but it was just , it was kind of fantastic .

And they're like well , what do you do ? And I was like , oh , we , just we went through the book of John and like they would look at me like I was crazy . And I'm not saying what they were doing was wrong , it was just like there's a balance .

But like when you are following God and you're you're presenting truth , like our youth group is like the early church . When they get together they just have a grand old time and when I say amen , they want to hang around the church .

Even even the kids who maybe have only been there once or twice , like they want to hang around and it's not just because the friends are there , they're , they're meeting other people in our youth who have been there for a while or reaching out to them , talking to them and in the whole nine yards and it's just , it's a really good place to

be .

They see smoke all around them and when they try to grasp it well , can you grasp smoke ? You can see it , but you can't ever attain it .

We're offering something that is attainable and here and here's , here's the crazy part , and I do take , I'm excited about this Um , I heard a kid , um , and we were talking and it's a , it's a kid I have a relationship with outside of church and I was like man , like why don't you come on Wednesday night ? It's like I know what you're going through .

Like why don't you come ? I mean , we can see each other weekly , twice a week , if you really want to . And he goes Maverick , if I come to that church , I might get saved and that scares me , Wow , and I'm just like man . That's real . Like that's real and it's and hear me out , it's not . What I'm doing is like I'm just the best .

No , no , no , no , no , we're offering truth and , like me and my leaders and our and our youth are grasping hold of the fact of like we're going to preach the gospel , we're going to live out the gospel and we're going to let God be God and him take care of that , and that's the truth that we're offering .

And so it's just , it's really great and , um , like I said , I keep saying it's just a really great place to be because it's happy , but it's just truth . I mean , that's what it is .

I should have started with that , that's good , okay .

The reason why we say six 30 , and there is a reason is because athletic sports get out really late . And if we say six , um , some people will be like , well , I'm missing 30 minutes and I don't want to show up . So we do the opposite . We don't . We're going to go from six 30 to seven 30, .

But your child is , we really meet from six to seven 30 , and that six o'clock to six 30 time we we hang out in the gym , we play football , we play games , we fellowship , and it's really that's the fun and the joy that we have together .

And then if you , if your child is in athletics or in an extracurricular activities and they can't get there till six 30 , well , that's where we meet , in the chapel . Uh , so if you're there at six , we walk over to the chapel .

If you get there at six 30 , you can just come to the chapel and that is where we start just our worship time , our Bible reading time , our devotion time and our prayer time , like that is the , that is the deal .

And then we end , uh , really hard , at seven 30 , because I want to be respectable of the students times , because I know that they have school , they have homework , they need a shower , they need to eat , the whole nine yards . And so it's from six , 37 , 30 , but really it's from six to seven , 30 .

And then Sunday mornings at nine AM we do Sunday school and that is that has become one of the sweetest times ever . We just dive deep in the Bible . We do a whole lot of getting to know each other in the Sunday school round .

So if they want to come on a Sunday school , it's a little smaller group and it's more , um , intentional , it's more fellowshipy and you can do both and it's the best way to do it . It's awesome .

And why I bring that up is because where I think God is leading us next is is um excuse me , god is giving us a really , really healthy ministry where our focuses are fully , fully on him . I believe so , and why we can always be healthier and we're always striving to be healthier and always striving to be more like Christ , even in our ministry is now .

It's the time where these students now who are discipled will be able to not only preach the gospel out to their school cause . That's where we're trying to reach these kids . They can reach them at the school and then they can bring them to the church . Because here's here's , the cool thing about students . So maybe you don't think it's cool , maybe not .

Here's how you get students . Now you can plan the funnest event in the world , but if they don't know someone who is going , like like Jake , let's say , we're friends in high school and I don't know you're going , guess what ?

I'm not going , and so our students are grabbing hold of this , and so our students will now basically have like these challenges of like , hey , are you coming to Wednesday nights , I'm driving you like . So our students now will be kind of our outreach motives , because me and my team , we can only do so much . We're not in the school every single day .

We can't be in the school every single day . So where we're going is is building students up for two things One , god's commission that he's given us to go out into the world and outreach and preach the gospel and also teach discipleship , because they will be able to do that after the during this youth leadership time .

And then , um , the second thing is to to learn what it's like to be a true church member , to serve in our church , to be a part of the community and and be honest with you guys how to tithe , how to give like , how to be a healthy church member , the way God wants us to be , so that they , when they graduate high school , they have all the tools in

their belt to go be just a functioning church member , either here at Georgetown or wherever God takes them .

even the president of our student ministry . Look at some really good kids that uh . Fantastic they're . They're not just at church , for you know , just to see their friends , even though there's nothing wrong with that sometimes that's where it starts . But we've got some students that just desperately love Jesus and I'm excited .

And if you have any more questions , you know you can call Maverick , you can call up here at the office , email him , catch him at a service . But please be praying for our student ministry .

Pray for adults to fill the calling , to Be a part of helping our student ministry because , like Maverick said , it takes pouring into these students and the students are doing the good work of bringing other students .

These kids need People who love them and and Jake used a great analogy at the start a coach or mentor , whatever you want to call it is Is one of the most important roles Any young person's life .

You have your mom , you have your dad and your kids look up to you . I want you to know your kids look up to you , but your kid also looks up to their coach . Their kid also looks up to their mentor big time . I remember all my coaches .

I remember all of them , and if I want you to be praying about whether or not like Does God want you to serve in this kind of aspect , is this something that you can kind of do of just coming up , and it's a really easy job . You come up here on Wednesdays , you come up here on Sundays and you just pour into the kids lives .

You just be a good mentor for them and you help them and and you're just a . You're a person they see weekly and you'd be surprised with how important that is to just be there for a student weekly and how how God can use that to bless their life tremendously .