¶ Disciple Now Weekend Reflection and Impact
Hey guys , I'm Jake and I'm Maverick , and this is the GBC Empower podcast , episode number 72 . So today I am the interviewer and Maverick is the interviewee . Is that how it works , close enough ? So we're on number 72 . Maverick , have you selected a famous 72 in sports ?
I have and can I break the rules just a little bit . Hey man , you're the host today . Okay , oh , yes , yes .
Get after it .
So I'm going to break the rules a little bit with my first one . Number 72 was my really good friend , thomas Smith . He was a lineman and I was always a really small kid and so I surrounded myself with really big men to protect me , and he was one where I played wide receiver and there was a special play . There's photos of me and him . I was 32 .
He was 72 . But to not break the rules , I did pick an Edward Too Tall Jones . He was a 6'9 defensive end and he played on the 1977 Dallas Cowboys and they went on to win a Super Bowl .
Yeah Too Tall Jones . I remember my dad had an Ed Too Tall Jones action figure , but it was not an action figure , it was just him as a football player , but it was like a doll or something and I played with it as a kid . I wish I still had it , but uh you played with dolls .
It's fine , I did . That's cool If they have on football uniforms .
it's fine the action figures . There you go .
Anyway , that's number 72 .
Very , very good . Well , um , I thought we would switch places today because we just came off of pretty much the biggest weekend of the year for our student ministry .
When you think about , you know all that we do throughout the year and we had Disciple Now and you know I got to see it from afar in different circumstances and you know I it I was trying to explain to my children whenever I was a teenager .
D now was a little bit like Christmas because I just I was definitely a church kid and someone who was always at church and I remember my first D now was 2001 .
And , uh , I mean we , I remember we had just gone through the September 11th tragedy and that was like part of our small groups and I've been attending D now since then and then eventually , you know , as a leader .
But this year was different for me because , um , I have two kids that went and , um , I got to feel like a parent and , um , I probably prayed more for this D now than many I ever have . But for all the personal reasons , I just wanted my kids to have a great experience and I know a lot of our parents . That's how they felt .
And , maverick , I just would love to hear a little bit about . You know just what you saw , what you experienced , how you felt about how the weekend went , but then how you feel about just our student ministry moving forward .
Yeah , really , really , really great questions . I'll try to answer all of them . So , youth ministry obviously , is something I get really , really passionate about . It's just God has placed a call on my life to minister , to pastor , and in this avenue right now it's youth ministry .
And , you know , I think of Psalms 37 , four , like delight in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart . No way without the Lord Would I even care . You know , honestly , like no way without the Lord would I even care about this D now . But man , uh , it was scary and I had to depend on him a whole lot .
This one , uh , because we changed it up . So D now , in the , in the back scenes , we usually have like a theme . We uh YM360 , you know curriculum and their student books and there's all these things and they do a fantastic , fantastic job . And that's , to my knowledge , how we've always done D-NOW .
And God laid it on my heart a little bit last year to change it up a little bit D-NOW . In case you don't know , stands for Discipleship Now , little bit D now .
In case you don't know , stands for discipleship now and why there was discipling happening when I was in youth and when I led past D nows , and even when I've spoke at other D nows , we never really talked about what is discipleship . And in our church , in our youth ministry , the youth know , like I will tell them .
I said , guys , I have an agenda , as your youth pastor know , like I will tell them . I said , guys , I have an agenda . As your youth pastor , I have an agenda . I want to see you know the Lord and I want to see you become a disciple of the Lord .
And you know , we have this discipleship model in our church and a lot of our church has gone through it , a lot of our youth has gone through it . And I was like , how do we use discipleship now to spark interest in more students wanting to become not just Christians but actual disciples of Jesus , walking every single day , focusing fully on Him ?
And so that's exactly what we prayed about , exactly what we did . We took four lessons out of the Strand Discipleship . It was what does it mean to be a disciple ? Like at Disciple Now , we talked about what it means to be a disciple and you might be saying , well , yeah , isn't that what you're supposed to do ?
Yeah , I would argue with you that's what you're supposed to do . But we haven't in the past . We talked about how to pray . We gave them a method of praise . If a child has never been to church before , they would know what it means to be a disciple . They would know how to pray . Then we talked about salvation .
What are the five beliefs for you to be saved ? What do you have to have faith in ? What do you have to believe in ? And if you want to share the gospel , what are the things you need to share ? And so we talked about salvation . And then the last one we talked about was Bible study how to read your Bible .
We gave them a actual way to read and study their Bible , and I was nervous about it , but our leaders took on board with this . Our volunteers ran with this and our students definitely benefited from it .
That's awesome man . I was . I thought it was just a breath of fresh air listening to the different lessons and , uh , you know , I got to sit in on um the worship services and listen to uh Austin Lambert , our BSM director through Grayson County he's been to Georgetown in the past .
He's a good friend of a lot of people in our church and a lot of churches in our community and getting to hear just these basic fundamental lessons . It was a reminder that uh , somebody this weekend heard something about what it means to follow Jesus for the very first time in their life .
They heard that they're not simply just called to become a Christian and join a group . It was to become a Christian and become a part and to participate . And it excites me whenever I hear these type of lessons because I really see just the church as a whole .
Coming back to the fundamental realities of the church , but to see it exist in our student ministry and , just from my perspective , the ratio of adult to student , college students to student . Talk a little bit about just our volunteers , how , how we had volunteers step up . I know we had some people teach the Bible . Not everyone did that .
Yeah , yeah .
Um , what , what ? Who are the people that make Disciple Now work ?
So D-NOW um as as a youth , was one of my favorite events and as a youth pastor it is still remained probably my favorite event that we do as a church , because it embodies the youth and it forces the church to be integrated in our ministry .
For a weekend we had 55 , I just counted 55 volunteers not me , not Ryan , like not people who work at the church , not the band , not the speaker , people who get paid to be a part , but 55 volunteers from Georgetown Baptist Church help out this D-NOW weekend .
And that is 55 people at GBC who talked with students who was an example of students who did multiple jobs , like just driving them from their host home to the church being a part of their mission project , serving them food from , like anything like host homes , you know . And then , of course , bible teachers and college leaders . Good night we had .
We had one adult Bible teacher per group and we had six groups and two at bare minimum two college leaders per group as well , staying with them for that 48 hour or whatever hour period , just being the example for them and teaching them the Bible .
I mean , it was just to me , yes , it was a successful denial from the number of students , but for me , that is what defines a success is that our church was fully a part , and there was many people who texted me throughout the weekend , the week before , and even text today . Just hey , I want you to know .
We prayed for this event , we prayed for this student , we prayed for this leader , and for that thank you , guys .
And I hope , as we continue to do this , that y'all see the fruit from it and see the importance of letting our church family be a part of these students' lives , because , yes , they are the next generation of the church , but they're the church right now .
We need to be pouring into them so that they continue to grow in their walk , so they know that it's not okay . You're a Christian now , come to Wednesday nights . No , be a Christian . Yes , come to church , but apply that in every single aspect of your life . Spread the gospel .
Yeah , so we know that the kids came together in the evenings and in the mornings for worship . Like all together they were in host homes going through Bible studies , I think . On Friday night they come up to the gym and do a bunch of games , but talk about Saturday afternoon .
So what's the focus of Saturday afternoons , a disciple now , and what's the goal behind it ?
So Saturday afternoons we do something called a mission project , service project . It has a kind of a couple of different names depending on the church . We go back and forth . We haven't said it , but basically there's certain service projects so it's easier to kind of explain the ones . We did this last year .
So the seventh and eighth grade boys they go to K-Bar K every single year . If you're seventh or eighth grade you go to K-Bar K and you chop wood with Bart Perry . Bart loves it , he's great at it , Matt Gabbert helped him all this stuff . And you might be thinking , what's that service project ? That just sounds like a lot of fun . It is a lot of fun .
But we chop wood to give to shut-ins who have fireplaces , that that's like their main source of heat or whatever they just you know it's about to get cold this week they have , uh , firewood , like I know fred perdue gets some and all that kind of stuff . So they chop firewood and then bart delivers it to all these shut-ins and it's great .
The ninth and 10th grade boys they pick up trash along the side of 289 . So if you're turning into our church they picked up trash all the way up to Frank's and they just bring old trash bags , all that stuff , just cleaning it up . Our 11th and 12th grade boys did some sketchy cleanup from the Nativity Live set . It really helped .
I mean , yes , it helped our church look a little nicer , but it really helps the people who help build some of those sets get the help that they need to .
Oh , believe me , I promise you , there's people very thankful for that work .
Yes , absolutely . And then you had the seventh grade girls . Man , they did a Valentine's party that Brett led in the chapel for just the kids ministry . And the whole point of that is that your worth is not found in makeup , it's not found in the way you look . Brett delivers a little small group lesson . It's a blast .
The eighth and ninth grade girls cook for Donna . They cook our breakfast for Sunday morning , sunday school . But they also cook for shut-ins , and they personally , because they're old for shut-ins , and they personally , because they're old enough , they personally go deliver it to some of our shut-ins .
Like Ann Burns , you know , she got Kaylin Ireland and some group of those girls . They literally went in her home and gave her monkey bread and just to love on her and she teared up and I'm pretty sure our girls teared up too and it was really sweet .
And then , um , our 10th and 11th grade girls , they , uh , they wrote thank you notes , like personalized thank you notes to every single volunteer . That was a part of D now and like the whole point of that is like your call to serve in Christ . Christ did not come to be served , he came to serve .
Well , and I think it sets a good example that you don't simply come to this weekend to consume , you also come to pour out and , you know , for the students to have people focusing in on them , but then also in the afternoon to be able to go and serve in different ways , and those are all just such different ways of accomplishing the same goal .
And , um , you know , just seeing young people serving is always something that encourages us adults and um , and such a wonderful experience . So you know , maverick , I know that you are not like a numbers guy . It's not like you define your success by students showing up to church and going . Oh , my goodness , we got all these kids here .
But the truth is is there has been some growth in the youth ministry in regards to number , and I guess what I would like to ask you and this might be a tough question , but I think a lot of times we can begin to think like ministries are built , you know , by having a having the most fun out of anybody , or or ministries are built because , you know , we
, we , we have like a leg in the community for people to want to come and participate , but but like , truthfully , we want to build ministries like for the same goal of what Disciple Now is . We want to make disciples , and is it possible to do things the right way and see success from that ? And I guess what are your thoughts about that ?
Yeah , so I , just from my background and honestly , just where God has basically told me what to do and what to praise God for , that is , I say I run a very relational ministry . Like you know , you go to kids ministry and I think theirs is very relational , but theirs is also very structured , like , hey , here's what's going to happen . Here's a schedule .
Every Wednesday , every Sunday has a schedule , all these things .
¶ Cultivating Relationships for Discipleship
Wednesdays aren't really like that . I mean , we have what we do , but like , if a volunteer comes to me , it's like Maverick , you know , I want to serve in youth ministry . I have a meeting with them , one because we should , but two to lay it out . Like , hey , here's what it looks like .
Yes , your job on Wednesday is to get to know the names of some students , like , get to know their names , get to know what they like , what they don't like , what do they do . And then ministers so let's say , a kid likes baseball and he plays baseball . Your job is to talk to him about baseball and Jesus on a Wednesday night .
But then your job is to go to his baseball games when you can , you know , not every single game , but at least go to one , go to two , even if I'm not there .
You know , you build that relationship and it was really hard to get that off the ground because it requires us to do a whole lot extra work and it is extra , I mean all my and it's like you , you don't want me to teach the Bible , you want me to just get to know kids . And there was kind of this we don't . This is different .
And uh , you know , I was like you just stay the course , get to know these kids , get to know their friends , get to know all this stuff . And uh , it basically has led to what this D now was . This D now was it blew my expectations out of the water .
There were so many students there , but what was really cool was it wasn't a lot of students that we didn't know Like we might not have personally , like know everything about them , but it was like hey , so-and-so's talked about you , like you're their friend , that you , you got invited by this person and like , yeah , or hey , you play on the basketball team with
so-and-so . And it was like yeah , yeah , and it literally like I could see my volunteers eyes just like okay , this is why we've been doing the . What we have been doing and we've had we had some massive , massive groups and then the cool part about that is , yes , our volunteers caught wind of that , but our students have caught wind of that .
Like the cool part about D now , even though it's just paper signups was our students were inviting people , not just throwing a packet at them just like , hey , my church is having an event this weekend . Would you like to go ? Here's the packet , there's all the information of that .
Would you please sign up and go , like an actual personal invitation , and to me I think that's why these students came , not because Maverick Malone's really awesome , like , like a lot of those students like the ninth and 10th grade boys .
They know Marshall , marshall knows them , they love the house , they know what they're getting into and so , like a 10th grade boy could literally be like hey , come to this event . There's a really cool guy teaching the Bible . He lives on a tree farm .
We play hide and go seek every single year , all these kinds of things and come , and it was like you know , I think it got a lot of the students excited and it's made our volunteers want relationships with the students , but it's also made our students want relationships with their friends that are centered around Jesus .
Well , I hope you were able to hear you know , listeners a little bit of our youth pastor's heart for our teenagers and for what's going on .
And you know , the biggest thing that I feel most encouraged about as a parent is I feel like my kids are in an environment that they're being encouraged at the level they are now , but I envision an on-ramp for them feeling like they're a part of the church that they go to and not simply just a part of the youth ministry .
And I agree , you know the work of discipleship , it requires a willingness to move slow and steadily . But I believe you know we sow what we reap and if we sow what is of Christ and of the Lord , we reap . And if we sow what is of Christ and of the Lord , then then we're going to reap what is of Christ and of the Lord .
So , um , congrats on a great weekend . I hope , uh , I hope , you get some rest , uh , mal gets some rest . And uh , uh , I think about these adults that they give up their entire weekend and they got up on Monday and went to work and uh , god love y'all , y'all , y'all are awesome people and we just give you all the encouragement we can .
So , hey , thank y'all so much for listening and we look forward to seeing you next Sunday . Thank y'all .