Episode 17 - "Gospel and Sports" feat. Gabriel Fuller | Young Life Leadership

0:00

Oh yeah, we're we're in there.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

We're in there.

I don't know about it being beautiful, but we're in there.

It's a beautiful day.

It's a beautiful day.

It's a beautiful day.

It's a beautiful day A.

Little cold this morning.

It was cold.

It's a little chilly there.

There was some frost out there.

It was a.

Heavy frost this morning.

0:16

I went to bring the trash in and I was like, Oh yeah, Burr, it's winter time.

I'm I'm just ready for like a foot of snow.

I'm so sick of it not snowing.

Let's get a snow in.

And then let's start turning their eyes towards summer.

My kids pray for snow every night.

My kids aren't even in school, but well, the other day this past weekend, it was vaguely spitting snow.

0:38

I mean, yeah, little flurries.

Faintest of flurries.

They did not go unnoticed by my daughter.

My daughter Reese noticed them.

She was very excited right around that time.

Unfortunately noticed it got excited.

Nap time occurred.

Nap time over?

Nap time over, we wake up, no snow.

0:53

She was so upset she was actually crying because she she just wants to build a snowman.

My daughter's 3.

I'm bummed as a 31 year old.

Yeah, same like I I literally.

I love snow.

I enjoy the snow.

One of my favorite things to do is get up really, really, really early.

1:11

Pitch black.

The quietness.

Oh yeah, the stillness that exist after a big blanket of snow.

Because hey, most traffic's not out.

It's not time already.

This.

It's so peaceful to be out there.

1:28

Except.

For the people with Subarus and trucks.

The inverse of that?

The Subaru Forester owner.

I need to go find a parking lot.

Out there doing squirrely Donuts somewhere.

Bingo, That's me.

I'm the Subaru Forester owner that does squirly Donuts.

Welcome back to Faith and Frames.

1:43

Good morning.

Good morning, Good evening.

Wherever where do you know yourself?

Oh, that's Spanish.

Pretty sure wherever you find yourself in English in life.

Bingo.

Hey, this one's pretty good.

Hit me.

Why did God create Adam before Eve?

2:04

That I don't know.

Well, he didn't want any advice on how to do it.

I love it.

That's pretty good.

We're fresh off of girl math and now we are getting into the unsolicited advice stage.

2:19

Specifically with driving and directions and all these.

Things a number of times that my wife will just randomly scream they're stopping while I'm driving.

Yeah, 400 yards away.

I got it.

I see it.

I saw the brake lights now then in her defense.

Not always.

I do a bit of daydreaming sometimes when I'm driving I window shop.

2:40

I'll admit it, I'll admit it.

But I key hunting, as they call it.

The instinct is the instinct is still there though.

I see the lights in my peripheral sometimes, yeah, most of the time we're going to get it.

We'll get there.

We'll get stopped.

Jesus, take the wheel.

One way or another, we're going to get stopped.

Stopping's going to occur.

2:57

Yes, for sure.

Jared, I have a question for you.

Uh, oh, I So I recently bestowed upon you an image from your childhood, from your youth, and I want, I've got to ask you a few questions.

Audience out there who are listeners only.

You're not going to be able to see this, but I'm going to paint you a picture of Jared circa O 6.

3:17

Gabby O six O 7 Yeah, sophomore year.

Kiss Jared.

Yeah, Kiss Jared.

So you.

I saw a picture that was given to me by one of our friends, Mr. Lester Ricker.

A wonderful man, by the way.

Shout out.

Lester gave me an image of you in KISS makeup.

3:34

I just want you to tell me what, 'cause that's not you.

You're not.

You're not the KISS makeup kind of guy.

What possessed you that certain day in high school to paint your face as the drummer of KISS?

My bad.

You were actually Ace freely.

I don't know which one of the guitar you were.

Ace.

He's the guitarist.

3:49

And you said you had a guitar placed in your hands.

Why Ace?

Why?

Why were you the Ace?

I.

Really don't know.

And by the way, I'm gonna put this graphic for our our visual.

I don't think they need that in there.

I think they need to see it.

Well, so for whatever reason, that talent show sophomore year, we were a couple of the soccer team members, we put on a skit, essentially Lip sung.

4:15

I don't know, I don't remember which Kiss song it was.

But anyway.

Detroit Rock City.

That's one of their most popular.

There's there's another one that's really popular.

Anyways, song's not important.

Song title was irrelevant at this point.

We were doing a a a stage performance of of Kiss.

4:34

So we had face paint, we had wigs, we had the instruments we had.

Didn't need wigs because according to the picture, you had quite a head of hair.

We had covered boots with aluminum foil to be shiny.

I mean, we were, we were a KISS production.

Yes, you were.

4:49

So yeah, that's quick, cool back story as to the the reason for that picture existing?

I love it.

Why I was painted as a KISS band member.

I love it.

I saw it and and that was a a side of my business partner that I had not seen before because you know, you were a couple of years ahead of me in school.

5:07

So that was a talent show that occurred before I was in high school.

Hey, I've done.

My fair share of talent shows it happens.

Well, no, I mean, I I, I've, I've certainly participated in talent shows as well.

I typically sing, but for whatever reason that year, this is what you sang.

Yeah, this is what this is what they wanted to do.

5:23

You lip sanged.

We lip sang.

I I wish that photo didn't exist.

And more importantly, I wish that social media did not have an archival record of that photo.

I think the world is better because it exists.

5:39

No.

Yeah, it gives us a, it gives us a side of Jared that again as your business partner and friend did not know existed.

Well, obviously you're a cut up.

We we both have a very similar comedic style.

5:55

But I did.

I did not know that you had that side to you.

Well, now the world knows, and I don't know that it's any better for it, but here we are.

Can't wait till you bring it back.

We got a cool guest today.

We do, we do.

We have a guest with us today.

Have a guest.

So we'll.

Bring him on here in just a minute.

Get his back story and how the Lord's using him.

6:13

But first, let's thank our sponsor.

Sponsors for today's episode of Faith and frames none other than animals West of Greenville, Tennessee.

At Animals W your pets are our passion.

6:29

Our dedicated team offers personalized care, advanced treatments and a warm, loving environment.

Because at Animals W, every tale tells a story.

Yeah, it does.

Tony, Amanda and the crew down on the Newport Highway, thank you for sponsoring this episode of Faith and Frames.

6:47

Thank you for sponsoring me and Jared here at Ocean Creative Media.

Folks, I've said it a couple of Times Now.

Take your felines, your canines, your equestrians, your bovines.

Any of the animals.

Probably just the first two, down to animals West of Greenville, Tennessee.

I'm going to put a petition.

7:03

We need to change that.

Every tale tells a tale.

Every tale tells a tale.

That's a lot of tales.

It's.

A lot of tales, but I mean it's play on words.

I'm sure they have seen a lot of tales in their days.

Bingo.

As as A tag team veterinarian duo.

Either way, we're thankful for them.

Very thankful.

Very thankful.

7:18

Absolutely.

Jared, meeting taters.

Just meeting taters this morning You said We have a guest.

We'd like to introduce our guest, we.

Do we have a young guest?

Super young Gabe.

Fuller.

Mr. Gabe, now?

What is your official title with young life?

I am young life staff associate one if we were to get real technical.

7:38

OK, staff associate one OK, what a what a phrase.

That is, that's quite the moniker there, I.

Mean.

Quite the moniker.

Absolutely.

So Gabe, young life.

I So I How long has young life been in Greene County now?

7:53

Yeah, young life.

We actually just celebrated our 10th year anniversary, so 10 years in Greenville.

Nice.

Beautiful.

I'm sure I'm not alone as a Greene County resident.

And I've seen the Y LS.

I've seen people.

I've seen it on social media.

See them on the car stickers.

See them on the car.

8:08

Stickers right now.

And you guys get them stickers out there.

We do little class.

For stickers that is outreach.

I mean that is, that is awareness, that is exposure.

But what what exactly is young life First off and secondarily piggyback off of that?

8:25

How did you get involved in young life?

For sure, young life is our mission statement is introducing adolescence to Jesus Christ and helping them grow their faith.

That's like bottom line, like young life at its core.

Introducing kids in specifically in Greenville and that S green high school kids to Jesus and then helping them grow their faith.

8:45

How I got involved.

So I actually went to South Green, which is kind of fun, so back in my own home territory.

We're black knots.

We won't hold it.

Against you.

Against you.

I see you wore the maroon today.

That's right.

Gotta represent, gotta represent.

Always support my my rebels.

9:01

Believe I didn't go to the greatest school in the county.

That's.

OK, but young life is pretty new at S Green.

So when I was in high school, it was just at Greenville, and I had a friend at that went to Greenville High that invited me alongside.

And I came to this thing called Young Life Club.

9:19

And we call Young Life Club a party with a purpose.

And we can talk about that later.

But you show up and it's just kind of this like Madhouse.

Like there's playing games or singing songs, like they're being goofy, They're skits And then.

I've definitely seen some things that look like they could occur on college campuses like in a good way, like just the, the energy.

9:37

The energy and the and the.

Lots of energy at a young life club.

That's awesome and.

Different from traditional, mainstream in the.

Area.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And there's a method to the madness.

There's there's lots of different layers to what we do and why we do it.

But I showed up to this young life club and it's towards the end of the year, you know school years coming to the close.

9:57

And then this guy gets one stage and he talks about the Lord and a really cool and unique way and I've always grown up in church and know the Lord and but this was really unique and special and a couple weeks later at my friend, he's like, hey we're going to young life camp, you should go.

10:15

And I'm like, I just, I just started this thing, you know?

And so I asked my parents didn't think I was going to be able to go and sure enough went to Carolina Point Young Life camp they called the best week of your life.

And they don't call that for no reason.

Nice.

OK.

So what you did there?

10:30

Yeah, went to Carolina Point and I haven't really looked back since.

OK.

That's like in a nutshell how it kind of all?

Started now What year are we in at this point in time?

This is going into my junior year of high school, so like.

So you started as a as a member, as a patron, as a participant and how did you get into you're you're certainly more of a leadership organizational role at this point now, correct?

10:53

Yes.

Yeah.

How'd you get there?

Long.

Long road.

So after I graduated high school, I just went to Walter State and our area director at the time in Greenville.

His name was Jonathan.

Drink Wine.

Heard the name?

Yes.

11:09

Great personality, loves.

The Lord was a mentor of mine for a long time and he invited me to be a young life leader.

And that was the first time that I've really stepped into a leadership role and he kind of guided me into that role.

Going into college, I thought I was going to be like a physical therapist.

11:29

You know, my dad's a doctor sister went into the medical field.

I thought I was going to go to the medical field, right.

It's going to make sense.

And about a year or so after of just reflecting and stuff, I I had a mentor of mine, a pastoral figure in my life.

11:47

He looked at me, sent me down one day and was like, hey, you seem to really enjoy this ministry stuff.

Have you thought about doing it full time one day?

And it was the first time really someone ever affirmed that in me.

And after a long process of family kind of affirming that as well, I thought that was going to be you know, something I was going to do one day.

12:08

So after I graduated from Walter State the next best thing to do is, oh let's go get a Bible degree.

So I go to Milligan in the fall of 2020.

Gotcha.

Did not go well.

Terrible master of my life Crashed and burned.

12:25

Hit a low point and.

College is tough for people at.

Times college is tough and that was you're looking to.

Drop out right here.

Hey, drop out.

Come on, let's go.

It was hard and it was, you know, I guess when you're in high school, when you're young, you feel like you're going to go to college and that's where, like, your life is going to kick off.

12:43

And when it doesn't go well, you're like, all right, I'm just a failure, you know?

And so I found myself working over at PT Solutions, OK, Greenville Commons for about a year.

And there were specifically two guys that work there that just really love the Lord in their late 20s and they just love me really well and kind of got me back up on my feet.

13:08

And then our area director, current area director that was in town, it was Abby and Brandon Gloyd at the time.

They sent me the link to an internship at Carolina Point, where it kind of kind of circled back.

You know, come back to the party, please.

13:24

Yep.

Back over to Carolina Point.

So I was kind of the the time of my life where I'm like, OK, I really wanted to do ministry.

Yeah, it didn't really work.

I'm like working with insurance right now.

This feels like a good way to get back involved and so.

13:39

You had that little yearning, Yeah, you would say.

Never went back into it.

Oh, for sure.

I think I've always kind of had that, you know, in ministry.

It's like, it's like you found something.

You want to go give it back to your friends, back to your people.

Yes.

And so I find myself Carolina Point again.

13:58

It was kind of green light till red light like I'm going to fill in fill in the application.

If the Lord says yes he wants me there.

Then you know the right steps will will occur and happen.

So I found myself at Carolina Point and there's three big rotations that you do, and they're all different.

14:15

You know, you kind of get selected.

So I actually spent several months working in the kitchen, OK?

And then I spent several months cooking it up.

You know, Chef Gabe out there, a lot of people know that there we go, Probably wouldn't eat my food, you know?

Well, Chef kissed emoji.

Yeah, I did my time and then I actually worked in retail over there and that was really fun.

14:37

And then the last one, and this actually kind of connects some pieces.

I had the opportunity to to choose my summer role, the summer role.

There's so many more things that go on in summer, and video was one of those roles.

And at this point, I had not done a lot of video, right.

14:52

So it's kind of odd.

Like, photography is easy.

You can go out and take pictures of people.

What do you do?

You ask your buddy, hey, do you want to go out to the park and film a video?

Yeah, there's a little more planning.

There's a place.

Yeah, with.

Photos You can start off with.

Bar, Bar, Fancy leaves, flowers, yeah, anything really.

15:09

Landscapes, all these things.

Inanimate object.

Exactly.

And I found myself with this opportunity.

Yep to do video.

And I felt like there was this tension before of like can he do it?

Can I do it.

And at the time I had that still film with it.

15:26

Now it's a little outdated, but that Sony A60400.

Oh yes, 64 is a.

Great little body.

Great Little.

Great Little.

Body Love that sucker and did it.

And it was it was the incredible summer, one of the most stressful summers of my life.

Just Oh yeah, I mean, you had to pump out six videos a week.

15:44

For 10 weeks.

And they were like the daily recap.

So you got to go film, edit and then show all turn around day.

You're talking to two commercial dudes right here, and that idea alone just scares the.

Heck, I mean, I think I got some Gray hairs.

Oh yeah, for sure.

So that.

OK.

15:59

So that those two things speak to one of the reasons why I was so excited to get you on the podcast and thank you for agreeing.

OK, So this is Faith in Frames, right?

We titled it Faith in Frames because of Faith, right.

That was obvious.

Frames also because it's what we do as a professional industry, right.

And and you literally do both of them, right.

16:16

I I've watched you from afar and this past football season I actually got to speak with you for the first time in person.

You were on the sideline of the S Green football game like we were not the one where you got your noggin, rocked that.

Was North green.

16:32

But anyway, we were there.

Had a couple of Waffle House occurrences as well.

Yes, that's right.

You told me I was, I was, I was talking to you about cameras and and and we were chatting it up there.

But you said that you like to use it as an outreach, as a form of ministry, right?

Speak to what you mean by that.

16:49

Yeah, how?

How do you do that?

Yeah, absolutely.

Trying to think of how on a back pedal, I think the IT almost goes back as far when that those two collided.

When I first recognized this could be a possibility is when I was doing the training for the video stuff at camp.

17:07

The guy that was training us, he said that our video, like we had the chance to share the gospel throughout our video and how do we do that?

And in the back of my mind, I was like, that's really silly, Like, how do you, how do you show the gospel?

17:22

Bridge of this gap.

Yeah.

I I have a pretty stepped out method like we we got to see, worship hands and we got to see.

TV That's right.

That's right.

Been on the crying people, there's there's a method.

Method to the Mathis.

Right.

So what did their training look like then?

Like what?

What was it?

Well, it wasn't necessarily their training that stuck out.

17:40

But I can remember the first time that, you know, you you make these recaps so there's just kids out in the camp.

And then we put them up on the big screen at the end of the day.

And there's, you know, several hundred kids there and they see their face up on that screen and they go crazy.

17:55

Oh yes.

And their friends go crazy.

Well.

Everybody wants their moment.

Yes, that wants their moment.

And I looked at that and I said, I said that's the gospel.

I'm giving them an opportunity.

I'm highlighting them.

I'm saying, hey, you are seen, you are important, you are noticed.

Yes.

And then, so when I got to go back home and I started ministry in this town, I was like, I have a really unique opportunity here.

18:18

I have a camera and I have the ability to take pictures and do videos.

Why not do the same?

And then the young life world we were talking earlier, we put an emphasis on remembering kids names.

Yeah, yes.

It is so important if you go to a ball game and you know you, you meet some kid, you know whether it's in the stands or in the football field.

18:39

Say his name is Brennan.

Brennan and you see him again in the lunchroom, and you say his name, whether sometimes they process it or not.

I think subconsciously most people do.

And it's not just kids.

I think humans want to know that at the simplest form that you can remember their name, yes.

18:57

But I've got cold chills right now.

So so so my my family and I are currently re watching the Chosen.

Season one episode one is I've called you by name.

I don't know if you've watched the Chosen or not.

I've watched bits and pieces.

I wanna finish it.

Oh my gosh.

Season one, episode one, Mary Magdalene.

The final scene is Jesus calling her by name and.

19:22

It.

Changes her life because she's she's she's delivered of the demons in her butt like yes.

So remembering the kids name, that's that's a desire.

And say on a human form?

Yeah, on a human form.

For sure.

Amazing.

It's so relational.

19:39

It's so relational.

And Jesus did it.

Jesus put such an emphasis on names and he changed people's names.

And yeah, we don't really do that in today's world.

I mean, we give them nicknames and we do, Yeah, they do the bosses.

They get aliases.

Yeah, I'm going to name you Peter.

You know, kind of.

Like salmon?

19:54

Yeah.

Right, right.

But what I love, what I get to do on video and it just opens up this whole new world that's.

But I get the spotlight a kid.

And like I said, they get to be seen and heard, known and loved.

And they.

20:10

Feel like they belong.

They feel important.

They feel loved.

All those things get to take place because of what you're doing.

Yeah.

And going back to, you know, the the whole idea behind Gospel the the fact that you are loving on somebody remembering their name, knowing them personally, that all points back to that relation that we have with our Creator, right.

20:28

You know, and and that's what you're mimicking whenever you do that, Yeah.

Right.

For sure.

You're creating that relationship, that friendship there and and it's all for at the end of the day, like when I go back to the high school or or at Waffle House, there you go.

You make those friendships and those connections and I love that.

20:47

I get to, you know, on a Friday night, we're playing W Green.

I think it was the game that we met.

Kids know that, oh, I'm on their side.

I'll fight for them.

Even though it's a silly little rivalry game, you know, they're like, oh, he's on my team.

Yes, He cares about me.

Yes.

And I think that is, it's really God's voice.

21:05

And it's his quiet way of saying, hey, I hear you, I'm on your side.

That's what we're trying to communicate.

You're mirroring, you're just mirroring.

Exactly.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

So you're now in a leadership role at young life.

And again, I think a lot of people in the county in the area know of it, know it exists, kind of maybe have a vague idea as to what it is they.

21:29

See the videos.

They see the.

Videos.

They see all the kids excited about it, which they should be, but like what?

What is a way that maybe someone on the outside look in the end could help?

Support could help get involved.

You know what?

What are ways that people can can help?

21:46

With that mission, for sure, absolutely.

There's so many different ways to answer that question.

I feel like the obvious one is there's a big financial piece to your life.

You know, we have to raise a lot of money to keep this thing rolling.

Absolutely, here in town.

So financially is always given.

22:04

For some people that's the answer.

You know, they work full time jobs or doctors or lawyers or whatever they might be and they don't have the capacity or the time to invest in high school kids, but they can give.

And so that is one one way we have several people who donate spaces or times and our supporters or prayers.

22:27

We have a committee and we're actually trying to create some sort of S Green committee as well.

You're going to.

Have chapters.

Right.

Yeah.

So essentially want the people backing us up to be a part of that.

Community right that makes.

22:42

Sense.

So like we in our Greenville High School, you know if you're looking at our committee right now, it's mainly made-up of people who love and support Greenville High.

We want we want people who support Greenville or for S Green and then someday North Green and so you know all of them you know so that is that is also another way but I'd say one of the biggest ways is young life at the end of the day is just AT shirt is just a really good temple of how to do ministry in today's world.

23:12

There's so many people in this town who love the Lord, who love people, have a really deep and meaningful relationship with Jesus, but they don't know how to do ministry.

They just don't.

We talked about that off camera.

Yeah, but it's true.

23:29

And young Life has found out a really good way.

This is what I tell our young life leaders.

I say, hey, if anything, this is a really good template of how to do discipleship in ministry in today's world.

We figured out a really effective way to share the gospel to lost kids in this world.

23:48

And so if anything, you know, I love extending that hand of like, hey, we're coming into a community to equip the community.

Not like bring in other people, but to quit.

The people are already there to do ministry in their town.

Yeah, that's what we really want.

24:03

To do at the end of the day, kind of how Jesus did it.

And that's how discipleship works.

So how, how does that differ?

What practical things do you guys do that differ from, I'll just call it like traditional worship because you know, being in a small town and especially being in the South, it's very easy to fall into that construct of, OK, on Sunday morning, Sunday nights, I'm going to this building worship together and then we leave and on Wednesday night we're going to go back.

24:27

What do you guys do practically that is like outside of that mold?

Because I think for a lot of traditional church folks, especially when it comes to worship, I think we missed the boat a lot of the times because we think outside of those four walls that not a lot can be accomplished whether.

24:42

The Christ doesn't exist outside of these.

Yeah, nothing exist outside of you know.

Christ work outside of these walls.

Right.

But practically speaking, what do you guys do that kind of breaks that?

I mean, I I know a couple of things in my head.

Obviously you say that you're going to kids, so you're not waiting for them to come inside your four walls, you're going to their their living room and in their schools, but what do you guys practically do to to extend that reach even further?

25:07

For sure.

Well, you said, what I was going to say is the biggest thing that we do in young life is we, we look at Jesus's ministry and we try to mimic that, right?

So we go to where kids are at.

So that's why we ran in.

You ran into us and we were with kids at Waffle House, you know, or we're on the sidelines of ball games.

25:24

Yeah, also props to you because I don't know how how you guys fit.

I think you had probably 8 or 10 kids with you the night that I ran into you.

How they're going to fit in that booth, don't know.

Those are the smallest.

Booths in the world I can.

Barely fit my waters.

We figured it out.

They're A4 four person booth.

25:39

That actually comfortably only fits two anyways.

Yes, but we're we try and we try and spend most of our time where kids are AT and we have something called the Five CS of young Life that kind of drive our mission, kind of the how we do what we want to accomplish.

25:59

And one of those is contact work.

So if you're a leader, we would say something like, hey, we want you to do contact work two to three times a week, right.

So one of those might be Young Life Club, one of those might be going to a ball game and then one might be having coffee with Young Life guys.

Some sort of outreach?

Right.

You were with the people, right?

26:15

And that's the most important.

You're meeting them where they are.

Exactly.

So you're telling me, Gabe, that witnessing can occur at a high school football game?

Absolutely, absolutely.

Interesting.

What a concept.

What an interesting.

At a Waffle House.

At a Waffle House.

Bless the Lord.

26:30

What about at a gas pump?

At a gas pump.

Bless the Lord, it's mind blowing.

Jesus and an All Star special, Yes.

Nothing like it.

Hard to beat that it is, you know, and at first it is hard, you know.

It's just like, how do I bridge the two, but.

It's not comfortable at times.

It's not comfortable, but I can't tell you how many times I've just had a conversation with a kid and this is something else that I don't think people understand.

26:53

But when you're building a relationship and a friendship, you don't always just have to be talking about Jesus.

So you know, like.

You don't have to be smacking them in the face with it.

Exactly.

And the idea and the hope is that one day they come and ask you these things.

And so you know a lot of times we talk about the ball games or just, you know, you're just building the friendships and so so one day that you can have those conversations.

27:20

But if you want to delve into the how we do the other five CS, we have our committee of people.

I briefly touched on that and they help support us and guide us in the financial side.

On the spiritual level, they do so many things.

27:37

The committee is awesome.

They are our backbone, right?

And then there's our how we do so we have our contact work, right?

We have club.

So I mentioned earlier, club is party with a purpose, right?

Club is.

Now are y'all still off of down below towering oaks.

27:53

Yes, by the dentist's office is Church St.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. 1102 E Church St.

Yes, All right at you.

OK, Great little place we call club party with a purpose at it's root and this is where people can kind of get confused.

Is there like is this a youth group?

28:08

What is, is this a church?

Of what?

What is this?

Right.

It's important that outside looking in, we were we were confused too, yeah.

For sure, Absolutely.

At it's Root, it's a time there where we get to celebrate our friendships and relationships with our high school kids.

Gotcha.

It also gives us a platform to kind of bring kids in to our thing.

28:28

You know, we mentioned earlier, most of the time we're at their thing.

Once a week we could invite them to do our thing.

That's cool.

And if you think about the kids that you're bringing, the hope is that you're bringing the kids that wouldn't be interested in a youth group, right?

28:45

That wouldn't darken the doors of a church, right?

And so because.

Sometimes church people are scary.

They are not so nice.

Yeah.

Very judgmental.

A lot of them, for sure.

And a lot of us don't mean to, but it just comes off that way, you know?

And I think there's sometimes an expectation or we use even very churchy language, you know, and it feels like second nature to us if you've grown up in it, but it's not to a lot of people.

29:09

Not attracted to someone on the outside looking in, right?

It can be intimidating, all those things.

Well, simply on again, I'm all about practical uses like you even think about music.

You know, one of one of my favorite genres of music is is like Christian metal because there are there are folks that that genre can connect to that if that same person were to walk into a a traditional church in small town USA, they'd never come back.

29:37

They they would hear 1 hymn.

And I'm just talking just on the the level of music, not even talking about the message, the judgmentalness, whatever, just the music.

They would hear him and be like, Oh no, this ain't it, This where where are my blast beats at?

Where's my double bass at.

So there are things that practically speaking, you guys are able to reach that even traditional church cannot because you're getting kids that, like you say, they would never come into a traditional church, would never come to a traditional youth group because they have those notions in their mind.

30:06

No different than probably a lot of Christians have a notion of them.

It's just not not a good mixture at times.

I appreciate you guys for that.

I definitely think the the age group that you're hitting and targeting and and and getting the opportunity to minister to is such such a key age because so impressionable.

30:27

Oh, they're so impressionable.

But I'll take it from both ends of the spectrum.

Take it to somebody who's never been to church, never.

Like maybe maybe they know who they know, they know of God, they know nothing about it.

They may now have a seed planted.

But on the other side of that, maybe you're a kid who has grown up in church.

30:43

Maybe you made a profession a long time ago, all these things.

But the the world, especially kids, the things that they're exposed today, the temptations that are around them all the time, it can get you beat down pretty good to where, like, you know the the the devil will will get you being like you're not a Christian, 'cause you're you're doing all these things.

31:03

So you're even catching a kid at that point where you know what you can, You can be that encouragement today.

The age group that you're hitting is such an impressionable age.

Weird analogy here, but you guys have the opportunity to be like the guy on TikTok who cuts the barnacles off of crabs.

31:19

You seen the Barnacle guy have not.

He catches crabs and releases them, but they they accumulate barnacles.

Barnacles are not good for the crab.

They eventually kill the crab.

Fair enough.

Takes them out of the water, clips them off, gives them a fish, throws them back in.

But you guys are essentially doing that with with young people.

31:34

You know you're able to bring them in.

I give them a message that can ultimately clean them, but then also the ones who, like Jared said, have been kind of and the barnacles from the world, you can clip those and give them back.

Yeah, that's a weird analogy, but.

That's a TikTok brain coming in.

I got you.

So I, I, I, I love the age group that you guys are are finding yourselves immersed in.

31:55

That's that's amazing.

For sure.

Is there a reason that it's, I mean, it's obviously young life.

So like I said, it's kind of the adjective in it kind of speaks to it.

But like, that is such a great age and I think you guys have a great thing going there.

To quote Ben Shapiro, it's in the name Young Life.

32:11

Also true, there is lots of branches out of young life, though this is where we would like to get one day.

But there is something called wildlife for middle schoolers.

Do you have anything for people who are like, you know, kind of young but kind of not.

32:27

But yeah, we like to think I'll.

Be a young life leader.

I'll be a young life leader, you guys OK?

There you go, there you go.

We have something called young lives, which is for teen moms.

OK, so which is very cool if you want to have a Sabi week, go to a young lives camp one time And those hundreds of babies.

32:46

It's incredible.

Wow.

And.

So they it It's where the moms bring their babies, too.

The moms bring, the teen moms bring their babies, and they all have a personalized nanny.

And what?

Yep, it's incredible.

33:01

And yeah.

But you think of a need there though.

I know, that's why I'm so mind blown right now.

I don't know the camp.

And they give the moms a moment, one to be a kid again, right?

To hear the gospel.

I mean, I think I can imagine that pressure of Oh my God, I'm a Teen Mom like.

33:17

I'm 32 and got two kids.

I'm like, it's it's tough.

Yeah, that responsibility, you know.

And then to say and look at them and say one, your life's not over, right?

You still have value.

Well, then your baby has value.

Like there's there's a story there that can be glorious.

33:33

Oh, by the way, let me help you take this shame off, Yeah.

Absolutely you.

Shouldn't place that, you know, I'm saying so oh man.

That's deep.

I didn't know that existed in Young.

Life and there's this deep sense of community that is built of like, OK.

They know they're not the only one.

Yes.

Uh huh.

Exactly.

All that shame is stripped away.

33:48

All that shame.

And then there's something called Young Life, Capernaum, which is for special needs.

And again, it is the most incredible thing.

You'll go to a young life camp and Carolina Point is 100% handicap accessible.

OK.

And so, so.

It's ADA approved.

Yes, all the.

34:04

I don't know what that means.

All the all the acronyms.

Right, American Disability Act.

There it is.

But it is very, very sweet because you'll have, you know, 2-3 hundred kids with disabilities and they all got young life leaders, just like weird young life leaders.

And they help them and care for them and love them.

34:19

And you know, you see them all in a club and they're just loving life, right?

So all different kinds of avenues, yeah.

This is so cool though because again, but before, before we pressed record, these are things that we were even unaware of.

I mean, again, I've seen the videos, the pictures, my cousin is in young life here in Greenville like, but I I thought it was literally a bunch of high school and college kids with with the rah rahs for Jesus.

34:43

Yeah, it's.

It's a little more than that, though, for.

Sure, I think.

I think, I think it's really cool because I, I we talked about it off camera, OK?

And another guest that we had on a podcast episode a while back, we we talked about how it is so easy to let the devil basically get you convinced that we are not special.

35:09

God's not going to use you.

You're not a preacher.

You're not a youth pastor.

You're not the worship leader.

You're not this, that and the other I'm, I'm a useless tool, right?

I have no use in the arsenal of Christ weaponry, right.

But that's not true.

35:24

You know, we were talking to another guy on another episode, EJ.

He's able to use ministry as an antique salesman, as a dealer, as people that he's just placed in front of on a daily basis.

You're able to use media and photo and video as a way to to minister and get to people speak to that and and just how, how freeing it is to know that you can be used and and God wants to use you right.

35:54

For sure, absolutely.

I'd say usually if I'm just back up a little bit, usually when you ask somebody to do ministry alongside you or to do specifically youth ministry.

They feel inadequate.

Yeah, They feel inadequate.

I'm not young, Flash.

36:10

We are.

I'm not.

Yes.

We're not worthy, right?

I'm not cool enough.

I'm not funny enough.

I have enough energy.

I don't have talents.

Right.

I don't got talents.

The guy to I was.

Just couldn't even talk well, well.

Right and.

He led in massive.

Exodus.

36:25

He did it, probably.

The largest?

Right.

The guy to prove that all wrong to us all really was a judge, right?

I don't know if you know him.

He's a young life leader.

I did not know that.

And so, but he's going to make fun of me if he ever sees this.

36:42

But we'll make sure that he does this old guy coming in, you know, trying to do youth ministries specifically with young life and goes out and kills it.

And it's not because he's super cool.

It's not because he's super talented or has all these cool.

36:58

Truthful any of these things.

Right.

It's because he's consistent and he's loving and he's been obedient.

He's been obedient.

He felt a calling to his life and he's was obedient and God has been faithful and done the rest.

And that's really been the pattern with all of our young life leaders.

37:14

You know, you see their ministry unfold and it was never because of who they really were, you know, they were super cool or super talented, but it was just because they went out and showed up.

Yeah, and that's what makes a difference in kids lives.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Judge, right.

He was the the children's judge here in Greene County, correct?

37:32

No, that's Kim Bailey, I think.

That's Bailey.

OK, my bad, my bad.

But so, so that that that speaks to kind of another point that I would like to make.

We talked about it in regards to fitness and other things like that.

That one piece of cake isn't going to make you obese.

That one mistake that you make as a Christian, because newsflash are going to make mistakes.

37:53

That one mistake you made, it should not derail you and and cause you to walk away.

And I think that happens a lot with with especially teens, I'm telling you.

To one bad experience.

The highs and lows that go through.

Oh my gosh.

Already emotional testosterone.

All the All the puberty just hit you.

38:11

And and then all the temptations that are placed in front of you at that age, yeah, you're you're going to mess up.

How are you guys able to to help kids navigate those waters?

For sure.

Like the shame and the.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, for sure.

Well, I think a lot of it is you know, what we do at the end of club is we share about the life of Christ.

38:32

And I think what's so important when you look at the life of Christ as Jesus walked and hung out with sinners.

Yup.

You know, and he loves sinners.

And I think it is really, really important that that's what we communicate and we get to communicate as young life leaders, we get to be adults in our lives to do get to speak truth into their lives.

38:51

And I'll never forget, you know, another seed that we have a young life is campaigners.

It's like a Bible study and out of campaigners, it's at my house, there's only a couple guys there, we're sitting around the table and this one guy, you know, the first time I ever met him, he talked about this cone that he stole.

39:08

You know, he's wearing the neon.

You know, this student stands in a wild kid and we just got to talk about life and he's had a hard, hard life.

You know, parents really not involved and really sad story.

And he kind of finished it up with like, I've just got to be strong enough to pull pull up my own bootstraps, you know?

39:29

Right, I.

Hear that saying a lot.

Yeah, I hear that A.

Lot.

And I had the chance to look at him and I was like, hey, that's really cool.

Yeah, I'm like, honestly amazed that you have the strength to be able to do that on your own.

But how sad is it that you will.

You think that it's OK to live life alone and you don't have to live life alone.

39:47

And just like just for him to hear that you don't have to live life alone and you have value and you have love.

Just to see the tears come down.

Like, those are the conversations we're having with kids.

Well, I know by the way, at the end of the day, you don't have the strength to do it alone.

40:03

No, again, we hear that saying a lot.

Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

No, at the end of the day, we will fail ourselves.

To quote our pastor Sweetheart, you can't even get out of bed in the morning if the Lord doesn't allow you.

You know it and it's a saying and I get it it You know you do want to believe in yourself and all that.

40:19

But at the end of the day, like self will fail self.

Oh yeah.

At at the very base of it.

That's, yeah, that's going to be the case.

Absolutely.

So yeah, you guys are are catching kids at a great time and you you you mentioned it right there and probably didn't even realize it.

40:35

You said that there are like 3 or 4 kids at your house, right?

I think that's really important to note is that ministry obviously can take place in the sanctuary on Christmas or on on Sunday mornings.

But true Ministry happens in those small groups, those, those small efforts, those that's when you can actually build rapport with some.

40:54

People actually breakdown and and talk about real issues.

That's something that I think the church historically has done a pretty bad job of.

We we talk about it all the times.

Like, you know, you walk in the foyer, you walk in the lobby, you you put this mask on.

Regardless of how great or horrible your week was, you're going to tell that person when they ask you, how are you?

41:12

We're great.

We're blessed.

What?

Just cussing my family on the way to church.

None of those things, right.

And so we talk about that all the time and and and we never, heaven forbid you let the world know that you have struggles, that you have problems.

Something wasn't great.

41:29

No people need to hear that.

And so I and I've I've noticed that So our church does Celebrate Recovery and in small group again that's where the power really is.

In small group you hear these people, they'll tell these stories and and and and things that they've went through and and you're like, gosh, I would have never known.

41:48

But the cool thing is it's like someone's going to tell a story and you're going to be like, I thought I was the only one.

I thought I was the only one who had that struggle or or or dealt with this, or had this in my past, etcetera, knowing that you're not alone even even on the earth.

42:03

Right, we all have the same troubles.

Oh, it's it's at the end of the day.

So powerful and I I think again just speaking to the age that you guys are hitting, that is such a void that needs to be filled and you guys are doing a good job there.

Big respect.

Thanks.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Such an identity time, you know?

42:20

Oh, my.

Who am I?

Who am I?

You know?

Yeah.

And I I'd like telling kids.

It's like, hey, who you are is really important, but.

Right.

Who you are changes often.

Yeah.

And most of the time when I look in the mirror, sometimes I don't even like who I am.

Right.

I don't like.

Yeah.

42:36

And so if that's the case, then maybe there's something different.

Maybe there's something we're missing.

And so I like, kind of transitioning and say, hey, why you're here is more important.

Yeah.

And if you look at Jesus ministry, if you look at his life.

Yeah.

You know, from we don't really know what happened the 1st 30 years, but those last three years were ministry.

42:55

And I like to think that the 1st 30 years was him just learning how to be a kid, learning how to have a relationship with his father, right.

Yeah.

And so I tell kids all the time, hey, your first job, yeah.

Is just to be a child of God.

Right, Yeah.

Before anything else, before trying to be an athlete, trying to go get that scholarship, to go be somebody in the world, your first job is to be a kid.

43:16

Yeah, you just need to be.

Learn how to be loved by your father.

Yeah, right, Man.

I saw AI saw a excerpt from Kirk Cousins, famous quarterback, talking about his relation and and Kirk's testimony to this person because they were asking him, you know, about football and about the fame and and about being a Christian.

43:34

And and that was literally Kirk's almost verbatim.

Exact words were before all that.

I have to reflect, you know, Jesus, he said.

Yeah, I, I and I have to do that knowing that I may lose everything over here on the other side, may lose the football, may may lose what comes with with the fame and the fortune.

43:51

He's like at the end of the day my first focus is what am I doing?

What am I doing with Jesus?

That was like that's that's beautiful coming coming from a figure like Kirk Cousins and I'm a that's encouraging Cousins.

Yeah, it is.

I'm a massive Kirk Cousins fan because of that, you know, even off the football field.

44:07

But I mean that's exactly what you just said.

Our first job is to just be a kid.

Yeah, be a kid.

That's awesome, Gabe.

We appreciate you coming, man.

Yeah.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely.

It's been great.

We have, I now feel a lot more educated.

44:24

Oh yeah, on what young life is, what it stands for, and just the great need that it is and it feels.

On all the facets that you guys have, I did not realize again thought it was just high school, college, rah, rah.

Basically, you guys have so many different branches.

44:40

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

We got a long ways to go, you know.

I have been learned today.

Learned, learned.

I mean, yeah, obviously the mission's not done to Kobe.

Job's not finished.

We have one job go and tail, you know?

44:57

And so that's what you guys are doing.

And I love the vehicle that you guys are using to do that.

That's awesome.

Doing a great job, doing a great job.

Certainly appreciate you coming today.

And and for our listeners out there, if you have enjoyed this episode that we've had with Gabe, why don't you let us know about it.

45:13

Jared, there are a couple of things that our audience can do if they've enjoyed this episode.

Yeah, tune into young life, First off.

You know, follow their accounts.

Follow.

Links and description below.

Again, he mentioned, you may not be a youthful person.

You may not be someone who has the time to volunteer, but you may be somebody who can help financially.

45:31

You may be someone who can help in other ways.

There are always ways that you can help in ministry, regardless of what your skills, talent, availability are.

So yeah, reach out to Gabe if you if you want to get involved, if you want to help in some way.

But in regards to this podcast and us, any reviews?

45:48

Any feedback?

Stars and bars.

Good or bad?

Leave us some ratings.

Leave us some comments.

We love those.

We read every single one of them.

Even the bad ones.

Even the bad ones, that's that's really what keeps us going is is URL's feedback, so we appreciate that.

46:04

And here's the hard part.

Well, we're going to get some lunch, so.

Grab a bite.

Grab a bite.

Think I just saw DoorDash roll up.

Got some food coming, guys.

Appreciate it.

We'll see you guys in the next episode.

Y'all have a good one.

See you.

OK.

Thank you.

46:19

Thank you.