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Chan Sheppard from Preston Taylor Ministries joins Zach to discuss some of their unique mentoring programs and shares some practical ways to incorporate studying Scripture into your mentor/mentee relationship.
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What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
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You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Today on the podcast, our very own Zach Garza interviews Chan Shepherd from Preston Taylor Ministries. Excited about this interview. Please, if you enjoy it, share it with someone you know because sharing is caring. You can mentor.
Speaker 3:How's everyone doing today? Zach Garza here with the You Can Mentor podcast. I'm coming to you live from our office at 4 100 mentoring program in Dallas, Texas. And today, we have a special guest. We have Chan Shepherd.
Speaker 3:Chan is the executive director of Preston Taylor Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee, otherwise known as PTM. PTM empowers Preston Taylor children and youth to discover and live their gospel inspired dreams, develop a love of learning, and build joy filled relationships that glorify Christ Jesus. They've got over 300 volunteers. They serve 300 kids weekly through a variety of academic job development, and mentoring programs. So, Shan, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hey.
Speaker 4:Thanks, Zach. So good to be here.
Speaker 3:Hey. Thanks, man. What's it like down in Nashville, Tennessee today?
Speaker 4:Well, it's chillier than it was 2 days ago, but the the sun is shining and and the grass is turning green. And we are excited about school being back in person, and that gives us more access to to serving students and having an active after school program and an active mentoring program.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's it's it's it's a lot easier to mentor kids when kids show up, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Right. That's that's right. And there's a difference between when when we see students at the end of a virtual day or at the end of an in person day, and their, excitement level is much higher if they've been in school all day long. And so I like and and get fueled by really active children and youth. That's awesome, champ.
Speaker 3:So I've been following Preston Taylor for 4 or 5 years now. Just kinda as we developed our mentoring org, I tried to find different orgs all across America, and I stumbled across Preston Taylor. And I've just been so impressed by y'all. I reached out to Chan about a month ago just to kinda try to set up a phone call, and and I asked him when he was free. And it turns out that he was free a day and a time when me and my wife were actually going to be in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3:So I said, hey, man. Why don't instead of we hop on a phone call, why don't we go out to lunch? And the 2 of us
Speaker 2:went out to lunch, and it I mean, it was an
Speaker 3:awesome time. I ordered this, like, Nashville hot, like it was like a hot chicken crepe, and I sweated all over the place. It was really embarrassing, but
Speaker 2:it was a good time with Chance.
Speaker 4:That was a great encouraging time for me, and I and I appreciate that that that moment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man. Alright, Chan. Why don't you tell us about yourself and what led you to believe in mentoring kids from hard places in the name of Jesus?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Well, I grew up in a small town in Georgia, America's Georgia. My both my parents very active in the church. Always felt like I won the the the parenting lottery with my mom and my dad and the way they poured into me. And then on top of that, I had a mentoring relationship with the custodian of our church, and he taught me in 5th grade and he lived nearby.
Speaker 4:We would sit on his porch and read Bible together. And then my 10th grade year in high school, every morning for that whole summer, I would ride my bike to our church and we'd sit in his janitor's closet. I'd sit on a box of paper towels. He'd sit across from me, and we would read scripture. And he insisted on the King James version that was for him the only way to to read, and I didn't understand everything I was reading for sure, but I did understand in relationship with him how important scripture is, how foundational it is, and then in that relationship with him, an experience of of God's presence.
Speaker 4:And so from a pretty early age, I had a love of scripture and just a real heart for being in relationship with with others, And that only increased as I went to, through the youth group and college. And then I went into the army to pay back an ROTC scholarship, went to seminary in that time as well. And, and, and through that time, kind of my sense of calling shifted a little bit from pastoral, more traditional church ministry to how can I share with students, children, youth who are growing up without father figures, how can I help provide for them opportunities to to know about Jesus, to grow in faith, and to have lives of of hope and to look into the future with with some excitement and enthusiasm? And so when I left the the army in 99, moved to Nashville with my wife and PTM was just getting started as an organization. And I saw an opportunity to kinda use some of my gifts and also was overwhelmed by by the need of of children growing up in a in a low income area who were bright, hardworking, resilient, but just lacked the supportive network that they they really need in order to have opportunities in life.
Speaker 4:And so God kinda worked in me to both give me a passion, a burden, and opportunity, and then and then some gifts that I have tried to to give back to God through serving at PTM.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's so awesome. So so your life was changed by a church janitor.
Speaker 4:It's exactly right. Exactly right. And and he, I mean, he never looked at what he was doing as less than what the the pastor of the church was doing. He saw his role as I'm going to talk about Jesus, and I'm gonna help people learn to love God, and I'm going to show people the importance of scripture in their lives. And and that message, man, it got it got drilled down deep in me from him and reinforced by a couple other men in my life that sought me out and spent time with me and kicked me in the rear when I needed it and hugged me when I needed that too.
Speaker 4:And and I I still have that in a in a running buddy that's 10 years older that provides that same mentoring relationship with me on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, man. I, I just love that story because that right there proves that anyone can mentor That, like, you don't have to have you know, you don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to have a fancy, you know, college. It's just you can mentor. And you also, I bet when that kid was spending time with you hanging out in the janitorial closet, I bet that he wasn't thinking, man, I bet this guy's gonna impact 100 upon 100 of people whenever he's an adult.
Speaker 3:You know? All he cared about was the one. But now his investment into you well, now you're investing a ton of different people. You've got a staff. You've got all these people, and just, like, that's the power of discipleship.
Speaker 3:That's the power of mentoring. And, man, what a stud. That's a great story, Jen. Yeah. So kinda try to paint a picture of what Preston Taylor ministries looks like on kind of a day to day basis?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Our key kind of bread and butter program is after school and kindergarten through 8th grade is where most of our students are. And we have 8 sites that meet in the northwest quadrant of Nashville in low income neighborhoods and settings. And as students enter our after school program, they then become eligible for 1 on 1 mentoring programs. They become eligible for participation on a on a team sport on a team for a sports league.
Speaker 4:And then we as they get into high school, we have a separate high school program that allows some, opportunities for mentoring and job skills development and life skills. And so the whole goal for us is to provide connections, and and we've been influenced by by the book Hardwired to Connect or that report that just really emphasizes the importance of students growing up both connected to a caring adult and connected to a sense of purpose. And so we see our role as an organization is helping to help help helping our students to build and experience those connections.
Speaker 3:Hardwired to connect.
Speaker 4:Right. Yeah. It's a great, study that included physicians, youth development workers, professors, and it was across face, including non faith experts. And the the conclusion was, you know, the 2 biggest predictors of a youth success, 1, connection to a caring adult, 2, connection to a sense of purpose. And as as people of faith, the connection to purpose comes in relationship with Jesus where we recognize that God has created us in his image and has a plan and a purpose for our lives.
Speaker 4:And and and those who are able to grasp and make those connections have a much better chance of of living a life of of meaning and purpose and abundance.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's awesome. I have to check that out. Haven't ever heard of that before. So look at you, Chan.
Speaker 3:You're just tossing out some wisdom, man. I love it. So whenever we spend some time, you know, me eating hot chicken, sweating profusely, you staring at me as if I was crazy, I think one question that I asked you was, hey. What are, like, what are you the most excited about now? And you mentioned this I think it was, like, breakfast and bible study program.
Speaker 3:Why don't why don't you share with us about that?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Part of breakfast and bible study evolved from a small group bible study that we started maybe 15 years ago. And, really, it was a lot of men's groups in our church had Bible studies early morning. And so that was the rhythm of my life. And I had more time at that point early morning than I did late afternoon or evening.
Speaker 4:And so we gathered a few students together to just go through a book of the Bible and it was more of a small group style. And then I was surprised and encouraged that the students, the children and youth really liked it 1, and they were already up. Nashville school started 7 o'clock for high schoolers. So a lot of the younger siblings were already awake during that that that time frame. And so it gave us access to students at the beginning of the day rather than at the end of the day.
Speaker 4:And then I had other men and some women who said, I'm looking for a way to volunteer, but I don't have the afternoon time frame. And so that early morning became a ideal timeframe. And now all of a sudden, rather than leading a small group, we had enough volunteers that we could go 1 on 1. And so we started with probably 5 or 6 students, 5 or 6 mentors. We picked them up in our van and have some type of light breakfast, like some some donuts and and maybe a ham biscuit and and some orange juice for a few minutes, and then we would split up and and everybody would go 1 on 1 for about 25 or 30 minutes and read through a text together and discuss that text.
Speaker 4:And now we have about 40 students and 40 mentors meet from 6:45 to 7:45 on Thursday mornings. So we have 2 buses now that go and and pick up students and bring them to our location, and the mentors meet them there for that 45 minute to an hour time frame. We have an opening together where we do some type of group game and for a lot of students that's their their reason to come is I get to see my friends, but for most when we say, you know, what's the reason that you're coming, it's because my mentor is gonna be there and I'm excited to see my mentor. And during COVID, we've, we've shifted to half of our students meet in person, but all of our matches are happening virtually now. And so we're, we're meeting on zoom and then we'll go into breakout rooms and do the 1 on 1 thing, but we follow the same type of outline that we would in person.
Speaker 4:And that's worked fine, but we're all eager to give back in person. Yeah. Then our 2 buses take take students to school. We we have one of our sites is is within walking distance of a school. So some of those students will walk to school and the other will hop on one of our vehicles and, and we'll take them to school and they'll walk in the door, right?
Speaker 4:As the bell's ringing and our mentors are, are getting to work by 8 o'clock and it it takes advantage of a time where students are are up and ready and responsive.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I I would just think that if a kid's starting his day off with his friends, a mentor, the word of God, some food, like, that's that's a setup for success. Right?
Speaker 4:It's my favorite it's my favorite day for for for that reason. And and, you know, on the on the ideal day where every mentor is there, every student's there and they're all matched up and I'm just sitting in the middle of the gym and I can look out and I can see the 1 on ones happening, I just get this, real satisfied feeling of God is using this time in a way that we're never going to know all the fruit that is being produced, but there is nothing better than starting the day in the in the word of God with people that care about you. And so I I think you're making a great point that that that school day becomes a lot more manageable. Our students are a lot more confident in it, and they're more motivated because of the motivating relationships that they've established with a mentor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. I just think that's so awesome. Like the Lord transformed your life in a, in a janitor's closet. The Lord's transforming these kids' lives in a cafeteria at 6, you know, 6 o'clock on a, you know, Thursday morning. Man, it's just amazing to see God work.
Speaker 4:That's right. That's right. And and and it's all hidden to us. I mean, some of it we can see, but we'll never see the full impact. And and, you know, students I've been at PTM 20 years and students will come back in the door, you know, as as mid twenties, early thirties, and and they'll say something that surprises me about what they remember.
Speaker 4:We just never know what is sinking in and what's captivating a child.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So tell us how in the world you get kids to enjoy reading scripture.
Speaker 4:Yeah. We try to train our mentors and create outlines that give students a chance to tell stories. And so when we're going through a passage like Jesus calming the storm. We're asking our students to tell stories about when you were in a storm. And so the the conversation happens around storytelling, which most of our our students are are good at, where they feel some success, and that opens the door, softens the heart a little bit for then the understanding about how powerful God is to heal that storm and how God wants to have a relationship with us.
Speaker 4:And so that's captivating for a lot of our students to be in a place where an adult is saying, hey. Tell me a story about this, and then waiting and waiting patiently because our students, crave that opportunity to be in the center of attention and to have that one on one time. And so that's that's a motivator. And then, you know, honestly, a lot of the motivation happens just because they're with that that adult. And so they're they're very few of our students would say, I'm coming because of scripture.
Speaker 4:They're saying, I'm coming because of the adult. I'm learning to love scripture because this adult loves scripture. I'm learning script because I'm telling stories around scripture. The adult is helping it make sense to me.
Speaker 3:Man, that's so powerful. I I am learning to love scripture because this mentor who loves me loves scripture.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That right. There's mentoring, my friend. That's great. Yeah. Do you got any good stories about, like, what happened or what the Lord did whenever a mentor opened up, you know, the bible with a kid?
Speaker 3:Any walls that were, you know, broken down or anything like
Speaker 4:that? I mean, one of my one of my favorite stories is we had a student, Jerome, who started breakfast and bible study as a 4th grader, and he met with Alan for about 4 years on Thursday mornings. And Jerome was was one of our more responsible students. You know, he was a he was a leader in school, and so he took that time seriously, and Alan was very consistent as his mentor. And then this summer, Jerome, as a 10th grader, I'm looking out, and he's part of our summer staff.
Speaker 4:And he's talking to one of our younger students, and he's actually teaching them how to dribble a basketball. But in that, I'm seeing Jerome talking about basketball, but showing him the love of God and showing him Jesus and and I'm just thinking the cycle continues to spin of our students becoming mentors to younger students And to see Jerome feel successful in that, to feel purpose in that, to be in in the middle of the the of the mentoring sandwich just makes me so confident and encouraged that god is gonna use Jerome in a powerful way. And and so, you know, that's a story that stands out to me.
Speaker 3:Well, Anne, it's like the kid Jerome, is hardwired to connect with a caring adult, which is Alan. But he's also hardwired to connect with a purpose, which is okay. I'm actually gonna find my purpose in mentoring because that's what changed my life. And now I'm finding purpose in teaching this kid how to play basketball, but it's all because of Alan.
Speaker 4:That that's right. And and we're all created to be on the giving in. And so some of our students have experienced that. Now I can give, I can contribute, I can clean up, I can mentor, I can lead a small group, and and that helps elevate them and allows them to see themselves as having power and having influence and having impact, which we all crave.
Speaker 3:Yeah. If there's someone out there who wants to incorporate more scripture in his time with his mentee, how do you think that you would encourage a person to do that? I
Speaker 4:I would just start with the the stories of scripture that are high interest stories and talk about them verse by verse and really ask the questions of a of a child of what do you think is going on in this passage? What do you see happening? Where do you see yourself in this passage? How is Jesus showing up in this passage? What do you think God would say to you right now through this passage?
Speaker 4:And to to let those questions help stimulate a child's imagination.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's awesome, Chan. What are some of the obstacles that you that you might see, you know, that would happen when you start talking about the bible with the mentee and then how do you guys overcome those?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. One of the one of the challenges is is simply there are passages of scripture that are really hard to to understand and not all of our mentors have the same depth of knowledge of scripture. And so there's always a a risk that an obstacle of is this passage getting taught in the way that follows up PTM's core beliefs, which we feel like are in line with scripture, or do we have a mentor that doesn't have that understanding that might be teaching something that's outside of our core beliefs. So that's one obstacle.
Speaker 4:And so for us, it's being really careful about the curriculum that we're using and the training that we offer our mentors and the way we set up a beginning large group time and an ending large group time. And it and it gives us a chance to make sure that the main idea is getting, reemphasized. So that's one obstacle. Then another obstacle is the the cultural competence that's required of our mentors to be able to recognize that they might have a different background than than a child. And most of our mentors come from a different background than than our children.
Speaker 4:And so there are are times where there's a temptation to have all the answers. And you certainly our our mentor base is predominantly white and our student base is predominantly black. And so there's a lot of times where we have a white savior, mentality or complex that damages our relationship or at least keeps the relationship from being as cool as it could be. And so, you know, we we try hard to to offer trainings and discussions around how to understand the difference that that a child growing up in low income setting might have from a more traditional middle class family. Right?
Speaker 4:So those are those are things that that we face and are hard to to mitigate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man. Yeah. Those are for sure things that we've experienced as well. So alright. There's one more thing that I wanted to talk about while I have while I have your attention here on this podcast, and and that is your leap year fellowship.
Speaker 3:So, man, whenever I saw this, I just thought that this was the coolest thing. Do you think that you could just kinda share with us about what that is and and how that not only impacts PTM, but also the community that you guys serve?
Speaker 4:Yeah. About 1010 plus years ago, we had partnerships with agencies that would provide an intern to PTM for a year, maybe 25 hours a week, and we would pay that agency a an amount, some maybe around 8,000 or $10,000 to have that intern at PTM, and then that intern would function as a part of our staff. We had some really good experiences with that arrangement, and then we were able to gain some momentum with some donors and decided to, to develop a program that gave us young adults that we could select that could put through an application process and then have devoted full time to being a part of PTM staff for 10 months to a year. And we started that program with 2. We had 2 we call it the leap year program.
Speaker 4:It's a gap year for some, for some it's the year after college is for ages 18 to 28, and they spend a year at PTM and we provide housing and we provide a stipend and no one's gonna get rich off of the program, but we are hopeful that this is a a way to keep somebody from going into debt further, but allows them a chance to see what God might be calling them to do if urban ministry is for them, a chance to be in community with other believers, a chance to serve. So our 1st year we had 2 and we rented an apartment and they lived in that apartment together. And then we eventually bought a house. We had a donor that loaned enough money and had zero interest so that we're able to pay that house back. And most years now we have between 4 or 5, leapers and they'll we'll in the interview process, we'll create a job description for them.
Speaker 4:And it could be a program related job overseeing an after school program. It could be overseeing a mentoring program, or it could be on the administrative side. It could be a fundraising or an event planning job. Sometimes we combine those 2 to create a job description for somebody that wants to experience both or nonprofit management or pastoral ministry. And those leapers will live, in the leap house for almost a year and will work as part of our staff.
Speaker 4:And they also have classes. We provide some urban ministry classes, introduce them to other partners, and then provide mentors for them, provide host families and help them establish community in Nashville while discerning what God has for them next. And what's been great for PTM is that 5 of our former LEAPERS, 5 out of our last 25 LEAPERS have become part of PTMs permanent staff. And so it becomes for us a great training ground for staff that really help multiply what we're able to to do and the number of students that we're able to serve.
Speaker 3:And I'm gonna steal this, Chan. This is a great program.
Speaker 4:I yeah. I'll share anything you wanna know. I believe in one one thing it does for me personally is when when I'm in a season of of fatigue or, you know, lacking lacking motivation, inspiration, in the door walks a 21 year old who just graduated from Baylor University and automatically brings some energy and enthusiasm and helps inspire staff and helps inspire me. And so there's a ripple effect of having young adults devoting a year to serve God together that flows through our organization. Yeah.
Speaker 3:How do y'all find the kids?
Speaker 4:We, we go through, some schools through their career development offices, go through social media and then we'll post openings on, on LinkedIn and then we'll post through the Nashville. The center for nonprofit management in Nashville has a job posting site and and for us, probably it's equal who comes to PTM through those sources. So, and then and then now we've we've done it enough years that now we're getting a little bit more word-of-mouth where somebody is able to go back to a to a friend or somebody from their college or or, somebody that they work with over summer camp and and let them know about PTM.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. It it sounds like you guys are pretty intentional about equipping your staff with how to, have success in an environment that they might not be familiar with. Can you just kinda go into a tad bit more depth on how y'all train them up and how you guys equip your staff to to serve?
Speaker 4:Yeah. And and I'd say we're not anywhere near where we need to be. So this is for us an area of growth. But for our leapers, we probably do a better job than we do onboarding our more permanent staff, honestly. And, you know, for the leapers, they'll they'll spend, a morning going through, you know, studying ACEs and trauma informed care and cultural competency.
Speaker 4:And we'll have, a social work director who's on our side to help facilitate that that programming. And then we'll do some other agency tours and interact with other agencies to help gain a better understanding of the the neighborhood, the context. And then this past, I believe, cohort, they spent a lunch in an afternoon with 4 of our parents of PTM parents. And so many of them cite that as just a key moment in their learning, as they were able to hear parents' stories and talk to parents and see parents not as in in places of need, but as in places of having strengths and and offering and as partners. And so that helped create more trust and motivation to build relationships with student families.
Speaker 4:You know? So those are a couple of the things that that we try to to do to help prepare for genuine and informed and, respectful service and partnership in a neighborhood that we we really care for.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, Chan. Man, you guys are doing some good stuff out there.
Speaker 4:Well, we're thankful that that God continues to provide and and and for the ways that God gives us 2nd chances and certainly making a lot of mistakes, but we have a we have a team that keeps showing up, and that's that's the big thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure. And I just love it. Like, I I always say that the Lord can transform a life through his holy spirit, through his word, and through other people. And just everything that y'all do incorporates all that.
Speaker 3:Like, you are building relationships with mentors, with mentees, with staff, with interns. You guys are talking about the scripture and then where 2 or more are gathered there, the Holy Spirit gathers. So you guys are doing great work. If you guys are ever in the Nashville area, go check out PTM, check out their website. If someone would be interested in finding out more, tell them how to do that, Chan.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Prestontaylorministries.org, and that lays out, our pro our program, and it also gives, gives contact information for, any questions that you might have or any ways that we might partner together. But really grateful, Zach, for your leadership and for what y'all are doing, and and and I'm grateful for a chance to talk about mentoring and and how to honor God through building relationships.
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure. Well, thanks again, Shan, for all of your wisdom, all of just your awesome stories. And if you guys missed everything that we talked about today, just remember this, you can mentor. Have a great day.