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The life of a mentoring organization involves implementing programs. Maybe it’s as simple as a mentoring program where individual mentors are connected with individual mentees. Maybe it’s an after school program where a group of mentees show up and work through a curriculum. Maybe it’s getting a sweet old muscle car and working with the students to restore it to its former glory. Whatever the program is, it first needs to gain some traction. Our newest host, John Barnard, is flying solo this week to bring a word of encouragement on how you, as the leader of an organization, can gain traction on some of the programs you want to implement. He puts into focus the three main facets of planning a new program: the who, the what, and the where.
Show Notes
The life of a mentoring organization involves implementing programs. Maybe it’s as simple as a mentoring program where individual mentors are connected with individual mentees. Maybe it’s an after school program where a group of mentees show up and work through a curriculum. Maybe it’s getting a sweet old muscle car and working with the students to restore it to its former glory. Whatever the program is, it first needs to gain some traction. Our newest host, John Barnard, is flying solo this week to bring a word of encouragement on how you, as the leader of an organization, can gain traction on some of the programs you want to implement. He puts into focus the three main facets of planning a new program: the who, the what, and the where.
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
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:Hey, mentors. Just a reminder about the You Can Mentor book. It's titled You Can Mentor, How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Crisis. The whole point of this book is to equip and encourage mentors with new tools and ideas on how to make the most of their mentor mentee relationship. If you're a mentor, hey, go pick it up.
Speaker 2:And if you're a mentoring organization, pick some up for all of your mentors. If you would like to order mass copies, like more than 20, send an email to me, zach@youcanmentor.com, and we will get you guys a special price. But go and pick up that book. It's good. You can enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Well, hello, friends. It's John here. I, once again unfortunately, I'm flying solo today, but I'm very excited to be able to talk to you about what we've got going on in ministry and in mentoring right now. And what I what I hope this sharing will do is kinda encourage and equip you guys, maybe more on a organizational level in terms of if you're planning events or if you get to be in charge of doing that with your mentoring organization, but also in a relationship way. Man, maybe you're just meeting with 1 mentor at this time and you think about, goodness, what can you do to maybe have some ideas and just kind of make that time with your mentee even more impactful and special for them, and this can be helpful as well.
Speaker 3:So what I want to be able to share with you guys is a little bit about what's going on with mentoring here in Waco with the organization that I get to head up, which is called Middleman. I know Zach's talked about that quite a bit. Thankfully, he's such a good supporter of the ministry that I get to do here, and that's what I kinda get to do on the side when I'm not being able to record podcasts for you can mentor. So I run this organization called Middleman Skateboards and it's a nonprofit that really began by us producing skateboards and then being able to minister to skateboarders that way by giving skateboards to them and being able to share our faith that way. And so now we're a handful of mentors spread out across the country that do mentoring in different ways.
Speaker 3:Something that's kind of been interesting about being able to lead middleman is that even though it's a skateboarding ministry, it doesn't really necessarily mean that all of our mentors have to be skateboarders or that all of our ministry is just comprehensively dealing with skateboarding. In fact, something that I really like to do besides skateboard is work with old cars. So I, I like old cars and new cars, and I like a lot of cars and trucks and vans and campers and basically, okay, here's the deal. I like the stuff that has wheels apparently. Maybe that's the common denominator here.
Speaker 3:Right? Skateboards, bikes and motorcycles, campers and such. I I like stuff like that and have for a long time. And so what I believe about pretty much anything out there, you guys, is that the stuff that we like is the very stuff that puts us in community with others so often. Right?
Speaker 3:So the things that you enjoy, the parts of your culture that you appreciate, the things that you invest your time and money in, if it's sports or if it's the arts or really anything at all, it's probably the stuff that links you to other people. Right? Because probably some of the some of your favorite friends, some of your favorite people in your world are those that enjoy similar things that you enjoy. Okay? So that's true for what we get to do through middleman often, and how we kinda connect with mentees is through the connection of just stuff that we enjoy, whether it be music or whether it be skateboarding, cars, projects, anything like that.
Speaker 3:So here's what I've got going on coming up later this month. We are doing a program and it is called, get this, Muscle Car Mondays is gonna be happening. So Muscle Car Monday is going to be every Monday night. It's gonna be in our shop, and we are going to be inviting teenagers from the community, many of which we meet at the skate park and we have friendships with because we've spent time there investing in them, and we're going to be asking them if they want to come hang out, and we're gonna be working this semester on a 1971 Chevelle Malibu 350. So if you're a car person, you are already know how cool that car is.
Speaker 3:If you're not a car person, then by all means go Google 1971 Chevy Malibu Chevelle 350. Really, those words in any any order will work. And that will show you the fastback, really cool muscle car that we have that we're going to be spending time with restoring this semester, teaching young people how to work on cars, and then also just that valuable opportunity that we get to spend time with these people as we mentor, share in their lives, ask questions, and get to just speak truth into them during that time. So I'm going to share a little bit more about that and maybe how we how we form ministry, how we think about times of planning events and such through our mentoring program, but I tell you what, when I was thinking about what I wanted to share with you guys today I was reminded of a very good friend who is a youth minister who served on staff with me some years ago, and it seemed like he always struggled at times because he was a super creative guy, and he would come up with these really cool ideas for ministry, but then find that he struggled really making those ideas take flight with people in the congregation, of grabbing on to those ideas that he came up with, and making programs that were substantial and that lasted.
Speaker 3:And the interesting thing was that it seemed like what he continued to do was he would come up with the idea, right? He would come up with a program, and then he would try to apply that program to people in his ministry and for whatever reason it just didn't seem to work many times. Maybe the music was too difficult or too complex or maybe they didn't kind of get the idea of what he was really going for because this guy was just so creative with music and with stage production and with so many things that of, in that way. Or maybe they didn't have the same excitement that that he did. Well, I can remember thinking and being able to share with him to say, hey man, you know what I think is going on here?
Speaker 3:I think that you have a really great idea for a neat program, but I don't know if you're if you're thinking about who are the people that you really want this to impact, and maybe that's the first step. So in order for us to kind of really avoid some of the pitfalls that we can find ourselves in when it comes to planning events or programs. These can be short term events or this can be maybe, in my case, like we're going to be going into a program for the for the full semester. I really want you guys to be aware of some things to consider when it does come time to plan something to do with your mentee or to kinda drive your mentoring organization to be thinking about how to meet need in the best way possible. And so let's begin that with people.
Speaker 3:So instead of like my friend who struggled to kinda connect a well defined program to the people in the church, what if we kinda begin with the people to begin with? What if we begin with understanding who our mentee is, understanding what our community is and what needs are there, really spending time with those that we serve or those that we lead and thinking, you know what? I would really love to see them learn a new skill or just kinda get through an issue that I've seen them struggle with. You know, how can they how can they maybe learn patience? How can they learn kindness?
Speaker 3:How can they kind of experience god god's peace in a new way? See, beginning to think about these things with our mentee or with our organizations puts people first. And, again, what are we here for if not to serve those that God has for us to? And so I would just really recommend that you take some time, make a prayer retreat out of it. If you'd like, have good conversations maybe with staff members and really be thinking about who god has in your path to mentor and to serve and to lead.
Speaker 3:And let that be kind of the guiding light for you instead of again, so often we can kinda come up with what we think is a really great idea, but then struggle to make that really applicable to the people that God has us serve. So let's put people first. Okay. The top of the list, if this is kind of a 1, 2, 3 that I'm sharing with you today about how to really optimize your time and plan something well, we've got to start with people. So once we really kind of understand who it is that we are going to serve, and by the way, who are we going to serve along with?
Speaker 3:So, for example, in my case, as I'm thinking about Muscle Car Mondays, I, like I said, love cars, but I'm not the guy who can do everything with a car. I'm I'm more of a part swapper. I I kinda have what know what my gifts are and and have my preferences, but that is certainly not comprehensive. I I'm not to the point of being able to take an engine apart and then put it back together. That's not me.
Speaker 3:So what I realize that's going to be important about our, mentoring group meeting this coming semester with Muscle Car Mondays is the fact that we need some people who are knowledgeable about mechanics, about bodywork, about all the other intricacies of vehicles that I can kind of defer to, and also put our teenagers in front of and so that they can so they can lead out well with that. So thankfully, several months ago, I began kinda putting the word out to friends to say, hey. I really wanted to do this program in January, but I'm needing some extra leadership. And so do you know anybody who could who could help me out with this? And that's how I was able to meet one of the guys that's going to be our key leader at the end of the month, and his name is Shane, and he's a local bike shop owner.
Speaker 3:And he's really just kinda one of those guys that knows just a little bit about everything. Right? Knows how to how stuff works based on taking stuff apart and putting it back together. And so Shane is the perfect guy to kinda lead out with us on Muscle Car Mondays. Interestingly enough, just a few weeks ago, I met another guy.
Speaker 3:His name is John as well. And John is a local mechanic at our Chevrolet deal dealership here in Waco, and he is a friend of an of a friend that I
Speaker 2:met recently. And as I was telling John about what we're about to do, he thought
Speaker 3:he said, hey. You know what? And as I was telling John about what we're about to do, he thought he said, hey, you know what? That's a really cool idea. I would love to take to be a part of that.
Speaker 3:And so John is also going to be offering leadership, and he's even gonna be giving even more of the technical advice and some of that guidance that we really need. So as we go into this event, as I'm thinking about strategically inviting even some of those students that are a part of our ministry to be a part of Muscle Card Monday, because I'm looking forward to spending time with them and they are interested in Karters as well. Being able to have guys like Shane and John be a part just makes it all the better, and so I know that our times together are going to be they're gonna run smoothly. It's all about having the right person do the right job. Okay?
Speaker 3:So that is, my friends, really where we would wanna start. What I would wanna recommend to you is to say always find the right people for the right job, and they're out there. There are so many people who really wanna be a part of something that is significant, that's a good use of their time, and if you're like me, you believe that that mentoring is such an important ministry, and so when you can get those people on your side and say, hey. I would love for you to come be a part of this and this is what I would like for you to do, you're gonna go a long way with that program. And you also get an opportunity with that to get your people really knowing, kind of, what your vision is, what the purpose is for the event.
Speaker 3:They can, kind of, come in feeling like they're equipped and that they're ready and prepared to do whatever it is that you're asking them to do. Another thing that I would recommend to you guys when it comes to, kind of, planning something that maybe you want to kind of pull off a program for a while is to be thinking about what it means to kind of start with the ending in mind. In my case, what we're going to be doing is starting this meeting at the end of January, and we're gonna run through the end of March to begin with. And at that point, we'll kind of evaluate and see how things are going and then plan to maybe go on longer or to, at that point, say, hey. This has been a great experience, but we're all tired.
Speaker 3:Why don't we take a break and then we will reconvene in the fall? Okay. So that leads us into the next part of this. So if if people is the most important thing and that's really where we start, then program is where we go to next. So people is the who, program is the what.
Speaker 3:That is when we start thinking about, hey, if we've got these folks, if we've got our mentor, you know, we've got opportunity with them, what are we gonna do with them? What is this program gonna look like? What is the goal, and how do we kind of gauge if we're successful at what we've done? Again, if you don't really set any goals for any kind of with any of your mentoring activities or programs then it's really hard to know if you were successful in that, because you really didn't start with the with the the ending in mind. Okay?
Speaker 3:To say, man, you know what? At the end of the semester, I would love, like, to be this much closer to that kid. You know? Start thinking about maybe some specifics that with even with your organizational organizational development as well to think about, hey. What would really be a win at the end of this semester?
Speaker 3:So begin to think about that at the beginning, and then that's where you're going to think about how the program itself will allow you to get to that point. In my case with Muscle Car Mondays, here's what we wanna do. By the end of the semester, we would love for this car that we have, which is in several pieces, to be all put back together again and to be running well. Okay? So that's one one thing that I loved about that I really love about Project b is the fact that when we work on something like an old car, it's very easy to see what has been done to it because things just look so much better.
Speaker 3:Right? In this case, we've got a car, the engine is not even in it, The interior is really dismal looking, and there are needs everywhere for this thing. And so when I can tell these kids as we stand around this car here in a couple of weeks, hey. You know what we're gonna do? By the end of the semester, this car is going to be running by its own power, then, again, that shows that we were successful in what we what we wanted to do.
Speaker 3:And let's say that we're not able to get it running. Let's say that we have some issues with the engine or we're we're not able to source some parts that we need or something breaks. Well, again, we're able to go back and say, you know what? We were hoping for this, but it didn't happen because of this, and that's okay because we were really able to spend a lot of good time together sharing life with one another, and and again that's the goal of that program. So with this, not only is it about getting that car to run, but it's it's really about just having an excuse to spend time with these guys.
Speaker 3:Right? Like, I'm looking forward to watching my guys John and Shane invest into these young people just as I am looking forward to spending time with these young people myself and getting to know who they are and just seeing different ways throughout the semester, we can shift our programming to meet their needs so that they will be so that they'll they will know that God loves them and they will find Jesus in our programming and in our relationship. Right? That's ultimately what we're about. So we begin with people, the who.
Speaker 3:We move on to the program, which is the what. And finally, you guys, we consider the place. Okay? So we have some folks. We know what we wanna do, now we think about, well, where are we gonna do it?
Speaker 3:And this is also really exciting news because as of today, I think even as I mentioned it earlier in this podcast, that we're gonna be working at our shop, and in fact, that's not exactly true. We won't be doing the work in our shop that we have there downtown Waco. We're actually going to be just a few blocks away at this other shop. And guess what? It's a lot better than ours.
Speaker 3:So our shop is lacking several things. Things like running water for 1. And, we don't exactly have even a car lift at our shop because in essence, it's kind of a glorified bus barn. But a good friend of mine who I've known here quite a bit and has he finally reached out to me, his name's Corey, and he leads us this really great group downtown that offers programming and education for teenagers and adults at a shop, and he has told me as of today that we are gonna be able to use his shop for our program. And so I could not be more pleased because that place is really great, and it's gonna meet all of our needs and really go beyond.
Speaker 3:It'll make things a lot easier to work on this car. We'll have a lot of space to keep things very clean and and be able to to get a lot of good work done. Even the lighting, you guys. Okay? Like in our shop, we kinda have to hold lights off to the side, and we have to use flashlights.
Speaker 3:You know, if I had a nickel for every time I was holding my phone up in order to use the flashlight to find something out of the toolbox, I would definitely have a few bucks. And so it's gonna be nice to work in a place that, like I said, is clean and and even well lit. And that just makes our community bigger because so much of what we do with the work of middle man is not really about having our own little place that that is just ours and and that is closed off to the rest of the community. But instead, we wanna be doing our programming out in the community. And so having a partnership like this just serves a lot a lot of different purposes and is making me really, really happy for what we have going on there.
Speaker 3:So I'm looking forward to the semester of some local ministry and some local mentoring here. I hope you guys will kind of think about this, and I know it's pretty simple, but to think about what we wanna start with is the people, that is the who. We wanna move on to the program, which is the what. And, finally, we wanna land on that idea of place, and that is where. You know, where are we gonna meet?
Speaker 3:Where are we gonna do this program? We wanna meet somewhere safe and that might be able to give us an opportunity to cooperate and participate and partner with other organizations in the community, and so I highly recommend that you consider these things with me. So ultimately, I want also wanna end up with this, you guys. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.
Speaker 3:In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. So this verse really kinda comes alive when I think about this program this semester because I did not see us really being able to work in a place like we we were going to work in. In fact, along the way there, even when it comes to getting certain car parts that we needed, I just wasn't seeing that this thing was happening, but I kept doing what I needed to do, kept praying about it, and kept kinda being obedient to make parts runs and have conversations with people and reach out to some kids and say, Hey, I'd really love for you to be a part of this. And that reminds me that man, when we're trusting in the Lord and even when times seem like they're just not gonna work out. Well, that's a good thing about God.
Speaker 3:He comes through. Okay. And so often, even if the circumstances aren't what we wished, there's still so much to enjoy and so much to appreciate out of how God works and how he provides. So trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean, not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. And remember this too, you can mentor.