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Join the Youthworks Ministry Support Team as they discuss how to have an effective youth and children’s ministry in every church in conversation with local ministry workers as well as national and international voices.
Get in touch - effectiveministrypodcast@youthworks.net
May: Well, welcome back everyone.
Um, you're on with Megan and Al
from the Youth Works Ministry team.
Hey, Al.
How you going?
Al: I'm good.
How are you, Megan?
May: good, thanks.
Um, we've hit winter
holidays, uh, for the year.
Um, and this is often a
time of reflection for me.
Have you been thinking about anything
in particular these last holidays?
Al: that, that is a good question.
Um, I, I think I've been ruminating on
this for a while, but, um, probably the,
one of the things I've been thinking
about a lot is just AI and, like, how, how
⦠What do you use it for, and how do you
decide whether you should use it or not?
And, um, how much do I wanna kind
of give over my autonomy and, like,
my own decision and, you know, how
much does it matter how much I own
the words that are produced by AI?
And if I prompt it, does that mean
that it's something that I'veâ¦
And, I mean, this matters in youth
ministry particularly because, you
know, people are asking questions
about, oh, well, should I just use AI
to write a, a, a youth talk, or should
I just use AI to write a, um, a Bible
study or, or, all that kind of thing.
And I think, you know, these
are really important questions.
I had this really great conversation
with my son the other day, um, where we
started talking about AI, but actually
what we started, we ended up talking
about was, like, what is a human?
And that was deep, and that was fun.
So
May: That's brilliant.
Yeah, I mean, I've seen those AI robots
that promise to do your laundry and your
dishes and stuff for you, and I thought
Al: I'm, I mean, I'm not
gonna lie, that sounds
May: yeah, exactly.
But then that does delve into
like the side of, yeah, what
does it mean to be human?
What does it mean to have, uh,
authentic connection with another human?
All of those things
Al: Yeah, is, is connection
authentic if only one of the
parties in that connection is human?
May: Hmm.
Mm-hmm
Al: aâ¦
Yeah, good questions to ask,
good questions to think.
And I just keep thinking about, like,
your, your answer to these questions, um,
whether you're thinking about this from a
perspective of, like, youth or children's
ministry or just any other kind of form.
Like a lot ofâ¦
Some of my friends are saying that they
have to increase their productivity
by 70% using AI, like that's a
directive from on high in their
organizations or their companies.
Um, so but yeah, like o- one of
the things that really matters
is just, uh, yeah, like what you
might call your anthropology.
Like what is your view
of what humanity is?
And particularly for Christians, um, and
in ministry thinking about, well, from a
Christian point of view, what is a human?
Um, yeah, the Bible's got a
fair bit to say about that.
May: Mm
Al: um, Iâ¦
No easy answers necessarily,
particularly as it pertains
to AI and that kind of thing.
But yeah, that's, that's one of
the things I've been thinking
about a little bit recently.
Um, and I, I mean, look, my name,
um, when you spell it out, like
everyone thinks my name is AI James.
May: No
Al: I'm a big fan of having A dot I
or, um, you know, or I, I wanna bring
back serifs, you know, the little curly
bits on, on, um, letters so that, umâ¦
Yeah, 'cause pr- I would say it's probably
like four times a week someone makes
a joke to me about how my name is AI.
So is my life at the moment.
What about you, mate?
Have you been thinking about stuff?
May: I mean, I think my head is often
in the under five space and definitely
having, um, inherited some bonus children
myself after getting married recently.
I've been spending some time with some
under fives and so, um, yeah, I've
got my head in that space a lot more.
And just thinking through, you know,
how, how do we connect well with
under fives, and how do we teach
them about those deep relationships
that we do have with each other and
with Christ, um, in helpful ways,
Al: What are your, what are your top tips?
Like if you, if you were gonna, if I
was gonna say, "All right, Megan, top
five, what are your, what are your
top tips off the top of your head?"
May: Yeah, keep it simple is
probably the, the key thing.
Um, my husband's a
Al: maybe don't have a conversation
about theological anthropology
using those words with under
May: Definitely.
My husband's an English teacher and a
high school one, and so he naturally
speaks in a quite eloquent way.
Um, but yes, it's not always
helpful for a three-year-old.
Um, yeah.
so keeping it simple is probably a
key thing, but also, um, recognizing
the emotional state of the child is
probably another one I'm learning,
um, a lot more being a stepmom.
Um, and how, um, you know, uh, when we're
teaching kids, if they're not feeling safe
or heard or secure, they're not actually
gonna be taking in what we're teaching.
Um, and that works in all spaces.
Um, so with home devotions and in
a Sunday school setting, the kids
have gotta feel safe and secure
Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
'Cause like they might look like they're
taking things in, but if they're not in
a safe and secure kind of state of mind,
um, yeah, they might be able to re-repeat
back answers, but in terms of actually
engaging in the things that you're
thinking through, um, yeah, chances are
retention of that kind of, um, knowledge
or that, of that kind of the stuff
you're talking about is, is pretty low.
I
May: Yeah.
And I mean, that makes sense, right?
Like even adults, it's like if
we're consumed by something that's
going on in our life that's more
emotionally important to us, it's
really difficult to get work done, for
Al: There is only so much
space in your brain, right?
May: å¯ã
Al: Yeah.
One of the things that I think about
and can hear your thoughts on is,
um, just like a real simple thing
like getting, getting down low,
like physically with under fives,
like getting on the same level.
Is that, is that something
that people talk about?
May: Yeah, I mean, that actually comes
into like the feeling safe and secure,
um, and heard, um, side of things.
Because if you're standing over a child,
it's the same as standing over an adult.
Um, there's an immediate
threat aspect there.
Um, and also being able to look
into the eyes of the person you're
talking to, um, from a level standing,
um, yeah, allows the child to feel
heard, um, and seen as well in a
way that standing over them doesn't.
Um, yeah, just like any
power dynamic really.
Al: Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I had a friend come over the other day
and, uh, played a lot with my, my dog.
Like this, this friend just loves my dog.
Like, uh, doesn't have a dog at home.
Um, but he just, he
just like will sit onâ¦
I know, poor guy.
Like, um, he'll sit on the, he'll sit
on the floor and just pat the dog.
And then we said to him the other
day, "Oh, like you, you really
get down low with this dog."
And he's like, "Yeah, same
as what I do with kids."
And he, he's a teacher.
Like he's, he's a, he's a seasoned
educator, if you know what I mean.
I was like, "Yes, he's putting into
practice, um, all the relational
kind of stuff that he's, he's been
thinking about with kids, um, with
my dog," which is really nice to see.
Yeah.
May: Until the dog walks all over him, and
then maybe you've got some trouble, but
Al: Oh, my, my dog, like
my dog loves this guy.
Like, he's justâ¦
And anytime he comes to visit,
he's just like, um, yeah, Zoe's
just like, "Oh, wow, you're here.
You're here.
I can't believe you're here.
You came back."
Which is nice.
but wait, why are we talking about this?
Like, what, usually, usually when
we're on the pod, we're kinda
talking about, um, you know, very
focused and serious kinda things.
Um, you know, we've done a little
bit of that today, but, um,
what, what are we doing today?
May: Yeah, I guess this is a bit
of a different episode to normal.
Um, I just really wanted to acknowledge
that everyone's in this, um, kind
of winter holiday space, and that
looks so different for everyone.
Um, particularly the kids'
ministers that I catch up with.
Some of them are taking breaks
at the moment, um, catching
up with friends and families.
Um, but also, like, running their
holiday clubs, which takes a huge
amount of, um, mental, physical, and
emotional energy, um, out of them.
A great investment, um, for the kingdom,
but it means that they're not necessarily
in a head space to take in more content.
Um, so-- And I know you were
saying about the youth guys too?
Al: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, I mean, like for some of them it
is just literally, all right, I'm gon-
I, I am gonna slow down a little bit.
It's a, a bit of balcony time sometimes
to kind of be like, oh, okay, I am in
the ministry all the time, but to kind
of, to take a, a global view and look
down on the ministry and think about,
you know, how is this ministry going?
Um, a bunch of people speak on youth
camps or running youth camps, um, you
know, uh, uh, all that kind of stuff.
But, um, yeah, it's been a, I
mean, brutal term in, in Aus-
in New South Wales anyway, it's
been an 11 weeks 11-week term.
Um, and I think we all just
sort of stumbled over the line.
Um, whether you are in youth or kids
ministry or whether you're in the
school zone, um, it, it was a long term.
And actually 11-week terms
aren't very often in winter.
They, they're, if there's gonna be one,
they'll be in, you know, term one or
term four, which is the summer terms.
Um, but yeah, so I think it was
particularly brutal this time.
So yeah, we wanna, I guess we wanna
acknowledge that, you know, people
are, people are working hard or they're
taking a well-earned, well-earned rest
and, um, all of that is really good.
And so, I mean, one of the things
that we're thinking about was just,
we just wanna be praying for people
May: Hmm.
Yeah, so we would love to hear,
um, any prayer points that
we can be praying for you.
We would love for you
to send them in to us.
Um, we'd also-- we're really keen
to get going, um, with another Q&A
episode where we hear your questions
and answer some of those on the pod.
Um, and so that's another thing.
If you're listening, um, and you've
been thinking about some things
like Al and I have, and you've got
questions, um, please send them in to
effectiveministrypodcast@youthworks.net.
Um, yeah, we'd love to pray for you,
and we'd love to prep some answers
to your questions and hear some other
people's answers to questions too
Al: And in terms of episodes for the
podcast, we're gonna take a little
bit of a break over this, um, this
winter holidays, and we'll be coming
back in the week of, um, 20- well,
we'll be coming back on the 22nd
of July, which is Wednesday of, um,
week one of term in New South Wales.
Um, and so, I mean, look, you might be
actually really keen for some content,
um, and if you are, actually, there's
lots of good stuff to go back and look
through the kind of past episodes.
Um, heaps of good stuff on theology, on
ministry practice, whether it's youth
ministry, kids ministry, crossover stuff
that, that is, that's impactful on all.
But yeah, go have a peruse through
the, uh, through the past episodes.
I do that from time to time.
Um, a little bit weird 'cause often it's
my voice, but, um, but there's some good
stuff and some really good guests, um, and
some really good thinking going on there.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So I guess all that to say, May,
we just wanna say we love you guys.
Um, uh, we, you know, in the youth works
kind of world, we're so appreciative
of the youth and kids ministers doing
it, um, you know, doing it really
har- going really hard during term
and, um, and, you know, looking after,
loving, um, discipling the young
people in your, in your churches,
and we're just so appreciative,
and we wanna be praying for you.
We wanna be helping you
as much as possible.
So, um, yeah, get in touch,
effectiveministrypodcast@youthworks.net,
and I'm looking forward
to hearing from you soon
Speaker 4: The Effective Ministry Podcast
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