Jack Diven

Jack Diven is pastor and church planter of Your Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tyler and Jack talk about a nuanced approach to sermon preparation, emphasizing the importance of understanding what God wants to teach the congregation at a given moment. They also delve into Jack's experience as a former student pastor, particularly addressing the challenges of discussing sensitive topics that middle school students encounter on social media and the internet.

Creators and Guests

Host

Tyler Sanders

Tyler is director of communications at Gateway Seminary.

Producer

Courtney McCaa

What is 10 Questions with 10 Pastors?

10 Questions with 10 Pastors is an interview podcast on preaching, ministry challenges, and more.

Host Tyler Sanders speaks with pastors about sermon strategy and preparation, the ups-and-downs of serving a church, and controversial topics like: Who has the best burger? In-n-Out or Five Guys?

Tyler Sanders 0:00
Alright, my first question for you, In N Out or Five Guys?

Jack Diven 0:03
Ooh.

Tyler Sanders 0:05
I told you.

Jack Diven 0:05
That is controversial.

Tyler Sanders 0:06
Yeah, it matters and it doesn't matter. It's kind of both, you know.

Jack Diven 0:11
I gotta say I'm like, all in on receiving all the West Coast vibes but if you put a gun to my head, I'm going with Five Guys.

Tyler Sanders 0:20
Really? Why's that?

Jack Diven 0:20
I grew up on the East Coast. So that was all I knew. And so growing up, going to Five Guys all the time.

Tyler Sanders 0:27
Nostalgia.

Jack Diven 0:27
It's good stuff. I am on the In N Out train, though. I mean, you're giving me the either or. I like both.

Tyler Sanders 0:34
No one's done a combo yet. I'm surprised no one's been like, 'Well, I would take this from here, and this from there.' Because they're both good, it's hard to be wrong.

Jack Diven 0:41
Yeah, I'm just I'm slightly on the burger and the fries, both of them from Five Guys a little bit more. Just-but the price, In N Out, can't argue with that.

Tyler Sanders 0:52
It's hard to beat.

Tyler Sanders 0:58
Welcome to season three of 10 Questions with 10 Pastors. Brought to you by Gateway Seminary. With your host, Tyler Sanders. This episode was recorded live at the 2023 SBC annual meeting.

Tyler Sanders 1:18
I'm here with Jack Divon, pastor of Your Church.

Jack Diven 1:21
That's right.

Tyler Sanders 1:22
Your Church. And that's in Las Vegas, Nevada. When did you plant that church?

Jack Diven 1:27
So actually, man probably should have covered this. We're pre launch right now.

Tyler Sanders 1:32
Okay, so this is in process.

Jack Diven 1:34
We have a launch team, our core team is growing. God's moving and it's been awesome.

Tyler Sanders 1:40
Like what kind of stage are you in right now? Like, what kind of timeline are you looking at?

Jack Diven 1:44
We are looking to plant, early 2024. So we're building up. It's been going good. We're doing a residency actually, one of the guys on on this podcast, his name's Joseph Gibbons, we're running our residency through Favor City Church, and the Las Vegas City residencies. It's been going great.

Tyler Sanders 2:04
That's awesome, So you're gonna build up a lot of inertia in the next six months. Actually I guess I should say this. We're at the New Orleans SBC annual meeting right now in June [2023]. So you're what, six or seven months out? Is that what you said?

Jack Diven 2:15
That's right.

Tyler Sanders 2:16
Yeah. Okay. That's fantastic. You're also a current student at Liberty. Doing a masters of Biblical Exposition. Love to hear that. Now, why don't you tell us, how you became a Christian?

Jack Diven 2:28
Wow. So, man, I actually became a Christian through Vacation Bible School. Super early on. Kinda one of those things where I had...I got saved early, kind of prayed that prayer, and I don't know. I just understood the gospel when I was seven years old, through vacation Bible school and it was a trek from there. Just going through the process of knowing my faith and making it my own but yeah, early on.

Tyler Sanders 2:59
That's good. And what are you reading right now?

Jack Diven 3:02
So I'm reading The Purpose Driven church by Rick Warren. Which is....it's a hot topic right now. Hot topic, hot button but I'm not reading it to press any hot buttons. But a lot of great wisdom in there that I'm gleaning from. So I'm grateful for it.

Tyler Sanders 3:19
That's really good. That's good. Now I got a couple of preaching questions for you. So big picture, how do you think about preparing like, a sermon series? Or do you preach through whole books of the Bible, are you kind of topical? Like, what's the big picture for preaching for you?

Jack Diven 3:35
Man, honestly, that's a little more controversial, too. Man, I'm really honestly, for building out series, for building out things like that, I'm trying to understand, what does God want me to teach our people right now? And I'm not necessarily trying to jump all over the Bible in that sense. So like we're looking at like, okay, it's found in this passage of Scripture, this book of the Bible. And so we're trying to work through those things, verse by verse, but we are, open to trying to discern what God is trying to show us in that moment to make the word come alive for our people.

Tyler Sanders 4:19
Yeah. What about your like, week to week sermon prep process? Do you have like a strict routine or anything like that?

Jack Diven 4:27
Actually, so early in the mornings, if you try and get me to write really anything, an email, anything later on in the day, if I send out an email after 3pm, it's because it's automated. Like in my drafts, in my email, I just don't think creatively in that way. So in the mornings, usually Monday through Wednesday, I have a block of time set up for creating things, anything, but a lot of times that's where my sermon prep comes into play. And then by Thursday, I'm trying to wrap up everything and get ahead if I can.

Tyler Sanders 5:10
What do you think is the most difficult or challenging, either passage or topic you've preached on is?

Jack Diven 5:19
Wow. Okay. So I'm a former student pastor. So, man, some of these especially middle school students coming up, they get all of their wisdom from the world in the form of Google, it seems, or tic toc. They have all these influences coming at them, vying for their attention, because their attention sells. And so honestly, man, teaching on some of the homosexuality stuff, teaching on some of the transgenderism, and trying to get them to understand Imago Dei, like even just in that way, that can be tough, because there's a lot of resilience in that way from them. And so being a student pastor, that was definitely the toughest.

Tyler Sanders 6:18
And it's probably a bit on the...you're probably a bit closer to the edge, like the cutting edge because kids are having to deal with this stuff and are much more aware of it probably than their parents are.

Jack Diven 6:29
Yeah, I mean, truth be told, not to go dive in all up in this podcast and all thi, but we had students in the student ministry I just left, this was six months ago. So students in the ministry that we just left who were walking into our doors, I mean, we were intentionally trying to reach students that were far from God. And so they were walking into our doors dealing with an entire...I mean, if you could think of what they were dealing with, they were dealing with it. And so yeah, we were on the front lines, as far as that was concerned. And like you said, there were a lot of parents that we had to kind of let them know what was going on.

Tyler Sanders 7:10
Yeah. So now church planning, that requires a lot of different hats to be worn, or lots of different roles to be filled. So why don't you tell me, what's a pastoral role that you're really gifted in? Or you feel really comfortable in? And what's one that maybe it's like a growing edge, something you're kind of working on?

Jack Diven 7:29
Actually, my pastor Chris Bell, from Three Circle, describes sort of this paradigm, is that people are naturally gifted in usually either being somebody that can gather people, or a person that's really good at keeping people. So it's the idea of, like, evangelistic sort of bend or a discipleship type of bend. And I've even to my own, I almost don't like this about myself, but I've come to accept it. I'm good at gathering people. I know how to do that. But it's helped me define, like, just lean into that strength and like, build up people around you that are really great at building relationships and making sure people are involved in what's going on. Making sure people are discipled well, and grow well. And it's not that I don't care about those things, I actually care deeply about them. But I've learned that I'm good at gathering and I hope I'm good at preaching. I love to preach.

Tyler Sanders 8:37
That's real good. Can you tell me like a swing and a miss and ministry you've had?

Jack Diven 8:43
Yeah, for sure. I feel like everybody's probably had this swing and miss, but this one, it pains me a little bit. So just, man I've left leaders, volunteers, in spots too long.

Tyler Sanders 8:59
Tell me about that.

Jack Diven 9:00
Yeah. It's so difficult because you're dealing with people that have this just massive huge heart for God and they're here to serve the Lord and like that's what you want. But that doesn't mean that they're necessarily sitting on the right seat of the bus. That it's the best place for them, for the people that they're trying to minister to. And there's oftentimes, if you will navigate those circumstances and situations well through good communication and good leadership, you can find them a better place on the bus. Something that makes them come alive. And so man, I've had a time in my life or two, where I have let issues within like a small group room or something like that, with leaders-and just not that anyone was doing a bad job, just might not be a great fit-stay too long. Only to realize I had let some of the damage happen. But if I had just addressed the situation earlier, actually, the leader was like feeling the same thing. And once we were able to move them into this spot where they were given this great life and the fulfillment and meaning in the ministry that they were doing. And so, I've learned a lot about that.

Tyler Sanders 9:04
Yeah. If you could go back and give yourself, as like a first year minister, any advice, what would you tell yourself?

Jack Diven 10:31
Yeah. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Like, God's doing the work. He's making the waves. He's building the momentum. That's just something that I'm learning right now. I grew up playing baseball, I grew up making things happen and doing all kinds of stuff that like, just career wise, that relied on me to get the job done. But if you try and do that, in church planting or ministry, you hit the edge of that cap really, really quickly. Because, God's got to do the work. And so, I would give myself that advice. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Do the work, do the best that you can. But remember and trust that God's got to do the work and He will.

Tyler Sanders 11:27
Yeah. Now, one last thing. Why don't you tell us a little bit about this church plant that's about to launch?

Jack Diven 11:34
Yeah, man, we're launching Your Church. It's a vertical vision birthed out of Psalm 67: one and two. It's, "May the Lord be gracious to you and bless you, and make His face shine upon you so that your ways will be known on the earth and your salvation among the nations." And so what we say is, that everything we do is so that "You're". It's so that the name of God will be known on the earth, and His salvation among the nations. And so that's who we are. That's what we do. God has been moving in the city of Las Vegas long before we got there, for sure. We're a part of a great lineage of churches, with Pastor Vance, Pittman and Pastor Hyden and Pastor Joseph. And so God has been moving. And so we're just honored to be a part of the Kingdom work that's been building over there for years now. And honestly, it feels like, I use the analogy of a wave like, it feels like a wave is rising. And so I'm just trying to hang on long enough to see it break. I'm excited about what God is going to do over the next 10 years in Vegas. I think it's going to be notable. It's going to be something we'll look back on and see what God did.

Tyler Sanders 12:47
That's awesome. Jack, thanks so much for sharing your vision and thanks for sharing your time with us.

Jack Diven 12:51
Thanks, man. Appreciate it