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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 into the lives of others. Find out more at youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You can mentor. What up, mentors?
Speaker 1:On today's podcast, we have Gerard Guenter, a youth leader, speaker, and founder of Riot Starter, a movement based in Memphis that equips students to respond to cultural tension with prayer, purpose, and the gospel. His message is simple but powerful. Students don't just need ministry, they need a mission. And by way of Riot Starter, Gerard trains leaders and young people nationwide to live out their faith boldly and lead a righteous riot in their schools and in their cities. Guys, we have an amazing episode.
Speaker 1:This was so encouraging for me as a host. We talk about what Riot Starter is, how to equip leaders with the four l's, leadership, language, love, and long suffering. We talk about what kids really need. They need spiritually vibrant adults who are living out what they teach. They need a seat at the table in ownership.
Speaker 1:They need clear truth of God's word, and they need a mission bigger than themselves so faith can become action. Take a listen to this podcast. Share it with your mentoring friends, your staff, your volunteers. I know that you will be encouraged. Find out more at rightstarter.org or find Gerard Guenter on Instagram or social media.
Speaker 1:If you guys need a speaker, you should contact this guy because he is straight fire. Thank you for listening to the pod. Enjoy. And remember, you can mentor. Alright.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the You Can Mentor podcast. This is your man, Zach, and I'm here with Gerard Guenter. Gerard, say hello. 'Sup, Zach, man? I appreciate you having me today, man.
Speaker 1:Man, of course. I'm excited to get to hear about you and what you guys are up to over there in Memphis. Man, some cool stuff. Some cool stuff for sure. Gerard, man, why don't you start out just by telling us about how we met, and then just tell us about you and your family and all of all of that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. I I got some mutual friends that knows Ray, and we they were actually out here. Russell Bernard, he's out of Baltimore. One of his friends out of North Carolina, and they came to Memphis. Ten by ten came to Memphis.
Speaker 2:And I and I've met, you know, indirectly Ray and Kara in California when they launched ten by ten. And so so I'm I'm very familiar with what they're doing. And so they they came to Memphis, and one of my Russell was kind of like my mentor. He's like, hey man, I'm in Memphis. You should stop by.
Speaker 2:And I was like, bro, I gotta be real, I'm tired. You you gotta take good notes and just tell me what it is. And so we got lunch later on that day, he says and so I began to share with him what we've been doing in Memphis. He was like, Yo bro, you probably should have been at this meeting, because I think this was the missing piece that we needed. And so his friend is like, Yo, man, you should have been at the meet.
Speaker 2:And he said, You know what? I'm gonna call Ray and I'm gonna tell him, man, you guys need to link. And so sounds like Ray Ray was convicted, so to speak, and he reaches out to you and say, hey. You probably should talk to this guy. And so that's kinda how we that's kinda how we linked up.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. Yeah. Like, I've I have talked to four or five people, and they're like, hey, man. Do do do you by chance know this guy up in Memphis who's doing some cool stuff with this riot starter? I'm like, nope.
Speaker 1:But I need to know him. So, man, I've been here to see good things.
Speaker 2:Praise God. Praise God.
Speaker 1:But, man, why don't you just tell us about you and tell us about your story and kinda how how you how you kinda got to where you are today?
Speaker 2:Man, you know, Zach, that's a you know, for me, I'm not from I'm originally from Tampa, Florida, right outside of Tampa, Florida, Lakeland, Florida. You know, football heaven, Florida Gators, all that, you know, and Ray Lewis, you know, all of us from the same hometown. And so, man, just grew up there. I wasn't in church. My mom took us to church.
Speaker 2:I wasn't a heathen, but never heard the gospel until I was about 27 years old. Right? And so, man, my my passion, you know, my my goal at the time was to play, you know, professional ball, you know, like a lot of young men in the in the neighborhood. And so, went out to college, played ball up in East Tennessee, and had some stints with arena football, had a couple workouts actually out in in Dallas at North Texas. And and so, man, that was that was my goal, to, you know, play football.
Speaker 2:And like many, many of us, God has totally different plans for us. Right? That was my plan, but God had a purpose. And I like to tell young men that, you know, the difference between a plan and a purpose is a plan is what you want to do, but a purpose is what you were created to do. And so I had to start thinking about what does it mean to really kind of pursue my purpose, and I kind of really didn't know that, but God began to shape that, and so I was moved here to Memphis where my agent was, and you know, I saw this girl that I wanted to date, and she happens to be my wife now.
Speaker 2:And before we started you know, dating, she said, hey, if you want to date me, you got to go to church. And I'm like, what? I just want to get ice cream. I don't want to go to church. You know?
Speaker 2:And she said, well, hey, that's where I'm going to be at. So, you know, Zach, I did like every, you know, African American man would do, I joined the choir. And just so she could see that I was serious. So I joined that choir front row, man, just to sow her that I really am. So, man, God just began to work on my heart as I got into this church, and I gotta be honest, I heard the gospel for the first time.
Speaker 2:I heard the gospel, the clear, freeing message of the gospel, and it rocked me, I had never heard it that clear, and I wasn't excited like a lot of people, you know, usually when they hear the gospel, I kinda was upset because I had been trying to live this, you know, in religion, especially in the bible belt, you know, don't do this, don't say this, don't go here, go to church, but don't wear this, don't speak about that. And I kind of left that of behind and said, hey, if that's what it means to be with Jesus, then I'm good on that. But this I heard this message clear, it's about freedom, it's about it's not what you can do, Gerard, it's what I've already done on the cross. Trust in me. And when I heard that, I was upset, because I called my mom, I said, hey, Loma, did you know this?
Speaker 2:And she says, know what? And I shared this message with her, and she says, I never knew that either. And on the phone I shared the gospel with my mom, and she put her faith in Christ for the first time. So this message has been changing my life, man, since that day. So man, I started being faithful in that church, still singing in the choir, and still trying to play football, and one of the lead pastors comes, he said, Hey, could you help us in the youth ministry?
Speaker 2:And I say, No, I'm kinda good. My background is in marriage and family therapy, so I'm always counseling families and counseling students, and so I'm like, No, I'm pretty good on that. I see kids all day. I don't want to see them anymore at church. And so another year goes by, they say, Hey, they had a youth pastor.
Speaker 2:They say, hey, we think you can really help us in the youth ministry. I'm like, man, I'm good. I'm telling you. And I'm still trying to play ball at the time. And another year comes by, you know, football doesn't, you know, chasing my plan.
Speaker 2:God has a purpose. Football doesn't work out, and so they come back in and say, hey, could you could you just work could you just serve, you know, Monday through Thursday? And I'm like, okay, I'll do it. And, you know, they have a youth pastor, I'm serving under this guy. Six weeks later, they fired this guy.
Speaker 2:Right? They fired a guy, and they called me in, and they said, Hey, pastor wants you to be the youth guy. And I'm like, Are you sure? Because I'm not a pastor, I'm a football player. I don't even know where to start it.
Speaker 2:And it was like, this is how they get you. Could you do it until we find somebody? Right? And so I'm like, Well, look, I'm going back to Florida. I'll let you know when I get back to Memphis.
Speaker 2:And so I go home. It's fourth of July weekend, I'll never forget it. We have our great time that fourth of July. The next morning, I'm sitting on the front steps of my sister's home, and I hear the spirit say, Why do you want this? Before I could respond, it says, Because if you want this to be better than the guy before you, don't do it.
Speaker 2:All the athletes, all my athletes know it's always about, man, next man up. You you know, gotta be better than the guy before you, and I'm a naturally competitive guy, especially playing football at a high level. And I respond in that moment, know I want young people to know that they're free now, and not when they're 35. And I come back to Memphis, I tell them I'll do it, and I've been rocking ever since. And so that's how I got into being a youth pastor.
Speaker 2:I was serving as a youth pastor for about ten years at my local church here in Memphis, Tennessee, and man, God just really began to show me a different way on how to begin to engage students in youth ministry, and man, it just took off from there, man.
Speaker 1:Man, I love that. It's always about a girl, right?
Speaker 2:It's always about a girl. My wife hates Girl? She hates what I could at the store.
Speaker 1:Man, then they they always always get you just, hey, man. Just come one time. Just volunteer one time. And the next thing you know
Speaker 2:Right. I just wanted ice cream, and I end up becoming a new pastor.
Speaker 1:I love that, man. Okay. So tell me how I mean, you have a master's in marriage and family. I mean, you obviously have you know, you have obviously kinda done some cool things, man. Who who helped you get to where you are today?
Speaker 1:Was it a teacher? Was it a coach? You talked about your mom, but who are some of your kind of mentors. Right?
Speaker 2:Man, you know, Zach, I think I've I've been very fortunate to have some really I never knew my father, but God has really favored me to put some real men in my life, right? Men that are not impressed with me, right? They're not impressed with, you know, but some people that really care enough about me to say, hey, this is this is not gonna be good, or hey, this is a direction. So I do I I can recall a couple people. Of course, I've had some great coaches in my life, one being Ron Roberts.
Speaker 2:He's actually the defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators right now. He was really big on, man, you know, are you gonna be present for your family? You know, are you gonna are you really gonna be all in for your family? And he he really kinda told me how football was really more about life, and so I really really credit him to to really kinda helping my mindset during that time. But I say as it as it relates to ministry, I've I've had a few guys that have come through, and I I think about Richard Jagarte.
Speaker 2:Richard is a actually an executive at FedEx. He he's over the the international playing divisions. And so I was a part of a program called Urban Youth Initiative, UYI, here in Memphis, and they were giving us coaches that would help us understand leadership, and Richard was one of those guys, he was a Hispanic guy, and we would always meet, and so he was actually a John Maxwell guy. And so we meet, and he says, Hey Gerard, tell about your ministry. So I begin to tell him about my ministry, and he says, Well, tell me what do you do?
Speaker 2:And so I begin to tell him all the things that I do, and he asked me another question. He says, How many leaders do you have? And I said, I probably got about 30 leaders on our team, and he says, Can I put my coaching hat on? Right? And so I said, Sure.
Speaker 2:He says, You don't have 30 leaders. I was like, No, I do. Can count them out. I got 30 volunteers on this team. He said, No.
Speaker 2:He said, Because if you had 30 leaders, you would not be doing everything that you're doing, right? I'm talking about in that moment, it started making He says, Because when you do less, your ministry is going to go further. And I didn't understand that, because again, I'm a worker, I'm a doer, and he says, No, no, no. You need to find four or five people in this ministry and pour your life into them. I mean, they need to have refrigerator rights at your house.
Speaker 2:Right? They need to be able to come and spend time with you, pour your vision about youth ministry into them, and watch. And I gotta be honest, That for me helped shape what ministry was supposed to be. It's really discipleship, really. It really began to shape to me what that looks like, and so he was a very pivotal point early on in my ministry, and then like I mentioned, Russell Barnard, he has a ministry called After the Music Stops up in Baltimore, and so he really he was a push for me as he began to see ministry take off here in Memphis.
Speaker 2:Says, Yo man, you're doing ministry in a way that most people are not doing it. So he would always challenge me to do different things. Hey, go ahead and write a book. So I wrote a book, hey, you need to go ahead and put this. And then I would say if I would add one more mentor in there, I would say Greg Steer.
Speaker 2:Greg Steer is visionary and founder of Dare to Share, out in a national organization that challenges students to share the gospel with every teen, everywhere. So Greg heard about our story, Greg has really been a huge asset to my growth. One of the things he always says, Hey, you cannot lead a movement unless you be the movement. So he really challenged me to really be that. So I'll say, those guys really helped shape ministry for me, and leadership.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't just say leadership. Greg is always talking about, man, how's your family? How's your wife? Are you loving your family? So it's more than just the X's and O's, it's all about making sure that we're leading that we'll be in the movement before we could ever lead it.
Speaker 1:Man, there's so much more is kinda caught than taught. Right? And so often, your mentees, the people that you lead, will look like you. And so we have to, as mentors, if we want our kids to be responsible, if we want our kids to, you know, try to do x and y, then we first must kinda do that, which is so good. But so so tell me about your nonprofit and what kinda makes you guys different.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, man, probably a few years into, you know, being a youth pastor, Memphis is a challenging city, but like most inner cities, it's no different. You wouldn't leave your car unlocked in Memphis, you probably wouldn't leave your car unlocked in Dallas. You just wouldn't do it, right? And so but Memphis had some challenges, and so we we were, you know, we were seeing gangs, and we were seeing, you know, division, you know, among the churches, and and, man, shortly after, you know, some of the stuff that happened across our nation, you know, riots were breaking out, Mike Brown, all those things were happening, it came straight to our doorstep.
Speaker 2:A few years ago, a young black kid was shot on the front lawn of our church campus. I pull up one Saturday morning, and we see a bunch of yellow tape, and we all know what yellow tape means. I look over, and I see the body laying in the grass right where I'm pulling up, and the cop stops me. He says, hey, you can't come here. And I say, well, you know, I work here.
Speaker 2:He says, well, not today. And so, you know, we never had problems. We had a pretty large youth ministry, and we didn't have a problem attracting kids, but I always felt like there was something missing in our ministry. And so, here we have this situation, cop shoots this kid, and our city is already a racially divided city. Martin Luther King was assassinated.
Speaker 2:So it's already kind of like that tension. Just something waiting to push it over the edge. So this was one of those things. And people were mad, as you can understand. There were organizations that were trying to recruit our students to literally go riot and tear our city down, to go burn our city down.
Speaker 2:You know, whether people agree with it or not, a riot is a response. Right? It is a response. Martin Luther King said that the riot is the voice of the unheard. And essentially, if you oppress a person enough, they're going to write, they're going to fight back.
Speaker 2:But we believe that the people of God, we should have another response. Right? Our response should be totally different from that of a culture. We see that in Matthew five, we see that in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus always calling them to another respond.
Speaker 2:You would have heard it say it, but I say it, right? And so, I began to think about, man, what is our response during a time like this? Why is it that we always have to resort anger and tearing our it's a real emotion, but the response is that our response should be a kingdom response. It should be a gospel response. So, man, we saw faith based leaders, they were mad, they were on the news, cursing, and I'm just like, man, people are upset and they had every right to be.
Speaker 2:But I began to ask God, man, why can't we riot? Why can't the people of God riot? Man, I hear the spirit say, you you can, but it's gotta be a righteous riot. Right? Second Corinthians ten and four says, For the weapons of our warfare are not cornered, but they're mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds.
Speaker 2:And we're not here to tear down buildings, we're not here to tear down walls, but we are here to tear down strongholds with the power of prayer and with the power of the gospel. So God gave me this idea that, man, students, man, that we can start riots, but they got to be righteous riots. It is a response to what we see in our culture. We began to give students language, students that were upset, students that were angry, to say, Hey, no. Let's take that passion that you have, and let's direct it towards something that really can change our cities, and not burn our cities down.
Speaker 2:And students would just I mean, they just took hold of it, because again, kids already got passion, they just need permission for something that changes hearts and changes minds. So that summer, we began to take that message of starting Righteous Rise, and begin to equip our students with the power of prayer and the power of the gospel. We began to train them how to share the gospel, what the gospel was, and the power of prayer. So their mission was, every single Wednesday in your schools that you're representing and we had a large youth minister, so we pretty much was represented in many of the high schools and middle schools in the city. And so we challenged them, every school that you're in, we want you praying every single Wednesday.
Speaker 2:Not just see you at the poll, because we needed way more than one day, right? We needed This was about to blow our city up, man. Black kid is killed on the front lawn, white I mean, this was going to be bad for Memphis, right? And so we began to pray, Lord, what is going to We need another response in our city. And so, we begin to challenge those students and get a mission, because once you give a student submission, just get out of the way.
Speaker 2:They got passion already, they just need mission. And so, we begin to challenge them, and they got jacked. They started telling all their friends, Hey, we're praying every Wednesday. In this school, Hey, we're praying every single Wednesday. One particular school here at Germantown High School, the students started telling everybody.
Speaker 2:They started telling their friends, they started telling I mean, they began to mobilize. So much so that the administration of this school heard it and said, Hey, if you guys pray and you're one minute late to class, we're going to suspend everybody because you're a disruption to the learning process. Kind of sounds like something administrators would say, but you know, I just You know, I get it. And so those students, they came back to me, they say, look, they said if we do this, they're gonna suspend us. You know, and I looked at them, and I said, hey, I don't want anybody to get suspended, so what do you guys wanna do?
Speaker 2:And they looked at me, and they say, Oh, we praying. We just want to let you know what's going on. Right? And so these kids because nothing stops a teenager when they have mission, and so the next day over 500 students show up to this school to pray. They get there, and one of the students in the middle of the circle, there's a picture that started floating around, he's praying video, actually video, and one of the students that should have had his eyes closed, they don't do that anymore, he takes out a phone and starts recording the prayer.
Speaker 2:He sends it to Twitter at the time. Memphis Grizzlies ball players are retweeting it. The news is resharing it. The radio station is calling like, hey, who is the kid in the middle of the circle? A secular site on Instagram that had over 3,500,000 followers retweeted it and said, Hey, this is the response we need for our nation.
Speaker 2:You see, we were looking for a response just for Memphis, but God said, No, this is a response that we need our nation to be responding with. We need young people mobilized with the power of prayer, with the power of the gospel to go back into their schools and disrupt the culture with a message of hope and with a message of deliverance. We call that movement Riot Starters. We're not looking to tear down cities, but we are gonna rebuild them with the power of prayer and the power of the gospel as we start righteous riots. So that's how that movement has been going, and man, we're starting to travel the country and share that message, and it's just it's an amazing movement so far.
Speaker 1:Man, Gerard, that's an amazing story. And I just love it because, I mean, even me in my own life, you know, like, I am so quick to try to figure out what am I gonna do to fix this issue. Like, what am I gonna do to take this matter into my own hands? But whenever you and especially whenever you lead kids, hey. Like, we're actually gonna go in prayer, and we're we're actually gonna surrender our right to Hyatt.
Speaker 1:Every point. What we're gonna do is we're gonna say, Lord, we need more of you. Only you, God. Only you can fix this.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:And so often, whenever we lead out in that humility, and when we say, Lord, not not our ways, Lord, but yours, he shows up and does more than we can ask or imagine. Amen. I just love that. So so how how do you talk a bunch of high school kids into praying? Like, I know with me, I mean, high school kids wanna play basketball.
Speaker 1:They don't play video games. They don't wanna pray. So tell me about that.
Speaker 2:You know, I think I think, Brian, it it it was something that I was missing too as a as a teenager. Know, my mom like I said, my mom took us to church. You know, I wasn't a heathen. But there was just something missing, man. It was just like like, what is this about?
Speaker 2:Is this is this what I'm supposed to do? Come, hear some songs, then go home and do it all over again? And we started thinking about that, man. What was missing, we saw was mission, you know? In every area of a teenager's life, there is mission, right?
Speaker 2:On the football team. I don't care how bad the football team was the year before, they can go zero and ten. The next year, that coach is saying, We're going to state. Right? The basketball team, I don't care how if they made no shots, the coach is saying, Hey, this year, we're gonna be city champs.
Speaker 2:Right? So I started hearing these guys are putting mission before their students, and before The debate team, their job is to debate, out argue the cheerleaders. Their job is to get on ESPN, go to Disney World, and show Spirit Fingers. Everybody has a mission, but then when it comes to the church, it's like, come play dodgeball and eat pizza. You know?
Speaker 2:That's not a mission, man. It's cool, but it's not a mission. And so we started saying, what if we begin to train and begin to equip our students with the mission that the church really has. You know, Matthew 28 says, Go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:And so we begin to tell young people in the inner city, Hey, you're saved. God has saved you for a purpose. Right? You're supposed to be on mission. What is that mission?
Speaker 2:Our mission is to go make disciples of all nations. But we can't make disciples unless we share that message. Right? We can't live out the mission unless we share that message. And so, I think when we to change the language of, Why do you come to church?
Speaker 2:It's not just for you to come play dodgeball and have a good time. Man, we're here to equip you to go. The goal for the church can no longer be how many students gather in the building. It can no longer be how many students gather in churches. The goal is how many students are in the building are actually equipped to go and live out the mission.
Speaker 2:And so, when we begin to change that language, man, students start getting jacked. I I had students calling me during school hours like, Hey, I'm sitting at a table with a Wiccan, and we never talked about how to share the gospel with them, so how do I do that? So, man, hang up the phone, it's the same, go share the gospel. Oh, wait PJ, hey can you bring me some Chick fil A? It was just crazy, man.
Speaker 2:So I think that's what it was, Zach. I think it was, man, once we changed it from being just a ministry to being mission focused, man, students were like, cool. I want to now know what it means to live out this faith that I have so that I can begin to impact the kingdom for the sake of the glory of God. And I think that that's happened. Our students were being equipped.
Speaker 2:It was not just a place where we had a great time. We don't need any permission to have a great time. We know how to do that, but what we did not I think what I was lacking, even in my own ministry and my own upbringing is, didn't know the mission of my faith. I didn't know what this whole mean, okay, I love Jesus. What do do now?
Speaker 2:Man, I think once we did that, it just ignited something in them, because the mission is on our hearts, it's written in our DNA to be missional, and it was easy after that point. They felt like they were a part of the kingdom of God. They were a part of this mission to go take the gospel to the world, and when that happened, it it was it was man, it just went like wildfire.
Speaker 1:Man, there isn't anything more powerful than a person on mission than a person who has purpose. Right? Amen. Amen. Man, I saw on your website, you know, it's, are we focusing in on come and see, or are we encouraging them to go and be?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I was like, man, that's good. So Yeah. You know, it it it reminds me just of the power that we have as mentors, right, to cast vision for these kids, to help help them see what they might might not be able to see yet. You know, like, hey.
Speaker 1:You can actually change your school. Who who? Me? Yes. You.
Speaker 1:Like Yeah. You know? You were made on purpose, for a purpose. You can be a difference maker in your family, in your church, in your city, in your school. And it's an honor for us as mentors to be able to cast that to our mentees and to give them hope and to give them courage, right, to encourage a kid just to open up their chest and to insert courage to go and be different, to go and be holy.
Speaker 1:Right? Yeah. Holy. Because when you're holy, what does holy mean? It means to be set apart.
Speaker 1:What does set apart mean? It means to be different. Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, go and be different, man.
Speaker 1:It it it reminds me of this verse in Habakkuk two two where it says, and the Lord answered me, write the vision. Put it on the tablet so that he who he may run who reads it. Yeah. And so, man, we give these kids this mission. We give these kids this purpose, and then we get out the way and say, go run.
Speaker 1:Amen. Sit back and watch and see what God can do Amen. By way of a teenager who's impassioned. It's powerful, Yeah.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Absolutely love it. Okay. So you kinda talked about this, but if we're talking to a mentor, and maybe they have a mentee who's a little bit apathetic. You know? Maybe they're just chilling.
Speaker 1:Maybe they don't have very much, you know, motivation. What would you tell them is the secret sauce? Like, how how can you give this kid purpose? How how can you kind of start to try to put a fire underneath him?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. I I I mean and you you hit on it. You know, acts one eight is is is another one that says, you know, and you will receive power, right, to be my witnesses. Right? That power was boldness, right?
Speaker 2:We have to challenge students that there is a power that is given, so you don't do this by yourself, right? You have the spirit of the living God that goes with you, right? The greatest part of that commission that he says, Go and make disciples of all nations, and you fast forward down to the end, it says, And I will be with you always, right? So they don't go this alone. And so even in that, as God goes with us, we have to begin to set the pace for them.
Speaker 2:Right? Hebrews five says, No discipline feels good at the time that it is happening. Right? But when it is fully finished, it will produce a harvest of righteousness. You know, the student is not above the teacher, but when they are fully trained, would be what?
Speaker 2:They would be like the teacher. And so, think to begin to help that student begin to be bold, to see have that student begin to go out and engage culture, they have to see a leader that does it. You know, there's one of the things that I tell people, there are four things that this generation needs, and the first one is, they need spiritually vibrant adults. I'm talking about they need adults who are because we have adults that are saying, Hey, you need to be excited about Jesus, you need to be passionate about Jesus, you need to be passionate about winning your campus, and those students need to turn around and say, Hey, are you still in love with Jesus? Are you still passionate about Jesus?
Speaker 2:Do you still wake up in the morning and say, Man, I just can't wait to engage the people, you know? So, what we lack is spiritually vibrant leaders. The second thing that those young people need, they need somebody that is going to essentially give them a seat at the table. Can they be a part of the decision making? Not just, hey, here's what we've decided, and we want you guys to go make it happen.
Speaker 2:No. Can they be a part of the decision making? They need to be have a seat at the table. And then thirdly, they need the truth of God's word. There are so many different truths that people are running at it.
Speaker 2:This truth, his truth is her truth, and her truth No. We know the truth, and his name is Jesus. We got to point them to the truth of God's word, because the more time they spend with the truth, the easier it will be for them to identify the lies of this culture. Right? Then lastly, they need a mission.
Speaker 2:They need a mission to go that is bigger than them, that is bigger than their own personalities, that is bigger than their own anxiety. Right? So, what we found is, if a leader is modeling these things for students, those students will go do A student is not gonna do what he doesn't see a mentor do, right? I ask you pastors all the time, Hey, if young people, if Would your city be changed? Right?
Speaker 2:If your students share the gospel at the rate that you share it? Yeah. And that same response is what most you pastors do, Because the reality of it is, we're telling students, hey, go do this, go do this, and it's like, man, we don't see it in your life. So we're challenging leaders, hey, if you wanna see this happen in your mentors, if you wanna see this happen in your students, hey, you need to model what that looks like. Because again, no student is above the teacher, but when they're fully trained, they would be like the teacher.
Speaker 2:And so that's what we've seen, that we have to begin to model this passion, this boldness for students, and students are gonna see that and it's like, oh, no, no, I'm not gonna let my youth pastor outdo me, because they got the passion, and we just, again, we gotta give them permission on what to be passionate about.
Speaker 1:Man, our kids need adults who love Jesus more than anything. They need role models that they can look up to. They need
Speaker 2:us What Jesus say in Matthew nine? He says, he goes through the towns and villages, he says, he sees all these illnesses, he sees all these people, and he says, They look like sheep without a shepherd, right? He had compassion on them, and then he goes to say, Man, listen, the harvest is plenty. The harvest has never been an issue, but what? The workers, the leaders are few.
Speaker 2:We need more leaders. So what did God say? So pray. So pray. This harvest is so big, we gotta pray for more leaders.
Speaker 2:We gotta pray for more workers so that we can go get the harvest. The harvest is not the issue. It's leaders, and we need people to really stand firm and lead this next generation to what it looks like to engage culture with this message of hope, with this message of the gospel.
Speaker 1:And to not only lead from like, hey, I know everything. I'm in charge. I'm here to fix. But no, no, no. It's a it's a here's a seat at the table together.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna give you ownership. You tell what you're seeing. You tell me your ideas and your thoughts. And that's I mean, you can't be what you can't see.
Speaker 2:They can get to contextualize what you teach them, right? So, I'm like, hey, we're gonna go share the gospel, but you know your friends better than I do, right? You've been out of high school more than three years, you ain't cool anymore, so you need to just get that out the way, right? But they are cool, so equip them. I don't go to schools, man.
Speaker 2:I don't go, you know, these things, Oh, gotta go be on the school campus, man. Listen, I got a bunch of soldiers, and I'm gonna pour my life into them, and I'm gonna send them out. Right? There was no need for us to really do Instagram posts and all those things. Mobilized our students, and they would bring students to church.
Speaker 2:It's like, hey, you shared the gospel with me, where you going? I'm going to You Croupe on Wednesday. Well, I'm going where you going. Right? So again, like you said, as we give it to them, they are gonna take it to culture.
Speaker 2:Whatever we invest into this generation, they will take it to culture. If we invest music in them, they're gonna take that to culture. But if we invest what it means to follow Christ and share the gospel, they'll take that to culture too.
Speaker 1:I mean, I have never seen this in my years. This generation, they will not settle for lukewarm faith. They want to be challenged. They want prayer. They want the word.
Speaker 1:Like, they are hungry. Whereas, like, old me, you know, I'm, oh, well, I can't talk too much about this because I'm scared. I'm gonna scare them off and does it. Like, no. Like, they they are hungry because they have seen what society has to offer.
Speaker 1:They have seen what this culture has to offer, and they're saying there's gotta be something more. Yeah, man. And so, man, we have an opportunity as as mentors. Let's let's don't sink down to where we think they are, but let's call them up to
Speaker 2:There you go. There you go. It's it's this generation doesn't just want information. They want demonstration. Right?
Speaker 2:What are we going to do with this? I've been sitting in church for ten years, and you guys have been telling me about the power of Jesus. Let's go do something with it then. Right? And so, I challenge mentors, man.
Speaker 2:If you want to ignite a student, put mission before him. If you wanna ignite a student, hey, challenge him, especially young men. Young men need to be challenged. Hey, today. Hey, man.
Speaker 2:Hey, that I saw you scrolling the other day. Hey, man. That's not how we do it, man. As a man, we wanna honor women. We wanna value them.
Speaker 2:Put that mission forward, Hey, for the next thirty days, I want you to, man, advert your eyes, and man, get in the word of God. They need mission. So when they have that, man, it's not just information now. Now it becomes, Oh, this is a tangible thing. I think as a mentor, I think we have to get them to a point where, I'm not just going to give you this devotional.
Speaker 2:Okay. Here's what we're going to go do with this devotional.
Speaker 1:They in a world where everything that they ever need information wise is found in this thing that they're holding twenty four seven, they need relationship. They need shepherding. They need guidance. They need a father.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Man? Yeah. And and so and, Gerard, you're getting me all riled up.
Speaker 2:I want to. Yeah, man. I'm enjoying this, man. Yeah, bro. It's it's what we see, man, and young people, like you said, man, they want authenticity, and they're ready for It's funny you said that about the leader that is saying because I've had you parents say, Well, I don't know if my students are ready to go out and share the gospel.
Speaker 2:I said, No, you may not be ready to go out and share the gospel, but your students are. It's kind of like Saul when David wanted to go fight Goliath. Saul says, Hey, put my armor on. David's like, I can't do it in this stuff. Right?
Speaker 2:And what Saul was doing was placing his fear onto David, and David's like, I don't need to go in this. I got one stone, I'm going to knock this guy out. Right? And so they're not afraid. They're not afraid, but sometimes the generation before them displaces their fear onto them.
Speaker 2:No. No. No. We gotta equip them, mobilize them, and get out of the way, because they're ready to go do it. They're ready to go do it.
Speaker 1:This is my last question for you. So if there's a mentoring organizational kind of leader, right, if there's someone who's investing into mentors in their own city, what advice would you give to them when it comes to developing leaders, when it comes to giving them confidence, when it comes to going in and challenging, giving purpose, giving kinds of missions to kids who are in maybe a maybe even like a different kind of context than that?
Speaker 2:You know, I I would I would definitely challenge that that that organizational leader to MAD. Challenge them, challenge those leaders that they gotta be it first. They gotta be it first. They gotta model it first, because it's why in Timothy he says, Hey, a leader is somebody who is willing to invite people into their homes. A leader is willing for somebody because you can show me anything on the stage.
Speaker 2:You can show me anything, you know, but hey, I want to see how your family treats you. I want to see how your wife treats you. Want I to see how your kids Do your kids run up to you when you come home like, Dad, it's good to see you? Or, they're just like, Oh man, he's home again. Right?
Speaker 2:And so, it's like, want to make sure that they are leading that movement first, that they're being the very thing, because kids will call you out. You know exactly, this generation will call you out and say, Hey man, you're not living that what you're trying to tell me. And so, I would challenge that leader, man, to make sure that one, he challenges them to live it out first, right? But I also would tell him to make sure that they have a clear message, that they have a clear message in what they're trying to equip that young person with. I love when I go to Chick fil A, whether I ask for four sauces or 400, they're to say, My pleasure.
Speaker 2:Right? They're to say because they're clear on their language, they know exactly what they want to do, and I think sometimes, you know, mentors are not really clear on what they're trying to lead or guide this student. So, I would definitely say that leadership is important. Language, right? That language has to be clear.
Speaker 2:And then I would say love, right? They have to lead with love. And then lastly, long suffering. Nothing is going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen overnight.
Speaker 2:But we like to tell our team, plant your flag, right? And you mentioned it already, plant your flag. I was watching this movie, and I'll say this, I was watching this movie during the pandemic called I had never seen it. Field of Dreams. You seen this movie?
Speaker 2:Right? About the ghost of baseball or something like that. I had never seen this movie, so the guy kept saying, If you build it, they will come. You know? And I'm like kept saying, If you build it and I guess he was supposed to build this baseball and the ghosts were going to come play, and so and he kept saying that, I was like, That's not true.
Speaker 2:That's not true, right? Because I built a lot of things and kids haven't come, right? But I started thinking about that, it's not if you build it they will come, it's if you stay they will come. Right? If you will consistently say, Hey, I'm not moving from this neighborhood until every one of these students hears the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I'm not moving until every game member hears the I'm not moving until all of them have been trained in the SATs or ACTs. I'm going to plant my flag and I'm not moving. And that's where students know, Man, I can trust this guy because he's consistently he's planting his flag, and when we stay, they will come. They'll show up. And so, that's kind of what I would challenge, you know, to lead with language, leadership, love, and long suffering.
Speaker 1:What is that for? The four l's.
Speaker 2:Four Four l's. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's almost like you have kind of done this thing before or something.
Speaker 2:You should ride a boat. Copa sass.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, man. Alright. Gerard, man, thank you so much for hopping on the podcast for I mean, I'm Yeah, man. I'm all jazzed. I'm about to go work out and just yeah, get swung, and I'm so encouraged.
Speaker 1:But alright. If people wanna learn more about you and what you guys are up to, tell them how to find out more.
Speaker 2:Cool, man. Yo. Just go to riotstarter.org. That's our our website, and then you can hit us at any social at riot starter on Instagram +1 04 at riot starter one zero four. And I'm Gerard Gunner, j gunter five on Instagram.
Speaker 2:And so I'm also Gerard Gunner on Facebook, but our students ain't on Facebook. They're all everywhere, so I'm never where they at. They ain't at. So but no, I I I appreciate this time, man. Zach, you you really are really doing a great work, so I appreciate, you know, what you're doing for your for your audience.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Pete. Alright. Well, thank you so much for tuning in to the You Can Mentor podcast. Thank you to my man, mister Gerard Gunther. Check him out and all the awesome work that they're up to.
Speaker 1:I hope that you learned a lot from this podcast, from all the wisdom that was shared today. And remember, you can mentor. See you. Thanks for tuning in to the You Can Mentor podcast. Our vision is to raise up and invest in mentoring leaders who will launch and grow thriving mentoring ministries.
Speaker 1:We do that by equipping and encouraging faith based leaders through relational connection, Christ centered resources, and collaborative gatherings. Check out our books, come to the National Christian Mentoring Gathering, and engage with our network and cohorts. You can find all this at ukmentoring.com or on social media. Please share this episode with a mentoring friend and leave us that five star review. Thank you.
Speaker 1:You can mentor.