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Record Live is a conversation about life, spirituality and following Jesus in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Fostering a relay race faith
[00:00:00]
Intro: Hi there, everyone. I'm Jared. And I'm Zenita. We are your hosts of Record Live, a podcast where we talk about church, faith, and living well. We believe as followers of Jesus, faith is more than just a set of beliefs. It's a way of life, something we put into practice. Let's go live.
Zanita Fletcher: Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Record Live. Last week on the show we mentioned that we really enjoy having people recommend guests and recommend topics because sometimes Jared and I don't know what to talk about on a Wednesday afternoon and our guest today, Olivia Morton, was one of those recommendations, , which is pretty cool.
Zanita Fletcher: So Jared, welcome to the show again and Olivia, thank you for coming on Record Live. Thanks
Olivia Morton: so much for having me.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Thanks.
Zanita Fletcher: [00:01:00] All right. , Olivia, you're good.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah. Yeah. I'm always excited to be at record live, you know, these are great. And, , shout out to one of our colleagues who actually heard Olivia speak at, I believe it was, I was going to say college church.
Jarrod Stackelroth: It's university church, isn't it? And now, , Avondale university church. And they really liked what you had to say so much that they came back and told us and said, Hey, this was a really good topic. This was really interesting. You guys should think about this topic for an article or for the show or something like that.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So that, that came about really nicely. And I love seeing that happen. So yeah, we're excited to have you on Olivia.
Olivia Morton: Oh, awesome. I'm really excited to have a chat with you guys today.
Zanita Fletcher: Awesome. Now, Olivia, I know you're a bit of a juggler of roles and responsibilities and things. , I was talking to you before we started recording this, and you were just telling me some of the things you're involved in.
Zanita Fletcher: So, before we get into the conversation, which I'm sure many people will be able to relate to you, but can you just tell us a little bit [00:02:00] about who you are and what you do, both in like the the workspace and also in the kind of volunteer church capacity.
Olivia Morton: Yeah, sure. So I'm actually a full time student. So I'm studying at Avondale University to be a secondary teacher, , with a major in history teaching and like a minor in chaplaincy.
Olivia Morton: , but my real passion area is working with, , particularly young people in the church space. So obviously I attend university church on the Avondale campus. , I've actually done that since I was a little kid. So unlike a lot of the students I'm here year round. , and yet we have a really cool space, , for a lot of youth and teens with quite a large youth group at the church.
Olivia Morton: And I get to hang out with them, spend a lot of time with them, organize socials for them. , yeah, so I'm basically just the youth and teens leader there. , but as you mentioned Zia, I also am an RA in the girls dorms on the Avondale campus and do a little bit in the regional youth and young adults space for our Lake Macquarie area.
Olivia Morton: , we organize these things called fireside rallies, which are essentially youth rallies for our [00:03:00] high school students that span from Walls End kind of area. So Macquarie College, Newcastle down to Central Coast. , so I don't know, I just love working particularly with young people, but just in any kind of space where we're facilitating different groups of people meeting up and worshiping together.
Zanita Fletcher: Awesome. I feel like full time studying on its own is a lot. So kudos for doing all that other stuff on top of it. But obviously in your presentation, you, or in your sermon, I should say, you talked about, , burnout and how that's like a common experience. And I'm guessing,, you're doing a lot of things and you have a lot of responsibilities.
Zanita Fletcher: And you said that this was your First sermon there that you'd preached on. And so I'm guessing it's something that you have experienced or have a story in, you personally come up against burnout or have you had a moment where you've been doing all these things in ministry? , and you felt burnout or , what is the story behind why you were so passionate about this topic?
Olivia Morton: You know, I feel like as somebody who struggles to say no to things a lot of the time, , sometimes out of like, I feel like I'm obligated to [00:04:00] do things, but often, , more often than not, I'm just excited to be a part of lots of different spaces. I think that burnout something that I have come up against quite a few times, but I do have one particular, , period of my life that I can remember really having to stop and say, okay, I need to take a bit of a stop, take here and figure out what I'm going to do.
Olivia Morton: And it was driving home from our second ever youth rally that we ran under the fireside name. And I was driving home at about 1130 at night. I just finished packing up pretty much on my own. And my tank was on, I think I've been on empty for the whole day. So I was getting a bit worried that I Wasn't going to make it home.
Olivia Morton: My phone was on 1 percent and I just looked at both of those, , pretty much empty measures and said, okay, that's how I'm feeling myself right now as well. And I remember going home and having a big sleep and I woke up the next morning and just had this overwhelming feeling that something needed to change in the space.
Olivia Morton: And while I still wanted to be a massive part of what we were doing, I knew that there had to be something that I could do so that these things would [00:05:00] continue to run and be successful without me feeling like I was on the brink of burnout.
Jarrod Stackelroth: That's interesting . Thank you for sharing that. People often think that when you're in your passion area, you can't get burnt out. So you've mentioned that this was a real passion area for you, and yet you were feeling like it was depleting you. Can you explore that a little bit with us? It seems to be a misconception that people have.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , how is it that you continued to be involved, continued to be passionate about that space? Thanks. But also set in place. It sounds like you went on to maybe set some boundaries or to try and figure out how to be involved without depleting yourself to that point again. So can you tell us a little bit about that part of the journey?
Olivia Morton: Yeah, absolutely. , so as you mentioned, Jared, , youth spaces and particularly, , our youth rallies that we've been running was something that were incredibly close to my heart. Yeah. , I'd been a part of the team that had started this from the ground, and it was something that I just felt so passionate about [00:06:00] making sure that it continued happening.
Olivia Morton: , but for me, , as I mentioned, there's a misconception out there that if we're in our passion areas, then it means that we're not going to get burnt out in any capacity because it's feeling us. But I think we still need to acknowledge that if we're not doing those things in a healthy way, having those healthy boundaries, , and particularly having a support network around us, that's where those things can start to become, while they're still feeding into us, they are still actually quite a burden.
Olivia Morton: , we live in a society at the moment where our time is so valuable. And when you have a massive passion for any kind of area, you're going to give a lot of your time towards that. And I think we need to do that, like, it's a gift that we're giving back to the people around us and gift that we're giving back to God because we're acknowledging that he's the one that's given us these talents.
Olivia Morton: But we do need to acknowledge that when you give something away, , you don't have that thing at your disposal anymore. When we give a lot of our time towards these things that we're passionate about, there are going to be some kinds of repercussions, which are going to be that we have less time to give to other areas.
Olivia Morton: And for me, that was my [00:07:00] study that was investing in some of the relationships that I had around me. And that's when I started to feel like I'm really giving a lot of myself to this area, but I need to be careful because there are other areas that I also need to continue to invest in to be a well rounded and healthy individual.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah. I think even the things that like, are really important that we have in life, like balance, like even relationships, like relationships are probably the most important thing, but then it's , if we don't balance that with other things in our life, then , this sounds really weird for me to be saying this, but like even all of our time in relationships is like imbalanced, I suppose.
Zanita Fletcher: But, , You've mentioned that, burnout is, like, obviously, when we're doing things we love, like, if we're doing our jobs and they're our passions, we might experience burnout. But you mentioned that burnout is something that is being experienced a lot, within churches. And I assume that's not just with people who have, official roles, but also people who are just, , working in some.
Zanita Fletcher: Like whatever capacity that they're passionate about. , is this something that we are seeing like more of today or less of today? Because I would [00:08:00] assume that after COVID that people are a bit more chill, people have had some time to relax and that it might've given people a period to like reignite that passion and rest and get back into things, but.
Zanita Fletcher: , is that the case or are we seeing the opposite?
Olivia Morton: I think that's exactly what we've been seeing post COVID. , and so when I was given this topic as, um, obviously the topic of my sermon that I was going to preach, , I was drawing off a lot of what I'd seen in my church. Obviously university church is quite a large Adventist church, , in Australia, and we had a lot of people.
Olivia Morton: pre COVID, who'd be really involved with a lot of our ministries and the,, even just the different elements of church life and church programming. And I had noticed coming back from COVID that that was, , still thrive, like, well, there was still quite a large population of our church that was really involved in doing the, , either whether it's outreach or life groups or anything like that.
Olivia Morton: But I had noticed. that it wasn't quite as strong as it had been before the lockdown. And so I realized that I couldn't just go off my [00:09:00] own experience. I actually did have to go and find a little bit of research to back up what I was saying. , something that I did find one study was saying that the average, percentage of congregation members.
Olivia Morton: So as you mentioned, Zanita, not just, pastors and church volunteers who were in some kind of paid role, but the average percentage of the congregation that volunteers within the church pre COVID was about 40%. And after COVID, they were noticing that it had dropped down by half to about 20 percent of your congregation volunteering to be involved in some capacity.
Olivia Morton: And I think, , this is just my perspective. I think that's for a couple of reasons. I think, firstly, a lot of people after COVID, as you mentioned, did actually take that step back and said, Hey, we need to take inventory of what's happening in our lives. , life has become so busy between work. If you're a parent looking after your kids, study, whatever that may be in your life.
Olivia Morton: Sometimes we get to the weekend and we just want to Sabbath rest. , and that's totally not a bad thing. That's something that obviously God. instructs us to do. , but I do think, , on top [00:10:00] of that, we've also seen a real shift where because we have such, , amazing pastors and volunteers in our church that are in a paid capacity, sometimes congregation members can sit back a little bit and think, Oh, I'm not sure I want to get involved in this.
Olivia Morton: They're being paid to do it. And if I get involved, I'm going to have to give too much of my time, which I don't have. , which I do also think, relates back to that whole idea that we're just scared of burning out if we give ourselves to too much we're scared that there's no succession plan and then when we commit to being part of something we're committing to do it for the rest of our lives and that can be a bit overwhelming.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So here's the million dollar question I suppose with what we're talking about today. It sounds like that you have a passion to see I guess mentoring and relationships developed within that context so especially succession plans you know who are you Passing the keys to who are you developing? Who are you helping to learn and to understand and to grow in that area?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Some people might see that as an extra add on [00:11:00] So it's easy enough to do my job But if I have to teach someone else at the same time as doing it, that's extra for me Can you break down some of that? Why do you think that actually, because it's a unique concept, but I'm not sure I've heard it quite framed in the way you've put it before.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Mentoring can help you to avoid burnout. Like how does that gel together?
Olivia Morton: I think, I think, yeah, that absolutely hits the nail on the head. The example that I use is teaching a teenager to drive. And so I told a story as part of my sermon about when my mum first was teaching me to drive when I was on my learners.
Olivia Morton: It's actually, a very stressful experience for everyone involved, and I'm sure that, , those listening, if you've taught somebody how to drive before on their learners, it is a really stressful experience that is often a lot easier if you just drive home instead. And there's this one specific example that I shared where, , we were driving home from a, , [00:12:00] school.
Olivia Morton: sports game that we've been watching and on the way home, there was rain, there was fog, there were kangaroos on the side of the road and it was nighttime. And I was really overwhelmed at the principle of having to drive home in these conditions for the first time. And while it would have been much easier for my mom who was in the passenger seat to just say, pull over, I'm just going to take over and you can just sit in the front and just relax.
Olivia Morton: While that would have been a lot easier for her, she knew that in the long run, teaching me to drive would mean that she could then enable me to do things for her, , down the line. So now, obviously I'm 21. I've had my license for a couple of years. Mom can say things to me like, Hey, I really need you to go pick this up.
Olivia Morton: Can you drive and go and get it without having to go with me. And I think that same principle can be applied in our local churches, whether that is, , sound and lighting is a great example, whether that is identifying a young person who wants to learn those skills, , and actually taking the time. And yet you're right, Jade, it is actually a lot of extra time to then do your job while [00:13:00] also turning to somebody else and teaching them how to do it.
Olivia Morton: But knowing that in the long run, that means that one day you're actually able to step away from that position and know that it's in good hands. I think it's one of those situations where you know that the, , in the long run, you're actually going to gain more than you give. , and I think not only is it a great way for us to have leaders that aren't worried about stepping away and aren't worried as much about their own burnout.
Olivia Morton: It also means that we know we have a healthy church that's going to continue to grow and continue to be sustainable once we step away.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, I think it's good. It means that you're not like stepping away from a role, feeling guilty as well. It's like, know that there's someone else on. But, I like the example that you gave, of Jesus feeding the 5, 000, where you were kind of like, he really , he used the disciples.
Zanita Fletcher: He could have literally just been like, I'm just going to miraculously whip up some food and I'm not going to go to a child and I'm not going to get the disciples to hand out the stuff. But he intentionally was like, I'm going to go find a little boy who has something and I'm going to, Ask the disciples to go walk around [00:14:00] and the people will thank them for food.
Zanita Fletcher: Like he didn't have to do that. And that was like more out of his way than it would have been to just go bang. He is like 5, 000 loves. , however many, but I think that's a really cool example of Oh, we can do things the easier way, but , if we do that, then in the long run, in the longterm, like we're not going to have people who.
Zanita Fletcher: can do it themselves or who have that like confidence to do things themselves or that motivation to do things themselves. But yeah, so I just think, that's a really cool example as well that you mentioned, but I guess you mentioned, obviously there's like people like sound, but in your own experience, what are some of the other ways that people have mentored you or what are some ways that people in different roles at churches can like, you know, someone might be like, I didn't even know what it looks like to mentor someone.
Zanita Fletcher: Like, how do I actually do that? Do I have to be like a motivational Tony Robbins kind of character or , can I just be anyone? And what does that look like? I guess in different situations.
Olivia Morton: I think that can look like a different, obviously we can incorporate mentorship into a variety of different [00:15:00] spaces as our church.
Olivia Morton: And I think that, , obviously Jesus is our best example for anything. And the way that Jesus mentors the disciples in the story of him feeding the 5, 000, I think really nails it on the head. , the main takeaways I would say is just Getting somebody to walk alongside you and witness the ways that you do things.
Olivia Morton: So whether that is as a singer, so I come from a music background. I remember the first time that I was invited to sing as part of that church, just worship service. I didn't even, I didn't sing any kind of part by myself. I wasn't, , no one was standing there going, all right, and then we're going to do this.
Olivia Morton: And then we're going to do this. Just being there in that space as somebody who was, I think, maybe 11 at the time with all of these college students and moms and dads that were all involved in this worship program. Just being allowed to be a part of that space and watch what they were doing, , was such a massive learning experience for me.
Olivia Morton: And I think that is one of the reasons we see the disciples just walking alongside Jesus constantly in the Bible. , so yeah, in the [00:16:00] singing space, whether you're catering, one of our hospitality managers at church, we have a high school boy who's in grade 11 this year, who loves cooking. He's a phenomenal cook.
Olivia Morton: He is constantly welcomed to be a part of our catering team whenever we're doing a church potluck or something like that. And there's not really somebody that's. particularly right alongside him and constantly telling him what to do. They just give him a little bit of his space and let him, , let him fail as well.
Olivia Morton: I think that's a massive part of mentoring. And also it goes back to your point, Jared, of, , when we have leaders who are trying to teach someone else how to do something, part of the stress and the extra workload that comes with that can be alleviated if we don't try to micromanage the person that we're mentoring.
Olivia Morton: So if I'm trying to teach somebody else how to organize an event or how to sing at church, if I'm constantly telling them every little detail of what they have to do, instead of just letting them maybe make a few mistakes, or even not make a mistake, but just do something differently to how I would have [00:17:00] initially chose to do it, by letting them do this, , do whatever it is that I'm empowering them to do, on their own terms with some guidance, but not micromanaging.
Olivia Morton: I actually also alleviate some of the burden that I feel I have to contribute to, , whatever it is that I've entrusted them to do.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think that's a great point. , and as you were talking, actually, in the answering the past couple of questions. I'm just reminded I've been reading recently the story of Elijah, rereading the story of Elijah, and , one of the classic examples , we bring up when it comes to burnout in the Bible, Elijah was having that moment of almost pity party, saying, woe is me, Take my life, Lord.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I've tried all these things. I'm alone. I'm isolated. Nothing. And God's response there is really, really interesting. Gives him a feed, gives him a nap. Forty days he walks to Sinai and whatnot. And then he's there and God asks him, Why are you here? What's the [00:18:00] issue? And Elijah, Pours out his heart. He says all these things that are the problem, and then God doesn't directly answer his question.
Jarrod Stackelroth: He actually gives him a plan to go anoint a couple of kings and to anoint Elisha his successor to, to start that mentoring process. It's really interesting to me now, it's all coming together in our conversation that God goes and addresses Elijah's burnout with a mentoring solution. I've never seen it.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Until recently, quite that clearly that was actually addressing that. So we do have definitely, I think, and your example of Jesus as well as another good example of. Biblical examples of why mentoring is important and how it works in the spiritual journey that we're living in. Not so much a question, but just an observation.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Maybe you've got some reflections on on that story also.
Olivia Morton: Yeah, absolutely. I love how you said that God doesn't directly answer his but he [00:19:00] obviously provides almost a solution, but in, you know, that God way where he gives you something that you didn't know that you needed. , yeah, he provides Elijah with Elisha as someone to mentor, but also then Elijah knows that he's not alone.
Olivia Morton: And I, sorry, I was just pulling up on my phone in first Kings in the story when Elijah actually approaches God and God asks him what's wrong. One of the big key points that Elijah drills home is that I'm the only one left. Everyone else around me is clearly not doing the right thing. And I feel like I'm completely alone.
Olivia Morton: And I feel like oftentimes when we're looking at people who are facing burnout and even from my own experience, that overwhelming feeling of I've got to do this by myself. And I've, I'm the one that it's kind of bearing that burden. And I think by providing somebody to mentor, I think we can often feel that mentoring is a system where the mentor is the one that's giving and the person who's being mentored is the one that's gaining, but I actually think it's a mutually beneficial relationship.
Olivia Morton: I don't know if you guys have [00:20:00] seen, on the ABC, there's a couple of programs where they will bring troubled teenagers to meet with older people who are in, , Like retirement village kind of situations. And every time one of those episodes finishes, , the point that they drill home is that intergenerational connection is vital for a healthy individual.
Olivia Morton: And we know that, like we see in the Bible countless times, the point that's really drilled home is that we're supposed to live in community. And so mentorship is not something where, Elisha, for example, the person being mentored is the one gaining everything in this situation. And that then Elijah is giving a lot of himself like out of a really charitable deed, but not really getting anything in return.
Olivia Morton: And obviously that's not why we choose to mentor someone. But I do think it's really important to acknowledge that those that choose to mentor someone else are actually also going to gain often a friend or somebody to work alongside and a bit of a community around them. I even think of. One of the men at our church, [00:21:00] one of the dads, he runs the live stream and he's essentially his entire team of people on the cameras are now teenage boys or college students that he's been able to really invest in.
Olivia Morton: But it's also meant that he doesn't have to do it every week and that he doesn't have to sit there on a camera by himself. He's got all the people around him. , and I just think that when we look at mentorship, I can really see how it's actually part of God's design, God's design for us to live in community and to feed into each other,, in a way that's not only, , really soul filling and beneficial, but also really sustainable for our church.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, it's awesome. I think, we've looked at this on record live before, but they've done heaps of studies where they've shown like. The thing that actually draws people to churches is not necessarily like the fancy program and the good speakers. It's like the intergenerational relationships and that nurturing kind of atmosphere.
Zanita Fletcher: , which is, yeah, pretty awesome. But I guess maybe just to like devil's advocate for a second. You've obviously talked about how a lot of people have this experience where they maybe experienced the [00:22:00] gospel for the first time, or they're like a fresh Christian and they have this, almost like this.
Zanita Fletcher: excitement to get involved and to do something and to like volunteer or whatever it is like, and I can definitely testify this when I came back to church, I was so excited and so, I just, I wanted to do so many things and I had this passion and this, yeah, just this like, I don't even know what you'd call excitement, I guess, but somewhere along that line, like you were saying, I felt like I was doing it all and I felt like I was the only one.
Zanita Fletcher: And that's a common experience. Like people are like, I'm doing all this stuff, but there's no one doing it with me. And I guess for me at least, I find myself now wanting to get more involved in church, but also afraid because, I don't want to get involved and then find myself , disappointed again because , I'm carrying the weight on my own.
Zanita Fletcher: And so I guess for people who like, maybe are newer to the faith, or for people who like, feel like they need a mentor, not so much that they are in the space to mentor someone else, , what would you , advise them? [00:23:00] How do you just like go and ask someone or what if you feel like yourself you need that mentor versus like you need to be sewing into someone else?
Olivia Morton: That's a really good point.. I've actually been very blessed to be a part of the church community for a very long time. , but I have had a couple of situations where I've gone up to somebody that I really admire and said, Hey, can you actually help me with this?
Olivia Morton: Or can you teach me how to do this? In fact, I think I had one situation where I walked up to one of the young mums in our church and said to her, Hey, would you be willing to just chat with me about life? , it was a very vague question. She actually It was like, are you asking me to be a bit of a mentor for you?
Olivia Morton: And I was like, I actually am. I just don't know how to say that. I would say that a lot of our older generations, , particularly are often the ones that feel a little bit unwanted in our newer church. I'd speak to a, obviously I go to university church. We're quite a young church. , cause we have a very large contingent of college students.
Olivia Morton: [00:24:00] week to week. But in talking with some of our more gray haired members, a lot of the time they feel like they don't have as much of a place in some of our younger churches and to have something go up to them and say, Hey, can you teach me how to do this? , whether it's a really practical church related thing, , Hey, can you teach me how to, Organize someone to take up the offering or can you teach me how to do, , the obviously sound, or can you teach me how to sing or play guitar at the church?
Olivia Morton: There are also ways to just go up to someone and say, Hey, , I'd love to hear your story. , could you share, what's one piece of wisdom that you have to share with me? Often those smaller conversations are what lead to longer lasting relationships. , and while churches actually, my church has once or twice before started official mentoring programs, oftentimes just being, , and obviously it's can be a little bit difficult sometimes, but being outgoing enough to go up to somebody and just say, Hey, can I, Or hey, what's your opinion on this?
Olivia Morton: What's some advice you'd like to give me in this area? Or, hey, you made really good [00:25:00] cake at the potluck the other day. Could you teach me how to make that sometimes? I think more often than not, a lot of people are willing to be in that situation, but as you mentioned, they're not quite sure how to do it.
Olivia Morton: do that and how to get into that position. But I think that that would be something that our churches could really consider trying to identify as like a culture shift almost that needs to happen. , so I'm not quite sure how to do that, but it would be something that I'd be really keen to see change in the future.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And I guess more people that are aware of this idea, you know, this is one step to have a conversation about it. I don't think I ever heard about mentoring even as a concept growing up, , it just wasn't something that was talked about. When you look back at your life, you're like, Oh, actually it did happen.
Jarrod Stackelroth: There were people that invested in me that had conversations as a young person attending church. Like they cared enough to know my name. They cared enough to build a relationship and to have a conversation, , to involve me in certain things and give me opportunities to progress. Be up the [00:26:00] front and make an announcement or practice or whatever, I look back and I go, well, actually it did happen, but potentially being aware of it, I think, , and being more intentional about it can actually, , solve a lot of the, the problems because often it happens in a haphazard .
Jarrod Stackelroth: Accidental way, you could almost say, , but what if we had a church full of different generations who were actually looking out for opportunities to mentor and to be mentored? , and we were fostering some of those relationships. I was actually reflecting with a friend, , We've both been a part of church plants at different points and sort of young groups of people, and we were both saying there were older, there was just one or two older individuals, , from different cultural backgrounds, , quite a lot more senior than everyone else in the church.
Jarrod Stackelroth: But what are, Important part of the church plant sort of group that person became just as the elder [00:27:00] statesman, , as, the, a bit of wisdom, a bit of experience, just a different perspective on certain things. And actually having that intergenerational experience and seeing that, , I've seen it firsthand that.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Hey, that's a really important thing. So I think you've hit the nail on the head with that one just before we wrap up, and we are running out of time. This has been a really fascinating conversation today. But do you have anything you'd like to leave with us in a nutshell? Like what's the core of it or something we can even do this week that we can start putting into practice that will just give us a head start on this thing?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Just get us thinking more intentionally about some of this stuff.
Olivia Morton: I think, , something I can struggle with sometimes is coming up or seeing a concept like mentorship and trying to implement it on like a full church scale. Like, all right, we need a full, fully fledged mentorship program to run every week.
Olivia Morton: , my encouragement would be no matter what age you are, whether you're 85, whether you're 40, whether you're 21, or whether you're seven, whatever age you [00:28:00] are, there is always somebody in the church younger than you. That you are able to identify and mentor. And so you don't need to go back to your church board.
Olivia Morton: You can, but while, you don't have to go back to your church board and say, we need a full fledged mentorship program. You actually can just say, who is one person or two people in my church that I identify that are younger than me, that I can walk alongside. And it doesn't even need to be inviting them to join you in any particular space.
Olivia Morton: It can be, who can I walk alongside, invite to walk alongside me and really build that relationship with. And again, that's something that anyone of any age can do. And I really encourage, particularly our older generations, as well as our like quite younger generations, both to really consider the way that they can find, , somebody in their church to do that for.
Zanita Fletcher: Hmm. I think that's awesome advice. And I think you're a good role model of that. , I think that's awesome. Olivia. I think that's great advice. No matter what age you are, you can always mentor someone else.
Zanita Fletcher: And yeah, like we said before, you don't have to be in a particular role. You don't have to be [00:29:00] super famous or popular. You can just be anyone. So yeah, take that encouragement with you and yeah. Thank you for sharing with us, Olivia, what you're passionate about. We've really enjoyed this conversation and everyone else.
Zanita Fletcher: Thank you for tuning on to Record Live. We'll see you next week.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yes. We've got two more, I think of the year after this, , Zanita. So we are wrapping up soon. , but we look forward to seeing you all next week until then. God bless.