Five Minutes with Marko

Marko’s friend Paul Martin wrote a blog post years ago with this episode’s title, and Marko reviews a copy of it from time to time as he thinks about the junior high small group he leads.

Ask any youth worker who has stayed at the same church for more than 10 years, and they’ll easily provide a laundry list of benefits. In this episode, Marko unpacks four mindsets that can help you achieve longevity.

Three more nuggets in this collection: on embracing your oddity, creating safety in your ministry, and a poetic prayer for rest and rejuvenation.

Four nugs this week, including a 10-part collection of sub-nuggets! Confused? It’ll all be clear when you listen.

Three nugs in this episode on being childlike, why it’s important to get guys to do stuff, and defining the best life.

Think of this as four episodes of 90 Seconds with Marko, briefly touching on belonging, failure, and how to become a youth ministry veteran.

Marko looks at how our culture has massively swung the pendulum from treating young people like little adults, to treating them like children.

What’s the relationship between “who you are” and “what you do”? Marko suggests they shouldn’t be the same but can spoon.

Marko shares the story of how he got fired from a church over unspoken expectations. Bad endings for youth workers are pretty always due to misaligned values or unspoken expectations.

Marko shares a tension he used to struggle with, between his ability to manipulate teenagers into a faith decision and still wanting to offer those opportunities. He found help in a new mindset and language.