Jonathan says "the Twitter" and realizes he's a 85-year-old man in a 38-year-old's body.  The J’s plug their twitter handles as a thinly veiled cry for help (or at least a cry for attention).  The #nightmoose comes up again because we still think it's funny.  We chat with Rich Douglas about what it’s like to do youth ministry in a small southern town.  He also claims he doesn’t have an accent… and says it WITH AN ACCENT… which Jonathan somehow doesn’t push back on during the interview.  Shotty journalism!  In the debrief John and Jonny Make great points... Jonathan goes on a rabbit trails then finally says something insightful.. and THEN realizes how far down a rabbit trail they've all gone... and that's basically the end of the episode.    

You should TOTALLY follow Rich Douglas on Twitter... the guy is AWESOME.

Darrell tells about about how he used to teach his Jr Highers Greek... Jonathan and John feel like terrible youth directors in the presence of such awesomeness.

We. Are. Not. Worthy.

Scary wilderness moment? #nightmoose … We chat more with Darrell and go into one of his (and our) favorite topics — ministry in the wilderness. We hear great stories about how conversations around the campfire can go deep very quick. Darrell tells how he abandoned his church group in the Grand Canyon so he could have an awesome hike by himself. He also explains how canyon hiking is different… and hard. Jonathan confesses he doesn’t do wilderness ministry enough (really… at all). John and Jonny shame him and refuse to be his friend for a moment. We all end as friends and together hope and pray that #nightmoose becomes a thing and starts trending on social media.

John, Jonny, and Jonathan discuss the art of “the event.” Jonny uses the word “apostolic” which impresses Jonathan and John. Jonny also kinda refers to our guest as a horse. We sit down with Darrell Pearson from Eastern University and hear his story - and a large part of that story is how he and a friend started a company putting on youth ministry events exclusively for Jr Highers! Darrell gives some advice about what makes a good event and tells us some surprising things that he DIDN’T do in his middle school events.

We discuss books and Jonny R confesses that he doesn’t “read for entertainment.” It’s universally agreed that the name “Brock” is cool, and that it’s pretty hard to be uncool if your parents name you Brock. The hosts become collectively upset at their parents for naming them iterations of “John.” We interview Brock Morgan and he shares that he grew up on the tour bus of his dad’s band - Amplified Version. We also discuss Brock’s new book - 2027 (available Sept 15 from The Youth Cartel). Brock also has an AMAZING book called “Youth Ministry in a Post-Christian World” that you need to read if you haven’t already. After our chat with Brock the three J’s talk a lot about the interview and the themes that came out - all very good stuff. Lots here to make you think. AND…There’s a fun surprise at the end. You’re welcome.

Ray Garcia shared with us some wisdom about what it takes to plant - and specifically Replant a church.  Many Youth Directors look at this as possibly part of their future.  And if this is where God is calling you to - AMEN.  But know it takes a very specific DNA to do this kind of work.  It truly is NOT for everyone.  Great wisdom here and worth a listen.

In this episode, we (finally) make a Carman reference and then sit down with Ray Garcia.  After many years working in youth ministry, Ray founded a missions organization called "The Philadelphia Project."  He also became the pastor of Roxborough Church.  We talk about the organization and how it's grown over the years.  We also share a few bits of wisdom that Ray has learned through the years that could be incredibly helpful to people in ministry.  No big deal...   (double entendre there... you'll have to listen to get it...)

In our 10th episode (yay! we made it to ten! we sit down with the amazing MarkO from “The Youth Cartel” and chat about his life, his company, and the importance of youth ministries being weird (and other stuff). Be prepared to take notes on this one. It’s great stuff.

Alison is a youth leader and an author (and many other wonderful things… but these two are what we focus on during the interview. She’s also Catholic - and we focus on that too. For far too long, youth leaders in the Evangelical Christian world have been encouraged (either subtly or blatantly) to not play well with our Catholic friends. Alison and Jonathan also talk about how awesome Pope Francis is, and Jonathan brings up Martin Luther. (whoops. mistake.)

Our third and final installment of our conversation with Tony Campolo. We ask him which of his books you should read. He also prays for all of us in youth ministry.