5LQ Episode 442: Student Ministry During COVID-19 with Ben Trueblood and Zac Workun

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Ben Trueblood, Director of Student Ministry at Lifeway, and Zac Workun, Student Ministry Specialist for Lifeway and cofounder of Youth Ministry Booster. They discuss the following questions: What stories are you hearing about how student pastors are responding to this COVID situation and disruption? What are the creative ways you are hearing for student ministries innovating around not being able to go to camp? What are some things that student pastors with senior pastors knew, in general? What do they wish they knew in light of COVID? How does a student pastor lead up effectively to a senior pastor? What should the mentoring relationship look like between the senior pastor and the student pastor? BEST QUOTES “This is a really fascinating season to see student ministers in a season of forced innovation.” “The barrier of trying to get Wednesday night ready kept them from being deeply relational as they hoped to be with parents, with students, with leaders.” “It’s provided an environment for leaders to be with a smaller group of students in order to get to know them more.” “I wish my senior pastor knew how much I wanted him to be invested in my life personally.” “Part of what I wish more senior pastors knew about their student pastor were more clearly defined expectations for success.” “Are we having honest enough conversations about what we fear and what we are frustrated by or also what we are trying to work toward?” “With grace, and it depends on the relationship, but to be able to help your pastor connect in a virtual environment is a way student pastors can lead up.” “Student pastors are engaged with the most digital people on the planet.” “In a season of unknown, the really courageous leadership posture is to say, ‘I don’t know.'” “There’s a lot of things that we can do as the missionary preparers for these young people to help them understand the ways in which they can impact culture and not just try to appropriate church into whatever platform they are on.” “There is a lot that cannot happen inside of a staff meeting. There is a lot that can happen in the honest conversations between a pastor who has been in it for 30 years and a pastor who has been in it for 3 years or less.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Ministry Grid Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Youth Ministry Booster Within Reach: The Power of Small Changes in Keeping Students Connected by Ben Trueblood Student Ministry That Matters: 3 Elements of a Healthy Student Ministry by Ben Trueblood A Different College Experience: Following Christ in College by Ben Trueblood & Brian Mills