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Which snack would you like to popsicle?

In this episode, Chad Daugherty joins Zac and the crew for a conversation that starts with dad-life fitness in the “llama lift lair” and ends with a practical blueprint for building a healthy, sustainable volunteer culture.

Let's talk about the wild world of Gen Alpha — deodorant before rec, ball pumps on standby, and a suspicious loyalty to red Doritos. Then everything shifts when a middle schooler asks a deceptively deep question: Why does the Bible use so many bread images for God?

Suddenly, frozen Uncrustables become a doorway to manna, the Bread of Life, communion, and daily dependence on God.

That pivot — from silly to sacred — is youth ministry in a nutshell.

🔑 Key Takeaways
Pause Your Way Out
When big questions land, you don’t have to have instant answers. Chad shares how to slow the moment, invite students into discovery, and model a faith that seeks together.
Clarity → Confidence → Consistency → Culture
Healthy volunteer teams aren’t built on hype. They grow through clear expectations, steady investment, and repeatable rhythms.
Recruitment Is Not Development
Most ministries stop after “yes.” Real leadership happens in what comes next.

A Simple Leadership Rhythm
Pray • Ask • Invest • Wait
Care that continues long after the initial excitement fades.

👥 Chad’s 3–2–1 Weekly Volunteer System
A practical framework you can start this week:
Pray for 3 people
Make 2 proactive touchpoints
Schedule 1 face-to-face connection
Coffee, hallway chat, game night, or visit
Do this for 50 weeks:

💯 ~100 families personally touched
🤝 50 in-person connections
🌱 A culture shaped over time

Make sure you hit the links below, whether we're gonna see you in a couple states, in a couple regions in the next few ways, or catch us online

Lifeway.com/essentials

Lifeway.com/experience

We'd love to see you in Virginia, in North Carolina, or one of our youth pastor summit locations

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What if your calendar didn’t own your ministry — but served it?

Welcome to the podcast garage Amanda Mejias! Lifeway Specialist for Girls' Ministry and Women in Youth Ministry. Check this pastoral note: We to need to make the move from submission (giving in after the fight) to surrender (choosing trust before the fight begins).

In this episode, Zac and Amanda unpack a simple, repeatable framework to audit your year:

Stop – Start – Change

• Stop what burns energy without bearing fruit (even if it’s beloved).
• Start where your God is calling you out: only when you have conviction and capacity.
• Change the good-but-not-great by adjusting structure, timing, and goals to serve outcomes that actually matter.

We talk:

• Anchoring your plans to your church’s mission
• Working backward from your budget cycle
• Defining fruit before you plan
• Volunteer buy-in and giving ideas real runway
• Why leaders must measure what matters

Plus, a live case study: Her Good Retreat — a focused gathering for women leading in youth and college ministry. Born from real needs (belonging, rest, targeted training), it models how vision, people, and place shape events that last.

Key Points
• the value of discipline through a swim lesson story
• moving from submission to surrender
• defining fruit before planning
• annual audit using stop, start, change
• aligning events to church mission
• budgeting timelines and approvals
• volunteer capacity and early buy-in
• when to kill traditions and when to tweak what you inherited
• launching Her Good Retreat for women in youth and college ministry
• links to Youth Pastor Summit and Experience

Check the links below for the Her Good Retreat this March, the Youth Pastor Summit locations in April, and the Preaching Experience in May. Like, rate, subscribe, and review, and we’ll see you next time

Her Good

https://www.lifeway.com/en/events/her-good-retreat

Preaching Experience

https://www.lifeway.com/en/events/experience-2026

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Trade the contemporary hype for a deep concern with holiness!

What if your youth ministry felt unmistakably sacred and still radically welcoming?

In this episode of Youth Ministry Booster, Zac Workun sits down with Ribbin Dorado to explore a youth ministry model built on formation over frenzy, one that helps teenagers love the church they’re actually growing into.

Together, we unpack a fresh durable, and repeatable, youth ministry framework designed for long-term faith formation:

• A two-hour Sunday night gathering that prioritizes formation over games
• A monthly rhythm that includes a Student Sabbath at home, complete with table liturgies
• A mid-month Worship in the Round, where students lead and testify
• Sacred worship spaces using incense, kneelers, and iconography to signal reverence. Elements of signs, symbols, and wonder.
• Memorizing creeds, spontaneous testimonies, and students “fighting for the mic” to name where they see God at work
• Teaching shaped by the lectionary, offering a balanced diet of Scripture and resisting cherry-picking

We also talk about rethinking leadership in student ministry:

• Hospitality leaders who cultivate belonging
• Formation leaders who guide 30-minute Bible circles
• Thoughtful training, interviews, and resources that treat leaders as ministers—not just volunteers
• Language that dignifies the calling and responsibility of those shaping students’ faith

At the core is the soul of the youth pastor. Ribbin challenges leaders to abide in Christ (John 15), practice the daily Examen, read Scripture beyond sermon prep, and develop a living rule of life. Teenagers don’t just hear what we teach, they catch what we love.

We lead from overflow, not exhaustion.

Finally, we reframe success in youth ministry:

• Are students worshiping with the broader church?
• Are families practicing prayer and Scripture at home?
• Two years after graduation, are students rooted in a local church?

Formation is a long obedience in the same direction—formed inwardly and sent outwardly.

Subscribe, rate, and review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Check out Lifeway.com/Essentials for free roundtable days this spring in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, and North Carolina. Sign up and bring your team.

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