Power Hour | Ep. 20 | Why This Next Generation Gives Me Hope

Is the next generation really walking away from faith, or is God doing something bigger than we realize?

In this episode of Power Hour, Pastor Kyle sits down with Southern Idaho Ministry Network Youth Director Alex CdeBaca to discuss what he's seeing God do across youth ministries in Idaho and beyond. Together, they unpack common misconceptions about today's students, why this generation may be more spiritually hungry than many people think, and what churches can do right now to better reach and disciple young people.

If you're a parent, pastor, youth leader, or simply someone who cares about the future of the Church, this conversation will encourage you, challenge you, and leave you with hope for what God is doing in the next generation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

What is up, everybody? We are back for another amazing episode of the Power Hour. My name is Pastor Kyle, and today uh Pastor Ty wasn't able to join us, but we have a really special guest coming all the way from Nampa, Idaho. He is our district next generation director, Alex Sidabaca. What's up?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Thanks for having me on, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah, dude, this is this is awesome. You had a long travel today, all the way from Nampa. How are you feeling?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Good. Three hours, not it's not terrible. It's it's pretty doable. I feel like the drive, the longer I've been driving this last couple years doing this job, I think the shorter those trips get. If it doesn't feel quite as long.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

It's it's somewhat of a scenic drive. Like there's better ones out there, but it's not the worst.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I've been through some places, I won't use state names, but I've been through some places in the middle of our country that have a lot less interesting things going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, you're going straight for about 12 hours, and the most you see is some cows.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

If you're lucky. Yeah, no, I hear you there. Uh, we are lucky. We live in a beautiful, beautiful state. Uh, and I'm excited to get into this because I know a lot of times for our listeners, wherever you may be, we we kind of find ourselves in a bubble wherever we are at with our local church, our local ministries. Uh, but you have the very unique opportunity to see youth ministry and kids' ministry from a very, very broad, overarching sense, like basically all of all of Idaho. So just to kind of jump into this, um, what are you seeing God doing across youth ministries? I know you are mostly assemblies of God, but how are we doing in Idaho? How's how's youth ministry, kids' ministry going?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah, I mean, one of the things that you you brought this up, but one of the things that I love about what I get to do is I get to see the big sea church a lot. Um, when I was serving in a local church, um, I was really familiar with what was happening in our ministry, and I was really focused on how we were doing. And um, you know, I would cheer with my friends who were doing well, but um I would say when I look out at the the big sea church, I mean, uh at least for Idaho, um, and from what I hear from my friends who do the same job but throughout the whole country, um, man, I think there's so much to be excited about. Um, I think this there's some really incredible passion uh and a lot of incredible pursuit of Jesus that has taken place uh in a very authentic way. Yeah. Uh in a way that doesn't need to be performed to, doesn't need to be uh cool enough to be received, it doesn't need to be marketed a certain way. Um I think that there is a pursuit of an authentic relationship with Jesus uh that is so passionate amongst young people. Uh and it's the right kind of thing. You're you're not just seeing people chase after what I would call, you know, uh clout or uh trends. It seems like there are people who are pursuing Jesus and they're so uh just moved by what God is doing in their life that they want to tell everybody about it. And that's the kind of thing we see in scripture where it's like, man, you saw God do a work in someone's life and they had to go share it. That's what we're seeing with students right now in Idaho, in Washington, and Oregon. I have friends, uh different leaders who I'm well acquainted with in Montana. Uh we're seeing just all across the country. Uh, specifically, I can speak to obviously my knowledge within the AG world, but uh all of our networks, to the best of my knowledge, all of our youth camps are growing.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Um, we're seeing record camp numbers, we're seeing more camps needing to be added. Uh we are running out of people to run camps, uh, and that is the problem we're facing, which is an incredible problem. There's there's a hunger for the things of God in this generation. It's awesome to watch.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

That is so cool. You know, I came, I'm 38 right now, so I'm kind of the older millennial type age. And I remember going through youth ministry kind of the late 90s, uh, all the way up to about 2006. And a lot of people would call like my generation of youth ministry like this golden age. Like every youth group had like a hundred kids. Everyone at my school went to a youth group. Uh, but I look at it back then, and you know, we we were doing the big events, everything was like big overnighters, and we're doing this, and we're doing fear factor, and you know, all this stuff or faith factor. Yep, exactly. We we had to always change it to the corny name, and we had all these things going, and we had a lot of kids come in, but I also saw coming out of that generation, and I'm part of that as well. I left high school without an authentic relationship with Jesus, and it was a relationship that was based around the fact that my parents loved Jesus, they went to church, and then because of that, I then went to church, and it's just what I did. And I grew up in church, so I knew everything to say and I knew how to answer everything or how to live. Uh, but I love that that uh word he used authentic, but because I'm noticing that with this generation coming up, like they they don't want the hype, they don't want the the extra lights and the smoke machines and all this stuff. They just want to be authentic, and that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yeah, I mean, there the most things that we hear is the student. One of the old verbiages I remember hearing early on in ministry was you know, people don't care about how much you know, uh, they want to know how much you care. And I think students um in this generation, yeah, they want to know that you care, but they also want to know that they can ask you a hard question. Yeah, uh, I think that there's so many people having conversations about uh difficult or touchy or whatever topic you want to say, uh however you want to describe a modern uh hot topic or whatever, and they're seeing everyone around them answer it and everyone around them talk about it with the church. And so for students to be able to say, hey, we want to believe in Jesus, and I believe that the the church, I believe that as Christians, we have a hope and we have a faith and we have an answer to those questions. Um and for the pastors and the people who are willing to go into those topics with these kids and are willing to be honest and vulnerable about like, hey, this is the reality of our faith. There's a hope that we carry, there's answers that we possess in God's word. Uh, when we are able to engage with students on that level, uh, not only are they responsive, uh, but they're they're passionate and they'll run with you. Like the students, uh, I just had three students I went and sat with at a youth group I preached. They were in my youth ministry when I first got there. They were not even old enough to be in youth ministry yet. They were kids in, and I spoke at a kids' camp they were at. And now they're graduating, and I gave each of them uh the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, where he really talks through uh the logistics of a faith and the reasonableness of a faith and and his personal journey of you know being uh a faith that was connected purely to emotion, right? Uh, and then having the divorce of a faith from emotion to a faith meant with logic to a faith that marries both. Like, man, this is something I've experienced and is good, and this is something that I can trust because it's true. And I think that when you marry those two thoughts together, you have a current generation of students who uh want to know the answers to those hard questions. They want to have uh conversations about what God has answers to. And when we're willing to engage with them on those levels, I think we see Christians whose faith is not only um passionate, but it produces further disciples and further converts to Christianity, which is great.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

That's amazing. I know when I uh was growing up and I was going through college and then into the the workforce after, you know, there was always, I think it happens with every generation where there's a bit of a disdain for that generation that's coming up, especially from the older generations. And I know for me, I I always heard like millennials are lazy and you know, this, that, and everything else. And now I'm hearing it from the millennials as well as some of the other generations about uh the Gen Z generation. And then I know the Gen Alphas are coming up into youth ministry as well. Uh, so what are some common misconceptions that people uh have not only about young people but also about how to reach young people today?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, I think one of the greatest things we will always have against us as people is a um we have this preconceived notions or we have these things or assumptions that we carry, um, or we'll see something and we'll allow uh certain how do how do I put this in trying to be more clear with my words here, but oh, these stereotypes exist, so they must exist for everybody, and we allow certain uh misconceptions to build a narrative for a generation as a whole, yeah, instead of just learning to meet people. And um, one of the things that I really encourage people in is uh is just to spend time listening, learning, and talking. Uh, I think the more we get to know people, regardless of age and specifically true of this generation, uh, the more you'll get to hear somebody's story, the more you'll get to really just understand who they are as a person. I think the better idea you'll have of their humanity and the more you can actually really speak to the truth of who they are. Um, I, you know, I'm I'm on the younger edge of the millennial um age range, not very far off in age, obviously, from you. And I think that I grew up resenting the stereotypes pressed against me as a millennial. Like I remember when I got into ministry, I was like, I'm gonna be the hardest working youth pastor, I'm gonna prove everybody wrong, I'm gonna do whatever. Uh, and I fought against the stereotypes that existed. And um, there are students in this generation who absolutely, I mean, there's every generation. If you look back from the dawn of time, there's always been like, man, this younger generation doesn't know how to work hard. And I think the reality is that they're they're kids. Yeah. Every time that we have always looked generationally for all of history, all of humanity, uh, it's always directed at kids who just haven't experienced as much life, who haven't had to work as hard. So, of course, those some of those things might be true. But um I think the more we get to know people, um, some of the best leaders and mentors who I've experienced in ministry um were not the trendy something 20-year-olds. Um, they're the spiritual grandparents who uh came in and didn't just look at me and say, Well, some punk teenager who listens to loud emo music, uh, who doesn't know a real, he's listening to sad songs, but has never truly experienced a sad thing. Right. Um, you know, instead they just loved me. And um, you know, one of the things, the phrases that I really uh stand by and believe in my life is people will look for truth in places that they first find love.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Okay. And that's good.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I think when you look at this generation, they will look for truth from the church if they find love from the church.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Um, and it doesn't uh love from the church doesn't mean that it needs to be apathetic or that it needs to be accepting of all things or that it needs to be encouraging of all things. Uh, I think that the you can carry a true, meaningful love uh that doesn't excuse sin or you know, believe in sin or encourage sin. Uh, but I think that once we find that, I've never I've never gone to places or people who I didn't feel loved by and look for truth. And so when the the church can become the thing that it's called to be, which is, you know, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and all your spirit, and to love your neighbor as yourself, if we can do both of those things, I think we'll not only carry the mission, we'll understand the people, uh, we'll begin to learn about this generation and we'll realize that they, just like every generation, they want to be loved and they want to know God.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yeah. One of the, I think the biggest misconceptions that that I see right now is that um the this next generation just wants to challenge everything, they want to question um everything. And I think that's amazing. It's good. Uh, it's one of my my favorite things. I mean, I grew up on so many church platitudes and sayings and quotes, and you know, you just do it by faith. And I love the fact that this generation is like, well, how do we know that? Where where does it say that in the word word? What does God actually say about this? And I love what you said about the um talking about love first, because that's what that's what Jesus did. He never came in expecting any kind of transformations, he always met the person where they were at in love, and then truth always followed after that.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah. I mean, I think about in my own life, the easiest places that I ever was disciplined or rebuked always came from people I loved.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Because I knew that they had my best interest in mind. Right. And when I knew that they loved me, I could receive it. And I totally agree. I think having a generation that has answers to its faith, not just having faith, uh, is good. It's a good thing. In a world that is so able to posture and so quick to posture itself against the word of God, against the church, against you know, all these things like, well, you're just a bunch of hateful people, or you just don't believe blank, or you're against blank, and then you get into God's word and you can answer the questions and you can say for yourself, no, this is what it says. Yeah, this is who God is. Uh, it's the familiarity. Like, um, if you knew my father, if you've heard my dad, he he doesn't always uh have like a you know how some people have like a jolly voice. I don't know if you know that. Like you talk to someone, their voice is just jolly. Um, there are several people growing up who uh they would hear my dad and they were like, dude, your dad is so scary. He's so mean. He's like, he's always angry every time I feel like he's always angry. And uh my dad is not, uh, but he he has an intense voice. And I think the reality is that when you know the heart, then you're not afraid of the voice because you know the heart behind it.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

And I think that so many of this generation is looking to know not only what does the voice say, but what's the heart behind it? And when we can demonstrate both of those things uh to not just younger generations, but to every generation, I think the the power of the love of God becomes more evident in the life of people.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I think that's amazing. And we see the correlation, the the this generation, they are they are interested, they are questioning, they are they are seeking. I mean, there's a reason why uh Bible sales have been up year over year, like record sales every single year. And they're searching for truth. And as a church, we we can't expect A for them to just wander in and just blindly trust us. Yeah, we have to be able to get out into the community where they are at, meet them where they're at, just as Christ did, and show them the love of Christ. So when it comes to a point where they're seeking the truth, they'll be able to, uh we'll be able to help reveal it through through the Holy Spirit. Yeah, but you know, the uh one thing I was thinking of uh about with this next generation, because it's all about reaching the lost, is the Great Commission. And one of the questions I have for you is if you could challenge every single person who's listening to this podcast right now with one message about the next generation, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Um man, if I could challenge with a message, um you know, I think I don't have anything that I've sculpted that will ever be more um true or interesting or impactful than the words of Jesus. And I think when we look back at what Jesus has said and done, uh if we just chose to listen and to love, I think it would make a massive difference, right? Um, you talk about the interest level from students. Uh, I can't remember if it was Barna or Lifeway, but there was a recent study done asking Gen Z and Gen Alpha, you know, when asked to go to church, how many of them um would say yes? And eight out of ten when invited would say yes. And I was listening, uh, this is not a Christian thing, and I'm not endorsing it or encouraging it, but I listened to this Instagram reel where someone, you know, conducts interviews on a subway, and uh one of the questions that's hot takes or whatever, and they said, you know, I really don't believe that Christians um or religious most religious people believe what they believe because if they really believe there was a hell and they really believe God loved me, then why wouldn't they be knocking on the door to tell me about it? And um I think that this generation is hearing us say that God loves them, uh, and they're seeing a lot of uh Christians who are more comfortable with uh a church that feeds them than a church that would feed uh a hurting or a lost person. Uh and I think that when we we go into spaces and we look at the church and we ask what it can do for us, uh, we might be missing the entire purpose of the church. So one big message I would give is um, you know, you think about um even just this is a ridiculous example, but even Chick fil A, they've got an incredible mentorship program, right? Right? It's not just the job of the boss to mentor every person. Yeah, um, but each person plays a role in mentoring the younger uh employees of that space. And I would challenge us as a church uh to find students in your church, to find students in your neighborhood that you could be actively and proactively the love of God to this week. Genuinely care about them and care enough to invite them. Uh, if we see the statistics are are true, and uh maybe it might not be true for you exactly, but I think it's even if it was only one out of ten would come, wouldn't it be worth it if uh that person's eternity was changed? So I challenge you to be bold enough in your faith and to believe enough of what you say you believe to be willing to invite somebody to church to hear about Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Yeah, that's powerful. I've always had this conviction, uh, whatever it takes for one more, that's kind of been a life model for me. And I think of scriptures like like Isaiah 117, for instance, that says, uh, learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of orphans, fight for the rights of widows. Yeah. Just things that we can do that take the words that we speak and put actions behind it and show to people that we are not simply saying this is what we believe. We truly believe it and we are truly going to walk it out in every day. Because that's what that's what this generation, I think it was two or three years ago that the Webster word of the day, this year, uh word of the year, uh, this year it was like six, seven, so we can forget about that. But uh a few years ago, it was authentic. Yeah, and it it's it's so powerful when you realize like for that to become the word of the year, um, means how much it was searched, how much it was talked about, how important it was to this next generation for us to show that authenticity is really powerful. Yeah, so what's one thing uh we talked about each person individually, but what can we do as a church, maybe even something practically, like what's something we can do in the next couple months, each church to better reach our students?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah, I would say to adopt uh a personal role of ministry within your church. Yeah. Um, I think that we often put we relegate youth ministry and children's ministry to the children's pastors and volunteers and to the youth pastors and volunteers. Um, but it is the job of the church, not just a couple members of the church, uh, to love and to to be the example to students and to kids. Um, so I think that, you know, as the big C church, it just becomes something where we go, all right, what am I doing? Uh what's my thing? Instead of just going, hey, I wish our youth ministry had more outreaches, I wish our kids' ministry had more programs. Like, I wish we did more blank, I wish we did more blank. Instead, it becomes, God, what are you calling me to do? Yeah. And so I think the maybe the prayer is to just pray a very dangerous and uncomfortable prayer to say, you know, God, what is it that you're calling me to do to help love and serve the children, both the youth and the kids of our church? Um, and then let God do and speak into that specific place in your life. I think if we just allow the church to become more than a place that we go, um, but to become a community that we're participating in and that we allow God to challenge us in how we can participate, I think it'll make a world of a difference.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Yeah, we talked about a little bit in our last last week's week's podcast with Pastor Ty, just taking taking that ownership of ministry, of reaching the lost and assuming like, hey, it's just because it needs to be done does not mean someone else is going to do it. I have a personal responsibility as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yeah, and maybe the reason that you're feeling something about it is because God is giving you a burden to do something. There you go. Like, I remember there was that when we first started in this role, we didn't have to go to a specific church. My whole life as an adult, I've been serving on staff at a church. So that's where we went. Yeah. And you didn't go anywhere else. Sure. So this was weird because now we're in a spot where we get to choose where we were going to church. Yeah. And so my wife and I were like, well, how are we going to decide where we go? Is it because, you know, culture? Is it going to be because of worship? Is it going to be because of kids' ministry? Because we have, you know, four little kids. And uh really our answer was what we wanted someone else to do. And we said, we're just going to pray and say, God, where do you want us to serve?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

And so we not only do we, you know, serve and by going and helping other churches and doing this this role, but uh, we also serve at our home church.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

When we're not traveling doing stuff for this, we're back home serving at that church. So um, yeah, I think that question of like, hey, maybe if there's a burden for change, maybe that's God's uh burden in you to do something about the change. So I love that.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

No, that's that's so good. So I have one more one more question for you just to kind of wrap things up.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Uh what gives you the most hope about this next generation?

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Um, I I would say that you know, we brought this up a little bit earlier. I am so So encouraged by a generation that knows what they believe and why they believe it, and that they're this passionate. Um, I would say, you know, people there is a ministry is a lot of work, ministry is messy, ministry has people, ministry has all these things. Uh, and I had a pastor friend of mine come up to me and say, Hey, you know, camps are coming up. Are you excited for camps? I'm sure you're thrilled. If you're not excited, maybe this is not a good job for you to be in. And I was like, No, I'm I'm excited. Uh, and uh I would say it's the best, you know, part of the whole year is camps. And um, you know, there's some interesting studies on it. I think something like uh students who go to camps are three times more likely to be following Christ 10 years later. So I believe in the eternal impact uh of what happens at camps. But I'm it's the same thing. Like if I I had this friend of mine who was struggling to get involved being a leader in youth ministry, and I challenged them. I said, Hey, just come out. You don't need to serve, just come to youth group. And they came to youth group and uh they they walked out with me to the foyer after the service is was over and they were just crying. And uh they said, I did not realize what God was doing in this ministry. He said, I don't know what you need, but I'm in. And that was years ago when I went and spoke with that youth group just a couple weeks ago. Uh, that guy is still serving. And for me, I think when people see what God is doing in this generation, it's it'll light a fire in you like you've never experienced. Like the coolest thing about what we get to do uh is that when you see students passionately pursuing God, I mean, I've heard pastors say phrases like, if you want me to tell you the health of your church, uh, let me look at the age of the students who are coming. And uh I tell you, if you've got a thriving student group in your church, uh it's pretty, it's pretty hard to have a dying church uh because uh I think that there's something contagious about the fire of what God is doing in the life of a young person. It not only is it going to impact that student, but it's gonna impact the adults, it's gonna impact the senior ministry, it's gonna impact the kids' ministry. So if you're gonna have a thriving and fired up youth ministry, I think the whole church grows as a result. And I'm just so excited to see this passion in this generation, this desire to know the truth of God for themselves. So uh I'm just thrilled for what I get to do and what I get to watch God do and how he lets me participate in it.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

That's amazing. Well, Alex, we just really appreciate you taking a little bit of time, yeah, sharing about the the next generation and what God is is doing with our our uh young people as they are coming up, learning about Christ, building their relationships with him. You know, a lot of people, I know they say uh they they use the term gen now versus next gen because they're doing it right now, they are reaching their friends, they are reaching uh people for Jesus, and it it is so encouraging. So we are going to be continuing to uh be praying, especially as you guys are gearing up for for camp season. I know it's a lot of fun, but it's also very exhausting as well. So we'll be keeping you in prayer as well, and then uh keeping the the next generation of uh of Idaho and and around the world uh just in our prayers that God will continue to reach in. But that's all we have for today. We we hope this uh podcast helped, blessed you, and and challenged you. If you're if you're interested in youth or kids ministry and uh but you're not sure if you can you can fit in that space, give it a give it a go, give it a shot. Uh, you know, we believe that God gives uh passions and he gives desires to those who have who he has called into that space. But we love you guys. We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we will see you next time on Power Hour.