Shaping Leaders and Creating Culture in Ministry | Youth Pastors Breakout

The following content is from Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a gospel driven high-adventure camp in Western North Carolina. Go to SWoutfitters.com to learn more about our camps and conferences. Enjoy the message. My name's John Rulo, if I haven't met you yet. I'm originally from California, and I got saved and went to Liberty a couple months after that. And then most of my ministry was on the East Coast. Several years ago, me and my wife, we moved to Los Angeles, California, and we're on staff at a church there. We planted a church out there. We did ministry out there for a while. We just came back here four years ago. It was my four summer back at Snowbird. I met my wife here. She was on staff. And we got married. We worked on staff together. And then I went to school with Zach and Rob and those guys. So that was kind of our connection here. So that's a little bit about me. I've been in ministry since I was 24. Everything from a youth pastor, associate pastor, church planner, head pastor, all that kind of stuff. And yeah, I'm going to hope something prayer. And then we'll get started. So let's pray. Father, thank you for all of these leaders. And I pray that this week would be refreshing for them. God, I pray that you would fill them up. I pray that you would work on their behalf, even behind the scenes. God, those, the battles that they're fighting, we know we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. So we're just praying and asking for your favor. We love you, Jesus. And speak to us saying, Jesus saying, Amen. So the title of today is shaping leaders, creating culture. I'm extremely passionate about creating culture within any ministry. I'm passionate about creating culture in every aspect of my life, including my home, any job, any ministry that I am a part of, I immediately start to analyze the culture. And here's why. This is kind of the whole point of this conversation is that your culture is discipling students before you ever get a chance to sit down with them and have a Bible study. Right. So as soon as a student walks into your student ministry, the culture is moving them or shifting them in a direction. I remember years ago, I was a brand new youth pastor and I needed a side job, you know, you guys get it. You're all youth pastors. And so I went and got a job at Starbucks and it was right around the corner and I got a job at Starbucks and they do like this two week training and you go through this whole program. And the whole program was about servant leadership. It was about serving your fellow, they didn't call it employees, they call it partners because we're all in this together. And they talked about why they wrote names on cups because they wanted every single person that walks into the building to feel like, you know, they belong here and you know their name. And I'm going through this process as a Christian and I'm like, this is not a Christian company. And I'm like, these principles, you know, if you ever read servant leadership books, you recognize it like, oh, you guys just like read the Bible. You know what I mean? And you're like, you're applying these principles of business and these non Christians that are applying these biblical principles are totally changing the dynamic of their store. And I'm convinced that's why Starbucks took off, you know, because people walk into Starbucks and they want, they want to be served and they want somebody to know their name and they want to feel special. And they're getting all these principles from the scriptures. And I'm like, and I remember I had this shift. I was like, man, they're doing a better job at a secular company because they want to sell somebody a product than we are at a church and we're trying to give the gospel. And it totally shifted my thinking and I was like, okay, I need to figure out how to create that same culture. And so that's really what this conversation is that that first passage of scripture. For out of the abundance of the heart and mouth speaks, you know, that's when Jesus is teaching his disciples, he's kind of rebuking the Pharisees, you know, because he's like, man, they're like white wash tombs, but he's saying, listen. What's in us is eventually going to come out. What's going on inside of us as the leaders, as the pastors is so important, because whether you like it or not, it leaks out of us, right? And it starts to shape our ministry. This nation starts with us and obviously transformation is the goal, another fancy word to say discipleship we want. Obviously, the Holy Spirit is the one who does the transformation, but we're taking upon our responsibility in the process. Leadership is personal. This is a quote that I think it's a John Maxwell quote, I'm not 100% it's not mine. But I think it's, it always humbles me and you can't lead others somewhere you haven't been. Now listen, the reality is is the Holy Spirit can take somebody a lot further, right? So, but this is humbling because it's a reminder that we are their primary examples of what it means to follow Jesus. Okay, so I'm a good Baptist at heart. So, every point is going to start with the letter R. Let's go. So, four parts. Part one is root culture starts in our hearts. So, if we want to shape the culture of the room, we really have to look and see what's happening inside of us. Right. And we really have to deal with that. I have set you an example, John 13.5, that you should do as I have done. Again, just following the pattern of no matter what you're saying, they're actually following what you're doing. So, your character is shaping the culture. Jesus model leadership through wholeness and integrity. When you actually look at those words wholeness and integrity, what he's what I'm really saying is that Jesus was the same person when he was in a private conversation with his disciples that he was when he was in public ministry on the boat preaching everybody. He was the same person and that's what we're trying to become. We're trying to be the same people, whether we're at home with our wives and whether we're out preaching the gospel. And, you know, I remember when I first got in ministry, it was kind of funny because you being these churches and it was almost like a joke that was said sometimes by the pastor, but it's like, do what I say, not what I do. And I was like, no, actually, you know, like that's completely wrong. You know, the reality is, is especially we're going to talk about that, especially in today's culture. It's almost more important to do what I do than just what I say. And the reason, right, is in a culture where students are constantly consuming content, the way you live your lives matters more than ever before. Listen, 20 years ago, no podcasts, right, like YouTube was fresh and it wasn't like a bunch of pastor sermons on YouTube and the algorithm wasn't right, but nowadays your students constantly get content. Right, so whether they're on Instagram or Snap or whatever their preferred social media is, if they're a Christian, right, their algorithm is throwing them the best speakers, the best communicators, they got Sadie Roberts and Tim Tebow and whoever the celebrity Christians are just constantly throwing messages at them. So 20 years ago, maybe they came to youth group and you were the only person that was like teaching, right, you were the only one, you know, or maybe the head pastor of the church or a few churches. But nowadays content is king, right, I mean, it's just they're getting all of it. But there's only one person that's showing up to their basketball games. There's a person that goes to their funeral, the funeral or, you know, the tragedy or whatever it may be, you might be the only person that's preaching the gospel that they can physically touch. Right, Tim Tebow is not showing up at their house. And so they might be judging you by that standard because they see these great preachers, but you represent, hey, somebody that is teaching the gospel and is living the gospel in front of them. So the way that you live their life in a lot of ways is going to be how they judge every single Christian, a lot of pressure, right, because if they see that man, you're preaching one way and living another, they might think that for all Christians. So students follow who we are before they follow what they say because in this generation, people are very suspicious. So students will imitate their leaders, your style, your words, your tattoo, whatever it is, you know what I mean, we copy each other. I copy the students, right, I'm always like, bet and slay, and I don't even know what that means, you know what I mean, I'm like still learning. And it was like, like, oh, or a farming, and I'm like, excuse me, like, you know, is that a game you download and you know, anyway, but the reality is is our authenticity spreads faster than our words, right. So I have little kids, I have a daughter that's four and a half and I'm always humbled because, you know, they pick up on everything and it's like our students are picking up on everything, they see everything. So they might, they may forget what you say, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. Now listen, I get it, the feeling culture, super woke high empathy. I'm not talking about, you know, overemphasizing feelings, but I am saying the culture that they walk into when they're in the student ministry is leaving an impression that they'll remember. And they're getting sermon, sermon, sermon, content, content, content, they might not remember. So I'm a storyteller when I preach and sometimes the most frustrating thing is somebody will remember the story more than the actual message and I'm like, he's still working on me. Okay. Okay. So point number two is the reflection part. I do this. It's, it could be humbling, you know what I mean. But, you know, I want to feel the room. I want to, I want to really understand what's coming out of the culture because I'm responsible for that, whether that's at my home or my job, or no matter where it is. You know, and so, you know, Romans 12, 9 through 10, let your love be genuine. I'll do one another to show honor. I use that verse because I'm thinking, what is genuinely coming out of our culture? We could think one thing, but actually what is, what's the real feel? So oftentimes, one of the questions that I ask is, what kind of presence do you bring? Right. So you'll hear this a lot in the Christian world. Right. You hear, oh, man, I just felt the presence of God. I felt the presence of God at Snowbird. I mean, the presence of God was, was in that place. What does that mean? What are people really saying? Right. They come to Snowbird, they're like, oh, man, I could feel his presence. I mean, it's like, I could feel his presence with this open air conditioning air duct in this beautiful metal building. You know what I mean? Or is it the smokey mountains? Is it just in nature? I'm convinced that when people say I could feel the presence of God, I think the reality is is that when you get a group of believers that come together that are authentically following Jesus, that their language and behavior, and who they are is different. Right. Is that the Lord is moving through that. And they, they can feel the presence of God because it's different than the world. Our behaviors, our actions, our language, we are being, you know, we're following the Lord. It's being dictated by the Holy Spirit. And so they feel that difference. So what kind of presence, right, do we bring in a room or our leaders or people on our ministry? What's coming out of our ministry space? I mean, you know, perfect example is, you know, the negative Nancy, the person that's always negative, right? And it's like they come in the room and the room immediately goes, BOOM, right? You know, or is BOOM in this room? He's not here. There's, there's a gentleman's here this week. He, he pastors the church in Antihaila and he's, he's, he is the most positive guy. BOOM walks in the room. I feel great. You know what I mean? And it's just a reflection of the character that's in his heart, right? So, you know, what is coming out of your space? And if you are not shaping the culture of your ministry, who is? Right? It's like sometimes influence and leadership. You could draw a circle around the most influential person and they don't have to be in leadership. Right? So what is coming out of the space? There's somebody in that space that's dictating, right? The feel. So part of reflecting, right, is starting to understand the culture because we're the ones that shape it because culture is not created on accident. All right. So the culture that is in your ministry currently is not on accident. It's actually very intentional, whether you have been intentionally creating it or not. One of the stories I like to give is I used to live on Hollywood Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard is terrible. You know, people are my friends, but I want to come visit and go to walk a fame and I'm like, come on, let's walk. Yeah, there's a homeless guy going to the bathroom right there. Take a picture. You know what I mean? It's just really, it's like that. But anyway, I live there. You know, I live on Hollywood Boulevard for four or five years. And I used to like to walk. And you know, anytime I'm in a city or in a place, I just kind of like to walk. And I try to, you know, feel the culture. I try to see what's going on in my space and my surroundings. And there was a store. There's a mall right next to the Chinese theater. And there was a store in that mall is called Mooji. And I know what it was. I was fascinated. So I walked into Mooji. And as soon as I walked into Mooji, I like immediately felt peace. There was like essential oils. And it was like this Japanese IKEA. And everything was curated so nice. And even the pens were like, cool. It was the only thing I could afford in the store. You know what I mean? But I would like walk around Mooji and the music's playing. And I would, I just was like, man, I just want to be in this place. And literally my church was up the street. And I would, whenever I'd like be preaching a sermon or what, I would go to Mooji to pray. I would go to Mooji to like get my heart right. And I felt like I'm just like in this presence. And I'm like, I think this is what heaven is like, you know. And at the same time, if you went down the steps and around the corner in that same mall, there was a store is called the $5 only store. And there was these guys on Hollywood Boulevard with these big yellow signs. And they had the megaphone. The $5 only. And they like, like kind of bully you into the store. And you went in the store. And there was like EDM music and bright lights. And like, you know what I mean? And you're in there. And it's like anxiety attack. And they are, you're just discombobulated. And you're like, please, I will buy the fake Oscar. Just get me out of this place. You know what I mean? You're spending like money that you shouldn't, right? And it's like the contrast between those environments was not on accident. Somebody at Mooji said, we want this store to bring peace to end of, we want people to feel so relaxed that they're going to buy our products. And at the $5 only store, they're like, our products are so garbage that we need to put so much pressure that they have no idea what they're doing. And they're just going to buy stuff to get out of this place. But that is on purpose. And somebody made that decision. Every single environment that you step into, somebody is making the decision. And the culture is being created. And it's not created on accident. Now you might be the leader and you might be like, well, you know, of course it's being created. Like you feel like it's on accident because you haven't shaped it yet. But it's not. All culture is created on purpose. So the reality, the reason why this is so important is because your environment is shaping students long before they even sit down with you for a Bible study. And just imagine if you could shape the culture, right? If you could shape the environment to where students walk in and it's like, man, I'll never have a chance to sit down with that person or this person or maybe they just came and visited one time or whatever it is that the cultural environment is pushing them towards Jesus. What a blessing. So continue on the reflection processes just a little bit about, you know, those cultures that don't match up like from the from the pulpit or they have the signs, hey, God loves you, but do students feel love when they're in the environment. This is the one that every church has you you belong here, but do they really feel welcomed, you know, let's do life together, but have we invited them into our lives that we have that community that they're they feel like they can be a part. Okay, part number three. All right, so this is the this is as we're moving into shaping the culture, right, so they're we're raising cultural creators, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for culture creators and any of the ministries that I'm a part of. Man, looks at the hour appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. You guys know that versus the classic verse with David. And so for for if you're looking for culture creators, you want to prioritize character over talent. Right, so because the reality is it's so dangerous to have somebody that is extremely talented, but their character doesn't match up with Jesus with what it looks like to follow God. Right, and so maybe they're they're they're really good at games or they're they're just really popular or they have the influence of the kids and those have to be scrutinize even more because I imagine right if they have all this influence, but they're not really reflecting the character of Jesus. That's even more dangerous, so we prioritize character over talent, discipleship requires consistency, not charisma, so they don't have to be the most charismatic, right, it's like to invest in students, a person character is passed down more than their talent, you might have somebody that's really, really gifted in some area and aspect of your ministry. Right, but sometimes that natural gifting is not what we can pass down. It's just a natural gifting, but their character is absolutely going to be what is passed down. Right, everybody's character in our ministry is being passed down to each each other. So a part of raising cultural creators, whether this is how you're recruiting or this is how you're shaping. Okay, because I get it, there's some people in here, your ministry is like, John, I don't get a pick, you know, I'm so desperate. I just need a warm body that could show up in our ministry, you know what I mean, thank you that you're willing to serve on Wednesday night because we have two people, right, okay, or there's others that it's like, hey, you have a process, there's more, there's more warm bodies that you get a chance to choose from. So I'm not telling you to have this list, I'm just encouraging you to have a list, right, in your ministry, when you analyze your ministry, when you're like, okay, this is the culture that we're created that is being created, but this is the culture that I want to create. So what are the characteristics that you need to move that ministry closer to Jesus? This is just a personal list that I have that I put all my leaders through. If you're going to serve on a team with me, right, these are some of the things that are almost like requirements. So that I look for the first is humility. I don't think you could follow Jesus without humility. I mean, the first step of following Jesus is surrender, right, so I look for humility. Somebody that's willing to serve without the spotlight, you know, and I'm looking for these characteristics. And in my church, if I see somebody that is amplifying these characteristics, I'm going after them. I'm trying to recruit them to my ministry, you know, teach ability. Are they willing to learn and grow? We'll talk about this in a second. That might even be the most important. Like, can you speak into their life? You're going to shape the culture. So, hey, I know you've served in ministry for 10 years at that one church and you have all the ideas, that's great, but are you still teachable? Right. I mean, if you're a leader, we all need to be teachable. Faithful. You know, can you show up and follow through? Faithfulness for me, a lot of times it starts off with a task. Like, I have layers of faithfulness. The first thing that I entrust to an individual is a task. But can you just show up? Can you hold the door? Can you come to the pancake breakfast? Do you bring the water? Whatever it may be, it's just the physical task. Because what I'm trying to see is, can you be faithful with a task? Because that's a reflection of character. Because if you're faithful with a task, then I could trust you with a person. But I'm not going to trust you with one of my students if you can't even be faithful with a task. Does that make sense? It's a little bit of a litmus test for me, you know. It really is a reflection. It shows you what's going on in their heart. And that's what I'm kind of trying to see. And my last one is self-motivated, you know. I mean, this is ministry. Right. And there has to be, I love to work with people that have a drive that I don't have to push. Right. There should be a passion for doing what we're doing. If that's not there, well, then maybe you should be serving somewhere else. I have two guys that I work directly with, Big Mike and Dawson. You've seen Dawson. He leads the river. You'll see him on stage. Big Mike is kind of behind the scenes. He's been producing everything. Those guys are just incredible. They're humble. They're teachable. They're faithful. They're self-motivated. Michael texts me all the time this summer. Hey, man, I'm doing this and I like, I'm like, awesome. Didn't even know that needed to be done. You know what I mean? And it's just a reflection of who he is and it's awesome. What is model is magnified. Again, if we're talking about if you're in a situation where you can't recruit the leaders and you need to shape the leaders. So what is the culture you want to create. So you start to magnify those behaviors. You start to celebrate. We all love adabois. Even if you might think, no, they don't. They're grown adults. I promise you. We all love adabois. And we need them at times. So what is model is magnified. And so we're investing in the leaders. We're celebrating those things. Hey, can we give a shot out to Tammy? She came at five o'clock to help everybody get on the bus. You know, and it's you might think like that's nothing, but I'm telling you subconsciously, it's just picked up, you know. And this last thing, are we raising culture creators or just theologians? Okay, now, now hear me out when I say this. We are historical Orthodox Christians. We fight against progressive Christianity. It's super important that your team has the correct theology. So I'm not minimizing theology, but I point this out because what I have found in so many Christian ministries is that we put so much focus on theology that we never have character conversations. And imagine if, man, here's your leader. They know the Bible through and through and their theology is on point, but the way that they live their life is not a reflection of Jesus. That's even more dangerous. Hey, hey, we can do this, you know, we could talk about this deep theological issue, but didn't I see you, you know, didn't I hear that thing or does that make sense? So are you raising culture creators or just theologians? We should have both. All right, number four, the last thing is, you know, obviously we want to reproduce. You want to reproduce yourself in the ministry, the culture or the character that you want to see. So we're trying to multiply that mission. Obviously, the pastor's scripture I use was when Paul was talking to Timothy and trust to faithful men who were able to teach also. I think the point of this versus we're looking for those people that are faithful that you can entrust to shape the culture of your ministry, right? And so how did Jesus create disciples? And this is one of my favorite things, you know, especially if you're raising up young leaders, you know, it's like maybe you have a middle school ministry and you're using your high schoolers to kind of influence that ministry. One of the beautiful things that Jesus did is he called out unseen potential, right? It's like he was elevating identity oversight. He was speaking into the character of individuals, you know, I mean, I'll give you an example. Let's take Peter, right? He was like, you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church. Now, I understand that that's a twofold. He's talking about the confession of Jesus. That's the rock that God is going to build his church on. The confession that Peter made that Jesus was Lord. But he also used Peter as one of the founders of the church and you're like, wait, Peter, on that rock, are you sure Jesus? I mean, the cut off the ear, dude, you know what I mean? The hot tempered guy that get behind me Satan person, the did I use three times? That's the rock that you're talking about that we're going to build the church, right? Jesus had this ability to see who somebody could become and he would move them, he would speak that into their lives, right? And so he was elevating their character over just what they would do, right? So again, celebrate what you want to multiply. Okay, this might be the most important and most difficult part of this whole conversation. And this is the reality of ministry that a lot of times we can never get to, but your culture won't be shifted or shaped unless we're here. So encouraging coaching and building trust bridges, what's a trust bridge? A trust bridge is a relational connection strong enough for connect correction or growth. So I understand in this room, we probably have two people. We have the pastor and the youth pastor or we have the leader in the volunteer. So the reality is if you are a leader or if you're a volunteer or a leader in the ministry and you don't feel like your pastor or the head of the ministry can speak into your life correction, you should probably find another ministry to serve in. Right, this is just a part of doing life together is that, you know, you should be in life with people that could speak into your life at times, you know, whether it's correction or discipline or whatever it is. And I think when we think of the word correction, we have like this like father, son type of mental, like it feels like punishment. And it's not meant to be punishment. It's actually meant to build other people. Correction is supposed to be, I'm speaking into your life because my desire is to actually for all of us to be better, you know, to become better. And even for the leader, maybe a little side, no, I remember a pastor told me this way early, it's still hard, but I try to lean into this principle and he said, man, if you could, if you could see the growth and any type of criticism, man, it'll keep your heart from getting bitter and you always grow, you know, those nasty emails and things where you know the person's intention is not good, they're just trying to tear you down. And even in those moments, I try to look at that and I think to myself, is there is there an ounce of truth that I can receive that can make me better instead of be getting bitter, right, you for that saying, don't get better, get better. There's a truth in that that actually guards your soul to where you're like, you know what, hey, I'm actually going to constantly get better because I'm in this for the long game. So correction should lead to growth, not insecurity. If somebody is coming to speak into your life, it's not because they want to tear you down, it's actually because they want to build you up. And I put a couple of proverbs, you can go look throughout all of the proverbs. I mean, there's so many proverbs about correction, I just put on three, proverbs 15, 31 through 32, the one who listens to life giving correction will be at home among the wise and anyone who ignores discipline despises himself, whoever listens to correction acquires understanding. So if you're somebody that's willing to receive correction, the Bible actually says you're wise, whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but the one who hates correction is stupid, easy proverbs, you know, like, let's be a little bit kinder, now I'm just joking. Proverbs 1710, a rebuke cuts into a perceptive person more than a hundred lashes into a fool. All throughout the proverbs, it talks about how those who can receive correction are wise, right. It's not about tearing you down, it's actually about building us all up. So the conclusion is when we're trying to shift the culture, I want to tip the room. I want the room to be to influence people more towards Jesus. So how do you do that? Well, it's pretty easy. I'm looking at the room and I'm analyzing who are the culture creators. If you guys were all leaders in this room, and let's say I was looking at just this section, and this is the section that is reflecting the character that I want in the ministry. But all of a sudden, this section has more influence in the room, and maybe they just have longevity, or they've been here for a while, and they're not necessarily pulling people towards Jesus. And then here in the middle, you always have the people that are just going to follow. We always kind of have the natural followers, like if the room is strong on this side, they're going to be over here, the room is strong on this side, it's going to be over here. So it's my job as the culture creator to find the people that are influencing the ministry and either pull them out or disciple them so they shift over here. And sometimes that's a hard thing. You have to literally pull people out of your ministry because they're pulling it down. Those are the difficult hard conversations, but eventually you're going to invest into some of these followers and some of these guys on the negative, and all of a sudden it pulls over here. And now the room has tipped, and because you were specific with the environment, and you invested in the leaders, and you tipped the room now, before you even get a chance to sit down with every single student, the culture is already discipling them, the room has been tipped to reflect the character of Jesus. So a couple questions to ask yourself in conclusion, what is flowing out of me? What kind of presence do I bring in the room? What's coming out of me? Because whatever is going on inside, we've got to do the hard work, y'all, we're in ministry, you get wounded, it's really tough. Don't let your heart get hard, continue to soften it. You know what I mean? And do what you need to do. Because what's inside of you comes out. If you have the leader, I don't care how long they've been there. Do you have that conversation? What culture am I creating, right? You are the culture creator. Up here I said you don't have to be the loudest voice in the most popular, but you must have the clearest vision. So you might not be the extroverted personality, you might be the introvert, so you don't have that influence all the students, but you are still responsible. So what is the vision that you're casting? What are the core values? What is the standard that you're allowing and creating that is going to influence the room? So what kind of culture are you creating? And what standard am I setting? It kind of goes hand in hand. There's a standard that's being set, right? And so you have been entrusted with the authority to set that standard because it shapes the room and it's going to make a huge difference in every student's life. I think that's it. Yeah, so I'll be up here if you have any questions. Hey, we don't just say this like we love y'all. We're in the trenches with you. We're so grateful for you. We know that. And ministry is hard at times. We got to guard our own hearts and lean into this, but we're all doing it together if we can help it anyway. We will. All right. Love you guys. See you. Thanks for listening. We hope this has encouraged you and your walk with Christ. Be sure to give us a rating and review. And for more snobored content, check out our other podcast, No Sanity Required.