[00:00:00] Jim Jansen: Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast. So today I sit down with Andy Daga, fellow coach on the parish support team, and we talk about a cool new small group resource called Elevate. Elevate is a resource designed specifically to help you facilitate elevated conversations with people who, well, may or may not be ready for a Bible study or a typical small group that's focused on prayer or faith sharing.

Elevate's a really cool tool. It's super exciting. We're excited to talk about it. We kind of break open who it's for, who can lead it. All the kind of features and ins and outs. We talk about farmers markets. Uh, it's a great conversation anybody interested in elevated conversations and Using small groups to help draw people closer to the lord.

Uh, you're gonna love today's conversation. Take a listen Everybody welcome to the equip cast a weekly podcast for the archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host Jim Jansen Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith And to be fruitful in your mission, let's go.

Andy Dejka, welcome back to the EquipCast. How are you doing? 

[00:01:18] Andy: Good. Yeah, it's good to be here. Good to be back. 

[00:01:21] Jim Jansen: All right. So, Andy, you've been on the EquipCast before we work together. I just want to give you a chance. Tell us a little bit about your story and particularly your own call to mission. 

[00:01:33] Andy: Yeah. So, I grew up Catholic.

And so, I was around the sacraments. I was around Catholic prayers. My family prayed some kind of basic prayers together, but I felt like I never really knew Christ through all of that kind of reflecting back. I think of it as kind of like a veiled encounter. Kind of like the road to Emmaus right where where Christ was with me, but I wasn't aware of him.

I was kind of blind. 

[00:01:59] Jim Jansen: Wow, yeah 

[00:02:00] Andy: And so, it wasn't really until I went to college and got invited into some small groups through Organizations like crew and the navigators and focus and. 

[00:02:09] Jim Jansen: Incidentally, there was a time where you were in all three at once. 

[00:02:12] Andy: Yeah, right. 

[00:02:13] Jim Jansen: Right. Yeah. That's when we met. You were in like three Bible studies.

[00:02:17] Andy: I was majoring in small groups. Yeah. 

[00:02:19] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Which was, which was, I was like, Hey, something's going on with this guy. 

[00:02:23] Andy: But that was hugely impactful for me. Cause that was the first time that anyone had really opened the scriptures for me and taught me how to pray and taught me that I could encounter Christ.

And so that's really where, where I felt like Christ was, was unveiled for me. Right. And revealed for me. And so that's just kind of set the trajectory then for my life as I reflect back on that and really start to question, you know, why, why did I not encounter Jesus in that way in my, in my parish, you know, and couldn't, couldn't my parish be a place where I could encounter him like that?

[00:02:53] Jim Jansen: Spoiler alert. I think you would say yes, right? 

[00:02:56] Andy: Right. Yes. 

[00:02:58] Jim Jansen: Yeah. This is okay. And this is, this is going to be a little bit of fun because here you are, right? You're on a podcast and your work here at the archdiocese. Occasionally puts you up on stage or giving a presentation in a teaching role. Uh, you're a gifted teacher, but just for the context, right?

For those who are going to really appreciate this on a scale of 1 to 10 extraversion, right? 10 being high, 1 being low. Where would you put yourself, Andy? 

[00:03:23] Andy: Uh, zero. 

[00:03:24] Jim Jansen: Zero. Yeah. Right. So. Notice there wasn't even an option I needed. 

[00:03:29] Andy: Right. Yes. No, totally. I mean, I've taken like a big five personality assessment and got zeroth percentile extroversion.

So yeah, definitely I get drained in social situations. Yeah. 

[00:03:41] Jim Jansen: Which you wouldn't know. When you're in a teaching mode or, or whatever, because again, you're, I think there's a charism there. You're a gifted teacher, but you're a gifted teacher who's mining off the fruit of your alone, quiet time reflection, right?

That's right. Uh, that's so good. And I think that's helpful. I think that might come up because, you know, you're the way you live out your personal, you know, baptismal call as a missionary disciple. It isn't, you. It isn't the product of your extroversion, for sure. It's the product of other ways that the Lord is at work in your heart and mind.

So, okay, so we want to really, I wanted, we want to dive into this cool new resource called Elevate. Uh, it's a resource for small groups, but it has a different flavor to it. For those, you know, who don't know behind the scenes, you've really been either the author or editor for a lot of the Live Lent Together materials, the encounter resource for small groups.

We're going to offer probably a contrast here, but just to start for those who aren't familiar, give people kind of a breakdown of what those resources are like. 

[00:04:44] Andy: Right, so those resources are. Most of them are six-week studies on scripture. They focus on, you know, a gospel passage people pray with, with Lectio Divina.

So, they're based on the Word of God, right? That's the center of these studies. That makes them really easy to lead because it's really Jesus that does the heavy lifting. As you read and pray with scripture, right? He does all the prep. Yes, right, right. So that's that's super helpful. So, you don't have to be an expert in theology to lead these studies.

Um, you just have to open the word of God. 

[00:05:15] Jim Jansen: You don't have to be a teacher. I mean, you are a gifted teacher. I have some gifts for teaching. You know, I happen to be an extrovert. You happen to not be, but you don't have to be an extrovert. You don't have to be a teacher to use these materials. You just let Jesus do the talking, which he does for those of us.

I mean, we've used these materials, and we've heard from countless others who have how helpful they are because the word of God just kind of reaches out and touches people's hearts and minds. And in a particular way, when they're gathered together as a group that there's he's not maybe saying the exact same thing to everybody gathered, but there's enough of a rhyme that they not only recognize that he's speaking to them, but they recognize that he's speaking to the person next to them. 

[00:05:57] Andy: And he just has a knack of saying exactly what each person needs to hear.

[00:06:02] Jim Jansen: Yeah, and needs to hear in that group. It's like he's like the small group facilitator. It's like he's done this before, right? 

[00:06:11] Andy: Yeah. And and small groups are just such a powerful tool. Yeah. For, for evangelization, because they're, I mean, one, they're just so flexible. People can meet in small groups anytime, anywhere.

You know, I, when I was out in Seattle, there was a group that met over the lunch hour at Microsoft. You know, they met at 45 minutes, they would eat lunch and then they'd pray with scripture for a little bit. It was just so cool to see a group of guys doing that. 

[00:06:35] Jim Jansen: Yeah. I mean, um, at Microsoft, these are presumably software engineers or whatever their, yeah, whatever their particular role was.

And they're doing this over the lunch hour. I mean, we used to say that like, oh yeah, small groups, they're like, you're recession proof. They really are low cost, you know, that they're persecution proof that the church in Africa and, uh, underground church in Asia. But places will use this, we added in 2020, their pandemic proof, you know, you can be outside, you can be socially distanced and still, and still meet.

I didn't necessarily want to add another, uh, genius of small groups. Turns out pandemic proof is one of them too, right? Yeah. They're really super helpful. 

[00:07:16] Andy: I'll just add one more too, is that it's easy to get lost sometimes in a, in a big church. But when you have a small group, you know, your experience of the body of Christ is just so personal, you know, where you get to be known and loved and cared for by your friends and people that you're walking alongside.

So yeah, incredibly powerful. 

[00:07:33] Jim Jansen: Yeah, I had a chance. I was had a chance to present just briefly on small groups to some of our clergy here for the archdiocese. And I talked about how, you know, there is for sure a formation gap in many of the people today who've been raised Catholic, and they haven't had.

Any formation and what it means to live as a disciple in quite some time, maybe since their grade school or high school days. But all the data shows that when people are disengaging from the practice of the faith, it's not just because of formation. It's also because of connection, right? And those gaps.

And that's what you just talked about. It's like small groups Are super powerful for remedying both the gaps in formation and the gaps in connection. Yeah, totally. Okay. So, Andy, we want to talk about elevate and we just talked about most of the live lent together material, right? Super easy to lead.

There's no preparation for the participant, no preparation for the leader. The word of God does all the heavy lifting. It helps bring Christians together, connect them one another, fill, you know, the gaps in their formation. That's not what elevate is. It's different. What's different about it? 

[00:08:45] Andy: Yeah. So, I mean, one is, uh, it's actually not based on scripture, and it's not based on prayer. So why am I excited about it? 

[00:08:53] Jim Jansen: I was like, I thought you liked those. 

[00:08:56] Andy: Right. And totally, totally I do. We actually got a request from some folks in the mentorship program that were looking for a resource that they could use with people who are non-practicing, right? Non practicing friends and family. 

[00:09:07] Jim Jansen: And these are people, these are missionary disciples who've been trained to share their faith in their ordinary everyday lives, and they were saying, uh, yeah, but what about those people who aren't interested in studying the word of God?

They're not, prayer is not a comfortable concept for them yet. What about, what about them? 

[00:09:27] Andy: Right. And so, they, yeah, they just had this intuition that people weren't, weren't ready yet for that. Um, and, and they needed to cultivate trust and friendship and how are they going to do that? And so, we were really looking for a way to just create a little bit of structure where they could build those friendships and have deeper conversations with people.

So, we call it elevate, right? Because it's about elevated conversations. That's what we try and focus on, you know, an elevated conversation where you can go just a little bit deeper than you would in just kind of normal, everyday superficial. Not 

[00:09:56] Jim Jansen: just sports, not that I don't love sports, not just weather, but like just a little bit deeper or well, or elevated.

[00:10:04] Andy: Right. So, it's, questions about. You know, meaning about purpose, about who I want to become, what I want to be remembered for. Yeah, just the type of person that I want to be. 

[00:10:15] Jim Jansen: Yeah, dreams, even what you do for fun, but pointed towards something just a little bit more, uh, meaningful. Andy, it's probably worth taking a little bit of a detour.

I mean, the gaps, I think everybody knows some of the gaps in loneliness, but like, yeah, that, that we experienced, but there's some, I mean, there's a lot that's been said recently by, you know. Smart, nerdy people who study this stuff that the epidemic of loneliness is pretty severe. And it's, I mean, it's a problem just in and of itself, period.

But it's also a problem if evangelization happens one friend to another. If you don't have friends, it's hard to evangelize. 

[00:10:58] Andy: Yeah, totally. 

[00:10:58] Jim Jansen: Can you talk a little bit about that? 

[00:11:00] Andy: Yeah. Well, it is, it is a real breakdown in our culture, right, in our church. And we have difficulty making friends, you know, this has been written out, written about in the book Bowling Alone.

But then also Dave Runyon And the art of neighboring, um, has talked about just how we don't even know the people that live next to us, you know, and the house is next to us and trying to cultivate those friendships can go a long way towards evangelization. 

[00:11:26] Jim Jansen: And you say, and this isn't just a problem for extroverts, right?

This is like, yeah, this is like an, everybody probably, yeah, it's pretty, I mean, Calvin, our friend Calvin Mueller likes to, it's fun to give him a shout out. He was like horrified by this statistic. I don't think I'm going to get it right, but I'll get it close that, you know, that most adults haven't made a new friend in like six or seven years, which is, I mean, that's just like, well, that's, that's pretty intense for anybody.

But for Calvin, he's like making a new friend every other day. So, he's just, his heart breaks. He's on an extroversion scale one to 10. Calvin's a 13. So, Andy and I are laughing because we love you, Calvin. 

[00:12:05] Andy: So, sometimes we just need a little bit of help, right? Yeah. A little bit of structure, a little, to give us courage to. 

[00:12:09] Jim Jansen: In a context, too.

Yeah. Okay. So, Talk about like we've talked about like, okay, who this resource is for. This would be someone, you know, maybe it's a loose friend beginning friendship. It's a neighbor, maybe a coworker. They're not probably interested in a or or you don't No, yet if they're going to be interested in a conversation about prayer or scripture, that's who it's for, for like a participant, just, we can just build a relationship wherever they're at in their spiritual journey, especially if they're at early stages and just not, not that interested in spiritual things yet, who's it for in terms of the leaders or the facilitators. 

[00:12:53] Andy: I'll just say a couple of things there.

One is It's for anyone who wants deeper friendships, you know, so if, if that's, that's you, if you just want more friendships in your life, deeper friendships, you know, we're all struggling with that. 

[00:13:05] Jim Jansen: This problem just suddenly starts to feel like a late night, like infomercial. Are you lonely? Do you want more friends? Elevate is for you. 

[00:13:12] Andy: That's right. Right. But, but seriously, sometimes I think we can, we can discount that. Like the Lord wants us to have good friendships. Not just to use us to convert people, right? Right. So that's one if you want deeper friendships Um, this is maybe something to try but but also if you have a heart to reach the unreached, you know There's so many people in our church former Catholics, you know people that have walked away But then so many people that have grown up without the faith or grown up in other religions so if you have a heart for those people to encounter Jesus in a greater way and just aren't sure how to reach them and Know that an invitation to mass isn't the first step Yeah, this would be something to try.

[00:13:48] Jim Jansen: Mm hmm. I love that. Indy, what about, so I mean, you know, I would say like, okay, those with like that, you know, they have a heart for the unreached, oftentimes there's a charism at work there, whether someone is, you know, even knows what the word charism means. I mean, it's just, just a supernatural gifting.

from the Lord, even if they don't know the word, even if they don't know, you know, never taken any sort of kind of charism assessment or gone through a discernment process. There's some people who just kind of have this kind of evangelistic gift or a natural, they're just naturally an extrovert. You said a couple of times though, it's still valuable for those even if you do have that gift, it's valuable to have a context to be able to draw people together. Can you say a little more about that? 

[00:14:38] Andy: I mean, just having a plan, you know, having a few questions in your back pocket that you can, they can ask to take a conversation a little bit deeper. I think to having just, um, a structure where, you know, how many people you're going to invite for how long, It just makes it an easy entry for, for some folks.

[00:14:54] Jim Jansen: Well, and for those, again, I am an extrovert, but for those, right, who, who are, it's helpful to not just wing it right to like, Hey, I want this to be an elevated conversation. And so, there's some specific questions I can have in mind. I can have them pulled up on my phone. And even more than that, I can begin to set expectations for those who are coming who it just helps them feel more comfortable.

It's like, hey, we just want to, you know, just want to have an intentional conversation because it's helpful if people know, hey, we're not just going to talk about sports the whole the whole night. Uh, we're not just going to, you know, enjoy an adult beverage together. We're actually going to have a conversation.

I think that helps them participate more fully because they know what to expect. Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. Andy, you've already started to kind of allude to it. There's some very particular features of Elevate, uh, that make relationship building and having meaningful conversations easier. You talked about, you know, the, the types of questions, number of people, kind of break that open for people because I, I would say just the disclaimer is It can look deceptively simple, right?
You're like, if you look at this, I forget how many pages it is to download. Is it two or three, four, four pages? So, it's like, it's not very long. It's not a lot of material, but there's some real genius, even some social science kind of behind this break open some of the features of elevate. 

[00:16:20] Andy: Yeah. So kind of the framing for elevate is it's four weeks, four people, four questions.

So, four weeks is a short amount of time, it's not too long for somebody to commit to, but it's long enough that you can start to get into some, some depth and start to make some real relationships. So, each week has a particular theme, you know, that the questions are grouped around. So, it starts off with just things that you do for fun, it's kind of the first theme, and then it moves into relationships and my story and my dreams, you know, for the future.

And so, it kind of gets progressively deeper as people get more comfortable and ready to open up. And then four people, right? So, pick three people plus yourself. 

[00:17:00] Jim Jansen: Which is really like that is smaller than the typical small group. You know, if you did a survey of like small group, how to run a small group literature, some would say a small group is anywhere from six to 20 or six to 12, six to eight people. Why four? 

[00:17:16] Andy: Really so that everyone can participate and share in the conversation. It gives more space for people to Share more of their story and go a little bit deeper if we get to know people at a deeper level Yeah, so that's that's why limiting the number can be helpful. 

[00:17:31] Jim Jansen: Yeah, and for those of who led small groups before I mean There's always that person.

Well, there's always those people right some who just like man They will happily share of themselves and they always have an answer And one, I mean, it's nice because you don't feel like you're like, okay, there's not the awkward silence, but then what happens is on the other end of the spectrum, those who are a little quieter, who need a little bit more time to gather their thoughts, they, they sometimes get missed again in a typical small group where there's six to eight people, but a group of four, there's a gentle silence.

Structure space where people can and even, you know, I think it draws, I think it would draw people out and we're not the first to kind of lean in, lean into this. 

[00:18:19] Andy: So yeah, and then each, each week there's four questions right around each one of those themes and they're kind of related to. There's an, there's an article written about like questions, like how to fall in love with anyone.

There's 36 questions, right? And how to fall in love with anyone. And so, these were repeated in lots of different social situations that kind of measured how, how those conversations progressed. And so that's really what These sessions are built to mimic, right? We're stealing.

[00:18:45] Jim Jansen: We're not promising that you're going to fall in love.

That's right. Uh, but, but there is some, there's a little bit of loose social science behind the way this is structured behind the questions, the way they're written, the way they interact with each other. 

[00:18:58] Andy: And I think what that really does is it cultivates an atmosphere of curiosity where it's a safe place where people can, can be curious about one another's stories.

That is what actually creates, then, an opportunity for you to share the gospel in your story, naturally, as, as opportunities open in the conversation, right, because when you demonstrate curiosity towards someone else, you show that you care about them, you're interested in their story, what happens is they actually reciprocate that curiosity, and like, You chose to get married and have kids.

Like none of my friends are doing that. What is that like? Yeah. Right. And then you get to share what you seem really 

[00:19:35] Jim Jansen: tired, but also happy. Yeah. Yeah. That's huge. Andy. I feel like that's the secret sauce for evangelization in these days. I mean, like very initial evangelism. I mean, okay. So, the gospel is thus Jesus, and the Holy spirit are the secret sauce for evangelization, but.

After Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, and a whole bunch of other things that are really important, there's something about curiosity that is essential. I mean, it's just sincere curiosity about this person in front of you, this other, right, person made in the image of God, that, I don't know, it's like, when you get that right, It really isn't that hard.

Introvert, extrovert, people respond to that. 

[00:20:23] Andy: Yeah, right. And I think there's actually something that can be dysfunctional about our evangelization when curiosity is lacking, when we're not curious about the stories of the people that we're trying to reach. It's just kind of a signal that, yeah, a signal that something is missing because we can have an evangelization that's more propositional where we're just kind of telling people truths about the faith.

Instead of our faith being incarnational, right? Being connected to the story and to the person that we're trying to reach. 

[00:20:52] Jim Jansen: Yeah, well, there's a sincerity like it's hard to fake curiosity, right? There's a, it helps put us in a very sincere space. And I mean, just as you're saying this, you know, rather than being propositional, I mean, there are some Who have never heard the claims of Christianity, and that's increasingly true.

But more and more I rather than more and more. I should say for many people again, you know, we're talking about we're from Nebraska that there's still a little bit of a Christian ethos. People have heard at least some or an incomplete Transcription by CastingWords Proposal of what the gospel is, but for whatever reason it hasn't, you know, if they haven't embraced it themselves, it hasn't resonated from them repeating the proposition that they've heard louder or more dynamically.

That's not what's missing. There's something else that's missing that you're only going to be able to discover if you're sincerely curious about how this person thinks and and how. What's going on in their heart and mind? 

[00:22:03] Andy: How many times in scripture does Jesus ask another question? He has follow up questions to get the question behind the question.

[00:22:10] Jim Jansen: Overwhelmingly. Oh, I'm not going to get these exactly right, but I think it's helped me out here. I mean, something like 97 questions compared to Like what? 36 stories. And then when he actually gives a straight answer, it's very, very rare. Like if you ask Jesus a question, he's going to ask you a question back 97 times.

And then if he, if he finally says something, he's probably going to tell you a story. And then maybe later he'll tell you what the story means. But only after he's drawn out your heart and mind, so you're ready to receive it. And I think you're, you're making the case. It's like, Oh, be like Jesus. 

[00:22:50] Andy: Right? Ask some questions. Good model to follow.

[00:22:52] Jim Jansen: Yeah, we're going to say we endorse it. Uh, okay. Andy, why does this matter? You know, this is a, this is a type of evangelization. You know, this is not again. We're we are praying people. We're praying for the people in our studies study groups, but we're not right. We're not praying with people.

We're not trying to explicitly proclaim the gospel at least not, you know, not in like conversation one. Why does this matter? 

[00:23:24] Andy: Yeah, I mean, I think this is really trying to play the long game and build relationships with people. You know, there's so many, we all want people to come back to the faith, right?

We all want former Catholics to come back and people that have never encountered Jesus to, to encounter him. But, you know, how does that, how does that happen? You know, that's, that a former Catholic actually comes back to the faith. You know, sometimes maybe, maybe they wake up one day and just, you know, they've reached rock bottom in the Holy Spirit.

Convicts them. But I think oftentimes it's a person, right? A person who takes an interest in them, is curious about them, has been praying for them, spends time with them, has conversations, and then Invites them to something deeper. It's incremental. 

[00:24:03] Jim Jansen: I mean, that's huge because I think there is a, I've heard some commentators, Christian commentators talk about this, that there is this implicit assumption within many faithful Christians that is understandable, but it's a bias of their own experience.

And it goes something like this. It's like, well, if I were to stop going to mass, I just miss it too much and I'd have to come back. Or if I were to stop You know, kind of like following the commandments like the natural consequences of my bad choices would eventually catch up with me and I would recognize how dumb I'd been and I'd come back.

But that is not the experience of most people who are away, right? They don't miss Mass they don't miss that you're they did. Yeah, it's not that they it's not that it's not a real need in their lives But they don't experientially miss it that the hole in their life and in their heart what's missing in their life They're not gonna just naturally connect it to like maybe I should come back to mass The consequences of their poor choices, they're not thinking like, oh, this is because I sinned.

Like, they just, it's just not in their frame of reference. And so, we can't expect the pain or the time away to lead them back if we don't go get them. Again, like Jesus. 

[00:25:28] Andy: Right? The shepherd. I mean, that was my trajectory in college. Right? 

[00:25:32] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:25:33] Andy: You know, I was, I was on a pathway from the church until someone invited me to a small group.

Right. And I encountered Jesus in scripture and that, that changed the trajectory. So, I think, I mean, that's, that's really our call. That's our mission field. It's not just on father and the parish staff to get everyone back to mass. Right. It's, it's a call for the whole body of Christ, for all of us to accompany people.

The Lord is placed in our lives. 

[00:25:53] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Gosh. I, you know, as you were sharing that, I realized like that's my story as well. And I did have a pretty profound moment of kind of pain, a sobering awareness. I had, you know, two good friends that were killed in a car accident, but had not my college roommate, Chuck Hill, shout out for him.

Been there just at the right moment in that season of grief to invite me Into his small group. I don't think I mean, there wasn't there was an openness there. But if that invitation had not come at that time, the window probably would have closed and Lord knows where I'd be now. I want to switch gears a little bit because like we're both you're better than I am.

But we're both like little kind of hobby farmers amateur. I've got I've got my orchard You actually have a, uh, a stand at the local, uh, one of the local farmer's markets. And so, you've done this type of, right, like, conversational, low key, relationship building evangelization. I just want to give you a chance to talk a little bit about that because I love it.

It's very fun. And you've got some cool stories. 

[00:27:02] Andy: I've worked in parish, you know, I was a focus, focus missionary for a while and now working for the archdiocese. So, I've just been in church world, you know, for all, and I just felt this need to get out in the community to meet other people who are, who are not Christians and, and really to be able to, to do this kind of evangelization, right, to share life, share faith.

And so when I heard that a farmer's market was starting in Gretna, just a few blocks away from my house, and I had just been starting this gardening hobby, I was like, well, this would be a perfect opportunity to just go have some fun, meet people. In some ways it's, it's not what I really expected because I didn't expect the community of the vendors to be as, as good as it is.

So like when, when you're out setting up for the market before it starts, you know, everyone's out an hour and 90 minutes before setting up all their stuff. And what's so cool about that is the local vendors are so invested in what they're bringing that they're kind of wearing their heart on their sleeve.

[00:27:56] Jim Jansen: Because they literally, I mean, maybe not blood, but sweat and tears to try and absolutely produce these vegetables, fruits, 

[00:28:04] Andy: crafts. Absolutely. And so, everyone loves to share about it. So, asking a question. 

Um, so tell me about this, you know, what, what's going on here. Right. Or just people just naturally will just dive into it.

And just, it's so easy to, to listen and ask follow up questions that lead to deeper conversations.

[00:28:21] Jim Jansen: I mean, it's almost like complimenting someone's kids. Oh, that's beautiful. Well, thank you. Let me tell you. 

[00:28:28] Andy: So, there's this, there's this one guy. That I, I was next to you for, for several farmers markets. And so, we just got into conversations, you know, one after another, we meandered from, uh, talking about Buddhism, which he was kind of exploring to talking about parenting to then, uh, he, you're kind of exploring, right?

[00:28:48] Jim Jansen: That's right. 

[00:28:49] Andy: Right. Three in right now. And then, uh, he, he talked about, so yeah, his, his experience with his, his kids. So, he has, he has one. And then he started asking me one day about, The parables of Jesus, just kind of, I didn't bring it up, but he just started, you know, as I, I told, I mean, he knew what I did for work.

And so we got into a really beautiful conversation on just the meaning of some of the parables and how they were relating to our lives. And I got to meet his wife. I got to meet his daughter and just started really building a relationship with him. And so, he's one that I'm just continuing to invest in and pray for and we'll see what God does there.

But yeah, just really beautiful and kind of unexpected how God has been using that. 

[00:29:32] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. And the What advice do you have for those who are like, oh, and I'm like, just the side there for those who are maybe feeling a little bit of the reluctant call, but they're like, oh, no, if Andy can do it, he's a zero of 10, right?

Like, I feel like I need to do this. I need to host right. A small group. I think elevate might be the thing I've been looking for. What advice do you have for those folks? 

[00:30:01] Andy: I'll just say three things. Thanks. And these are all things that I kind of say to myself to make it easier for myself. But the first is just don't overthink it, you know, don't overthink it.

It's just hanging out with people, having a good conversation, sharing some food. You know, there's no pressure to try and convert somebody. Yeah, just don't overthink it. And the second is to let yourself be curious, you know, just to ask questions, be present with people, hear about their story because they will reciprocate and that'll open doors.

You'll, you'll develop deeper friendships. So, so let yourself be curious. And then try with some people that you already know, right? People that are already acquaintances, maybe people that are already, um, already know each other. That's just an easy way to get started. Yes, that'd be my advice. 

[00:30:41] Jim Jansen: You know, and if I can add my advice, encouragement, you know, we've talked a lot about extroversion and introversion.

And I feel like, again, I don't know where my lovely wife, Kim, would put herself on the scale, but probably not higher than a two or a three. But she's like a really gifted missionary, you know, in a big, crowded room party when I'm bouncing around from person-to-person conversation, she's just having one or two really meaningful conversations.

But that's like what it's all about, you know, and, and she has God has used her again and again in the lives of people who were a little bit on the margins, who were not practicing or feeling a little bit distant. She's been able to be that bridge to draw them draw them deeper precisely because she's not Distracted by the crowd the way I am and she can see the individual and hone in on them Anyway for you for those of you who are you love conversation?

You're you know, you're maybe a little bit more introvert introverted. This could be the tool you're looking for. And then for those who extroverts, this could be the tool that you, you're not looking for, but you need to focus the, uh, the conversation in helpful ways. Andy, how can people connect with you if they want to learn more about elevate or just you're a coach with the parish support team.

So, you're here to serve parish leaders in marriage prep, youth ministry, religious ed pastors, associates. All the peeps who do parish ministries, how can people connect with you? 

[00:32:16] Andy: Yeah, well, I mean, certainly yes, we're any of us are available on the, on the Parish support team. To help anyone can reach out to me by email at, uh, AJdejka@archomaha.org, AJ Dejka at, uh, archomaha.org, and then all the materials for Live Land together are at archomaha.org/lent.

You'll find elevate there as well as all of the, the six week. 

[00:32:40] Jim Jansen: Yeah. And if you want to anybody, I mean, if you Google search live Lent together, it's the only thing that comes up the live Lent together website, uh, and he just listed it there archomaha.org backslash Lent, but all of the material is there.

And if that's too much for you to remember, you can just search live Lent together and you'll find, uh, elevate and the encounter series, uh, one for every year. Of the liturgical readings for the season of Lent. Um, lots of great material there. Yeah. Good stuff. 

[00:33:09] Andy: I will say we haven't, we haven't a new study this year on generosity, um, um, which will be up very soon.

Uh, Tom Crowley in our, uh, stewardship and development office, um, contributed to that.

[00:33:18] Jim Jansen: I got a lot of shout outs today. Shout out to Tom, Calvin, my old college roommate. That new study generosity is in the classic kind of live, lend together scriptural format in contrast to elevate, which is specifically for just to just to focus on conversation.

Okay. Awesome. Andy, thank you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for everything you do. 

[00:33:38] Andy: Yeah. It's a lot of fun. 

[00:33:39] Jim Jansen: All right, everybody. You know somebody who needs to hear this conversation. Maybe they're an extrovert and you're like, Hey, I have something to help you focus in conversation or maybe they're an introvert and they need that, that context and those easy prompts.

We're really excited about this resource and uh, what it can do to help. You develop some friendships and, uh, elevate them to the next level. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to the equip cast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission.

Stay connected with us by going to equip.archomaha.org. God bless and see you next time.