Bible Students

JACOB: this episode we have special guest Genesis Cruz the Middle School director at Southwest church today she’s going to talk about what discipleship looks like for her uh so Genesis why don’t you start by talking about your background a bit

GENESIS: thank you hi Jacob thank you for having me today wow this I’ve been thinking about this all week because we talked about this a week ago and I thought wow I get to diversify your interviews yeah definitely definitely so uh yes my name is Genesis Cruz and the Middle School director at Southwest church and I’ve been doing that for a little over I think 10 months now almost a year M and my background I mean I was a photographer before this I was a full-time photographer I don’t have a Ministry degree which I know will appall many people that are probably listening to this and um I would would say that I was a high level volunteer at my church and I have been for several several years since I got saved and um God presented this opportunity to be a director at Southwest church and my heart left and I said yes and it’s been history since then

JACOB: definitely uh what were you volunteering in before

GENESIS: before uh becoming Middle School director I was volunteering with students ministry as well so I was a small group leader for seventh grade girls um but I’ve also been part of the children’s ministry so I was small group leading and teaching the fourth and fifth graders which was kind of cool because a lot of them ended up moving up with me when I became the Middle School director so that was really neat um but I and I also uh did worship Ministry so I’ve been singing for many many years that’s actually where I started um I was 18 when I came to Jesus and the first Ministry that I got involved with was worship Ministry I mean the church was like all right cool you’re saved do you can you sing yes all right um see you next week on Tuesday and that’s literally how that went um so I’ve um very early on when I got saved I was propelled into Ministry and I haven’t stopped since then

JACOB: awesome uh so you’ve worked with fourth and fifth and also with Junior High what would you say are some of the biggest um maturity Developmental and just behavioral differences with handling those two different groups

GENESISoh man so there is a huge difference between fourth and fifth grade and six seventh and eighth grade I understand that they’re only a few years apart but it is night and day I mean fourth and fifth graders are still super innocent they’re they are exposed to things at school we are all all aware of that but it’s nothing like what’s waiting for them in sixth grade sixth grade’s a culture shock for them and so I mean you would know this jacob the sixth graders at the beginning are not the same sixth graders now right they’ve gone through so many things at school as middle schoolers so definitely huge gap developmentally uh psychologically emotionally um physically a lot of them have physically grown in such a short amount of time so I there are two different people between the ages of you know 9 10 and 11 12 it’s a huge difference and um I think middle schoolers are amazing I know a lot of people don’t feel that way I think a lot of people feel that they’re very immature that um you can’t carry a conversation with them but if you stay long enough you realize that you can and once you build um trust Rapport and just really really delve into discipleship with them they respond sometimes even better than adults so um I love the fact that with middle school age students I can still have fun they’re not too not too cool for school right high schoolers um I think you have to go through a background check um Social Security I know blood test to make sure that you are cool enough to speak to them and to disciple them with middle schoolers they’re really just asking hey do you like me cool you actually like me all right let’s be friends so I love I love that age group they’re amazing

JACOB: definitely so uh why don’t you tell me about what you’re doing at at Southwest all right

GENESIS: what am I not doing um as Middle School director my job is to plan execute all events um all events discipleship points for Middle School age students and that looks like in the form of um I have an 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday and also an evening service for our students as well where I teach both um it looks like recruiting and teaching volunteers which has been probably we’ll get there but that’s probably been the hardest part of this journey and I’m learning that um that also looks like um what I do is I actually go into the middle schools during the week so um I spend some time at Palm Desert middle I spend some time at Dr I teach there as well so um a lot of teaching all throughout the week and that also looks like one-on ones with my girls so I do one-on-one discipleship throughout the week where I either pick up students from school take them out for coffee um I just got back from another discipleship with one of my girls every Saturday morning we get together um we I also uh not only that like making sure I I cover all the points here uh not only that I’m also really involved with everything in my church so not I I’m involved with sermon text which means um I sit in with all the pastors every week and we look at what’s being taught on Sunday so it’s a really uh great and like learning environment for myself um I also um do pastor of the day in which I get scheduled throughout the month uh to be the pastor on duty and which that what that means is um all calls that go to the church come to me that day so whether that means I am hearing someone’s story and just they just need someone to talk to right someone to pray with or if that means I’m referring them out to counseling if I’m referring them out to different um small groups or things or just different resources that can help them further than what I can at the moment right so um Middle School director looks like many many things for me and yeah I think every day is a learning like day like there’s times where I’m like oh I do that too okay sounds great

JACOB: definitely what’s it like being a small group leader

GENESIS: oh it’s the best thing if I could small group lead and I I just I love it I love it I I have my group of girls um they vary anywhere from maybe 8 to sometimes up to 14 um it looks like just being a safe place that’s that’s what we do we we open up the word right like we look at life what is happening in their life and Genesis may not have the answers all the time but the Bible does so let’s look let’s open up the word and let’s see what what God has for you right not what Genesis has for you but what God has for you so um it looks like text messages and calls at 11:00 at night because hey Jen something just happened and I need to talk about it let’s all right that’s what I’m here for right it looks like um taking students home uh because their parents are too busy and it’s like you know what no let me get you to church because I know I want you there so let me pick you up and take you home so it looks like late nights dropping off students um what I’d say is my life as a small group leader is um doing the work and actually like boots on the ground and let’s do this um it also looks like it’s 24/7 it doesn’t stop MH um but I mean we’re Christian and that is part of discipleship it doesn’t stop there’s no um clock in or clock out time

JACOB: absolutely yeah and I mean you’re you’re definitely living life with people around you totally for sure yeah so on that uh what are some of the lessons the Lord has taught you along the way

GENESIS: he continues to teach teach me um well we’re we’re always students right so as someone who came into this position without a Ministry degree I’ve gone through a lot of self-doubt right like impostor syndrome 24/7 I have I I have a hard time with that um I mean man I’ve had to I’ve had to tell people who have a Bible uh degree hey maybe you should say it this way or maybe we should and so that’s something that God continues to teach me and he continues to show me Grace and love and um at the end of the day um I think I’m actively learning that everybody is called to minister and I know I’ve heard it over and over again that that is our job but I think we always tend to say no these people can Minister these people can do the work you know I can sit here and support all day and do all these other things but yeah no these people are called so I think that has been a big uh learning curve for me is being in a leadership position um being in full-time vocational Ministry my life changing from one day to the next and just accepting the call that God has over my life and being fortable with being super uncomfortable with almost everything that I do and the sweet part of that has been that because I feel so uncomfortable I can’t go anywhere else I have to lean on God you need to be here you need to help me out here because there’s no way that Genesis can do this on her own so that’s been a really sweet space for me because there’s no other way that I could do this so I think just a really deep dependence on God um has been something that I’ve learned another thing that I touched on earlier was volunteers I guess I I never being someone who was a volunteer always I was the volunteer that was you didn’t need to ask me to be there I was always there I’m like okay how can I help what what do I do um and that’s my husband too so we’re always volunteering together yeah um um we were just that was just our culture Even in our previous churches that was the culture right you serve you serve you serve you serve and um I would say that yes I’ve had people walk alongside me disciple me teach me and do all the things right but there was also many situations in which I wasn’t taught and I had to kind of learn as I went because Ministry is Ministry and people keep going and it’s such a busy space if you allow it to be MH and uh what I’ve learned is wow I I my job is not to be everything and to my students because that’s my comfort place my comfort plays is my students love doing one-on ones with my kids I love creating intentional moments with them um that’s my comfort zone right there students oneon-one love it I could do that all day now put put me in the room with a volunteer that I have to coach and I have to lead that’s hard for me because um I think because of what I spoke of earlier right all the impostor syndrome that God’s like working in my life and um so understanding that I can’t be everything to to students and my job is to build up volunteers so that they like multiply myself right so that they can reach out to more students than I could ever reach out to that’s been something that I’ve learned um and I continue to learn and I’ve I’ve messed up a lot of things and I’m like okay all right you know not to self right and continue to extend Grace uh to myself in that space as well so I think those two are have been like my biggest um takeaways mhm so how do you do that how do you build up a volunteer oh that’s a great question I’m still asking myself that um no just so what I am learning is discipleship more one-on-one time with them right um and I’ve I’ve come to understand that any good um organization any good church is going to have a really solid um step by step for volunteers as well and that’s something that we are working on building for our future volunteers this coming um season I mean me and and the other director um we came in brand new um I think he’s been here for almost a year if not a year already so we’re both and we both don’t have Ministry degrees so we’re like learning as we go right we have um amazing people that are teaching us and um by our side um but we’re still doing this thing brand new so I think what we really want to do is have a more solid um discipleship pathway for our volunteers so that they feel equipped because if I feel unequipped to do certain things they probably do too and um so teaching them one on-one having more of a pathway for them so that they don’t feel like they’re just doing things on their own and figuring it out

JACOB: yeah and I know that one of the ways that you do that is by having them teach right so tell me the process of that

GENESIS: well having them teach I again I try my best to offer opportunities right like hey guys I do not want to be the only voice that they hear I’m sure they get annoyed of me at from time to time I’m teaching at 11 a.m. a lot of my students go to the 11: a.m. and then come Sunday night so they hear me twice in a day I mean my husband has probably doesn’t want to hear me that often either so I try to encourage um my leaders to teach right come teach let’s do this and um that has been one way way and that process looks like okay here’s the scriptures this is what we’re trying to achieve however you still have the freedom right I don’t I never I will send them a um like in the curriculum outline to help them out and I let them know hey you can go word for word with this or please the Holy Spirit resides in you you have the freedom to to teach right as long as you’re as long as you’re not blaspheming right so um I try to emulate what I see in um sermon text which is all right what are you teaching to like talk talk me through what you’re doing here right and so um it allows them to kind of talk about okay this is the illustration I’m using and this is what I’m going to be saying and and provide encouragement and feedback um with that so that’s what I’ve been I’ve been doing and but there’s certainly room for improvement always is

JACOB: definitely so as uh someone doing discipleship in the church working in a lot of different departments even though you are the the junior high director um how do you participate in self-care self-care

GENESIS: these days self-care looks like um some time alone with God for myself because something that I’ve run into is I study a lot I mean there’s times where I teach anywhere from four to five times a week in like separate occasions right and um and I’m not preaching the same sermon so it’s like different subjects so I’m I’m constantly triple checking quadruple checking that I am that I am preaching God’s word the way I should I should be right so I end up spending a lot of time doing that and then catch myself not spending time with God because I have to right so um self-care at this point looks like intentional quiet time with God not because I have to teach not because I you know X Y and Z but because I need him right now so um yeah I think that that’s what it is I wish I could tell you I I go out and go horseback riding or do something or go get my nails done but right now in this season of life where my family is still adjusting to full-time Ministry I mean I I I do full-time Ministry and my husband works part-time for the church as well so we’re constantly there we’re constantly um like I said picking up kids he helps me do that too and we’re constantly being dragged everywhere so so quiet intentional time is my selfcare right now otherwise I’d go nuts

JACOB: definitely um what are some of the successes in Ministry that you’ve been able to learn from

GENESIS: what are some of the successes you know um I would say that watching a student connect with God that moment that you see the student right because you can be doing discipleship weekly sometimes you wonder like man am I reaching this kid like am I really doing what I’m supposed to be doing here and um does a kid even care right about God at this point in their life mhm right um and then you have that moment where you can tell it just clicks whether that be at Camp whether that be um in small group whether that be um I mean I’ve had students that have just come to me and just like hug me and cried and those moments are so tender because I know that God is doing something in their hearts and I know that um sleepless nights right um a small group leader that may not have the time to disciple as much right however sacrificed a few hours to just be with their students those moments are so special because it it gives you some fuel and motivates you and remind you like okay all right Lord you’re you’re in control even when I don’t see it or feel it um you’re in control and you’re doing it um despite all everything that I may be thinking so I think those moments when I see them come to Jesus in a raw way at camp in small group or even one-on ones when I have students that just just the light bult turns on it’s just so cool

JACOB: definitely yeah um and what are some of the failures that you’ve had in Ministry that that you’ve been able to grow from

GENESIS: I think when I look back at these last 10 months I would say it’s volunteers and when I say that I mean what I have to offer to my volunteers and that has been something that I’ve had to look back and as someone who uh um I am I don’t want to say I’m a perfectionist right but I am someone who strives to do the best they can and when I look back I feel so much conviction when I think man I could have done this better and man I could I’ve could have spent so much more time with my volunteers and wow like I didn’t do this and I didn’t do that however when I look at that in a healthy way I go okay that is okay we have um I have time to reflect to you know talk to God and all right let’s let how can we do this better next year so I think that’s what I would say that one of my failures has been just the way I show up for my volunteers and um I mean I’m excited because it allows me to look at it in a honest way and make it better

JACOB: definitely so let’s talk about advice and resources is um what is some advice you’d give to yourself if you were to start over or to someone else who’s starting fresh um and then what are some resources that you found to be really helpful some resources that you’ve created that you use or anything like that

GENESIS: advice don’t bite off more than you can chew I think I came in super excited and I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that and oh this sounds cool and this sounds cool and you get so excited um for the possibilities and then can get yourself overwhelmed really quickly when you realize um how much there is to do so I’d say focus on a few things and do those really well rather than spreading yourself so trying to be everything and for everyone um I think that would would be um a big a big piece of advice also spend time for yourself like I mean I have a family I have two kids and um something that convicts me at times is wow like sometimes I’m discipling other students more than I have discipled my own children so that is very convicting in my life where my daughter has to watch me leave the house physically to go pick up a student from school to go have coffee with them so also to to dedicate to schedule time for yourself schedule time for your family um especially those first couple years of ministry because I think that it’s you’re just going to continue to learn and learn and learn and make mistakes and learn from them so that’s what I would say what was the second question uh resources

JACOB: but on that family thing no I I totally agree and I’ve heard it uh put this way that God can raise up anyone to be the pastor of these people but has raised up one person to be the parent of the family absolutely which is very cuz you know people can get lost in the like oh I’m ministering to so many people and then you know practically abandon their family

GENESIS: absolutely definitely and it’s so easy because I think that what you’re doing in Ministry is inherently good I mean who’s gonna tell you that you’re doing something wrong right like I mean you’re going out you’re picking up kids you’re taking them to church you’re um I mean it is all so so good and it builds the Kingdom so it’s so hard to be real with yourself self and ask yourself like man how much time have I actually spent with my child and discipled my own child mhm right um yeah yes and I I mean that I think that’s the biggest thing that I can really contribute to that question but resources I mean obviously there’s many resources online but you really learn the thing when you’re doing it and I think the best resource that I could say is to um be be discipled find yourself someone that is ahead of you that’s been doing this for much longer that can talk to you speak like Speak Life into you admonish you right like you need people in your life you can’t do it alone so yes resources school right all the things those are awesome but you need people ahead of you aside beside you and behind you so have someone someone that you’re discipling have someone that you can laugh and just like vent with right you need that friend but you most of all need someone that can disciple you and U someone that you can be real with and you can say hey I am stressed out because ministry will do that to you I mean it is a blessing but I think anyone that’s been in Ministry for any length of time can tell you that it can take a toll on you so to have someone that you can bring that to is so important so I think that would be my yeah I think that that’s what I would say

JACOB: for sure and in the American culture and even in the American Christian culture there’s always a temptation to view um self-care and being discipled as something that’s not productive and therefore is a waste of time totally um have you seen a lot of benefit from doing those things

GENESIS: absolutely the the truth is your calendar will lie to you and tell you that you don’t have time right that they I’ve I’ve struggled with the calendar because I look at my I I mean my husband and I often look at the calendar go how are we going to make this happen because although although I’m so involved obviously with my church we still um have our own small groups and for instance our small groups are on Tuesday nights and there’s been times where me and my husband think man you know what let let maybe we just say no to small groups this season because it would be really nice to just have a couple hours of and then we look at each other and go yeah know like we have to do this because we we need it we need Community we need discipleship and so the calendar is going to lie to you and tell you that there’s no way but once you do it once you are there with whoever you’re meeting with you go okay God thank you this is what I exactly what I needed um also don’t get discouraged I know that a a lot of people may think well who’s going to disciple me um don’t be afraid to ask I’ve had to like I’ve had I had so the person that was discipling me um a few years back ended up becoming more of my friend and I had to really be honest with that and go wait this is become more of my friend than someone who is actually actively discipling me so having having to go out and look for someone and asking the Holy Spirit okay who are you leading me to right and don’t be afraid to ask someone hey um can you disciple me and you know there’s going to be people like I I’ve had people say you know what um I’d love to but I don’t have um I don’t have the time right now and I and I love that because they are what I hear when they say no um I hear that I value what you’re asking me and I can’t commit to that because discipleship is commitment you can’t just you can’t just expect to be um discipled or to disciple and just do it every now and then like it should be a regular rhythm in your life discipleship should be regular if not weekly and some people may go what yes you have to make time in your calendar at least once a week to to really see the fruit of discipleship take place in your life

JACOB: definitely yeah for sure for sure um I know that when I was talking to a pastor who’s up on the mountain he would saying that like like one of the really good ways of of having self-care is to just purposefully protect time with your family have family time go on dates with your spouse um things like that because like what we were saying it’s really easy to see things as not productive and therefore not worth the time um yeah like like what you’re saying living life with other people is not about productivity it’s about availability

GENESIS: yes yes that’s beautifully put absolutely absolutely and God will God God will also I what I found is when I sacrifice my time like God is faithful to like multiply my productivity I mean there’s been plenty of times where I thought there’s absolutely no way that I can do this but okay here Lord figure it out and somehow he made me he allowed me to do you know four hours of work in an hour and I’m like Lord thank you because there’s no way I would have done that um without you so I think that’s also it’s like a really serious trustfall with Jesus

JACOB: it’s a shame that like the idea of taking a Sabbath is such like a taboo because when you mention like the word Sabbath people think oh you’re you’re a legalist you know you’re one of the judaizers from the New Testament I got to watch out for you um but no it’s it’s almost like God has made us for a rhythm of resting in him and being recharged enough to actually go and work so

GENESIS: yeah absolutely oh yeah and that’s something I love about my church is our leaders are constantly reminding us to take a Sabbath um constantly especially in our busy season right um Easter right the launch of the school year uh Christmas all these different events that we have going on um I they are always reminding us to Sabbath and that is actually why our church um is intentional about not scheduling things on Saturdays because they want us to Sabbath on Saturday um another wonderful thing that they also do is knowing that we put in so much time during Christmas we have a dark week afterwards um we did Revival um for the first time in February and they gave us another dark week in July because of that so they um I think having a a church that um sees the value not not even the value but it’s biblical right so um that is very important because you’re constantly hearing it you’re constantly being reminded and I know that some Churches um can get lost in productivity definitely so I think that’s important to have leaders that value it that speak of it and in doing so give you permission to do it sometimes we just need permission I know that I’m someone that can get tunnel visioned and will plow and just like plow through work and that’s all I’ll do and so I love the fact that I have people in my life that I look up to um that will ask me when was the last time you Sabbath mhm I mean and that’s another important aspect of discipleship right someone is going to disciple you will ask you when was the last time you Sabbath you better have an answer for that yeah so definitely

JACOB: yeah yeah and you know apart from from self-care and accountability like that burnout is always a season away which is a a scary reality for for pastors who are stretched so thin

GENESIS: yeah especially since Covid because staff um staff numbers are down right and there was such a restructuring that that took place in all churches that I I do see that I see it in the health industry I see it in different like Pockets right um but I think churches have been really um affected by it so more than likely when you look at any church staff member they are very likely doing more than one job mhm like you don’t even know right like you’re looking at this person and they are very likely um taking over all these other positions so yes um burnout you’re only one season away i’ I’d say that you’re one step away of burnout at times so yes taking your time off um ha is Sabbath thing doing things with your family um even if it feels like you don’t have the time just just do it um I think that in part is is also trusting God that he’s going to allow you to finish what you need to finish mhm um and it seems like your church very much values self-care and Sabbath thing and things like that

JACOB: um I imagine sometimes it’s difficult to balance um the productivity that’s expected for working somewhere for being paid with also the selfcare that’s required of being stretched so thin

GENESIS: yes definitely um that’s where I really recommend right like um organizing your work week right I mean if we’re aimlessly doing ministry as well we’re very likely to not have time for these things so I say like if we have budgets for our finances we should probably have a budget for our schedules and ensure that we can schedule things in because me and my family heavily rely on our calendars if we don’t schedule something in it just doesn’t happen like it really just does not happen so scheduling that intentional time and scheduling that vacation scheduling um that time with my kid right I’m going to disciple my child on this date at this time like I think those things are important especially for those that struggle with this because some people have have no problem sabbathing and resting but then there’s others that have a really hard time and you can make your job an idol really easily that way

JACOB: yeah and I imagine it’s also difficult to schedule that kind of availability while also keeping the spontaneity of it um do you do you ever like schedule yourself out block out 6 hours or something in a day where you’re just available for people do you ever do anything like that

GENESIS: I would say I don’t think I’ve done it in an intentional way like that um and when you say people are you speaking people like in my personal life or for either whoever whoever needs you at that time I honestly I feel that that is any time to be very honest um the people in my life know that they have access to me the kids that I’m discipling one-on-one know that they have access to me um and when I yeah I I would say so that I do that I have um generally a kind of an open door policy for my friends for people I’m discipling for my colleagues um yeah

JACOB: definitely well I don’t have any more questions anything else you’d like to say

GENESIS: you know um Ministry is for everyone and I have to constantly remind me of remind myself of that um that we’re all called to Ministry and that it’s a blessing um but spend time for spend time with your family spend time with um the people that you love because you will get burned out if you don’t and it’s so important I can’t stress that enough and I’m still learning and I’m still having to figure this thing out but um I can’t stress enough spend time with your family it’s going to get done right like your work is going to get done it’s going to God is going to meet you in that place where you feel that you you just can’t do it

JACOB: definitely thank you very much Genesis