Church for the Rest of Us Podcast

Family Church
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Church for the Rest of Us Podcast

A place for leaders to find principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    CFTROU 0204: Students: Celebrating Life’s Moments | Milestones

    CFTROU 0204: Students: Celebrating Life's Milestone Moments | Milestones As our children move through different stages of life, it’s essential to give them tools that help them make sense of life and keep following Christ through it all. Today on the show, we’re wrapping up the first half of this season, focused on Student and Kids Ministries at Family Church. This episode concludes the Student Ministry part of our series, and in our next episode, we’ll shift our focus to Kids Ministry. In this conversation, we’re exploring how to celebrate life’s milestone moments, joined by Pastors John MacTaggart, Derek Simpson, and Todd Thomas. We’ll talk about why we emphasize these milestone moments, what our current milestone path looks like, the impact of long-term commitment to these moments, and how they’re adapted over time to meet our community needs and culture changes. Celebrating life’s milestone moments is a valuable tool we use at Family Church, so tune in to learn more.  Key Points From This Episode: Why we emphasize milestone moments at Family Church. We unpack what our milestone path currently looks like. A look at what our 6th-grade milestone looks like and what we do there.  Pastor Todd shares his experience as a dad who took part in the 6th-grade milestone. Pastor John breaks down what our senior milestone includes. Why these milestones tend to adapt and change over time, and factors that influence them. The benefits that flow out from celebrating these milestones. We share stories of how our student milestones have impacted families. Milestones are a way that we celebrate an accomplishment. It’s where we celebrate the changing of a season of life. It’s where we celebrate a new season of growing up with our kids and with our families. And we’ve found this to be…Click To TweetOne of my favorite things about these milestones is that they help our kids celebrate good holy, wholesome, righteous things as they follow God’s design. It’s good that they’re getting to choose over what the world has to offer.Click To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Todd Thomas on X Jimmy Scroggins on X Leslee Bennett on X John MacTaggart on X Derek Simpson on X Church for the Rest of Us Conference Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on X Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    24 min

  2. DEC 10

    CFTROU 0203: Students: Finding the Right Volunteers | Recruiting & Training Adult Volunteers

    CFTROU 0203: Students: Finding the Right Volunteers | Recruiting & Training Adult Volunteers Today, we’re continuing our discussion on student ministry at Family Church by diving into practical matters—like how to recruit the right volunteers. Joining us on the podcast are Pastor John MacTaggart and Pastor Brian Stebbins to unpack our approach to recruiting and training adult volunteers, focusing on finding and retaining significant adults. As you tune in, you’ll hear why we prioritize recruiting and training the right volunteers, what we look for in people to serve in student ministry, and the critical role significant adults play. We’ll also share practical insights into our onboarding booklet, our seven-step process, and intentional training methods for our adult volunteers. Key Points From This Episode: Why recruiting and training student volunteers is so important.  The value and priority of retaining significant adults: setting high expectations. We talk about our onboarding booklet and the seven-step process.  Basic steps churches of any size can take to recruit and onboard student ministry volunteers. The importance of giving parents access to small group leaders and allowing them to get to know the person investing in their child’s life.  How we do intentional training with our adult volunteers.  “IfClick To Tweet“EveryClick To Tweet“IClick To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Jimmy on X Leslee on X John on X Brain on X Church for the Rest of Us Conference Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on X Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    25 min

  3. NOV 26

    CFTROU 0202: Students: Sundays First | Strategy of Sunday Morning

    CFTROU 0202: Students: Sundays First | Strategy of Sunday Morning If your goal is long-term family formation and raising disciples, consider cultivating a student ministry that fully integrates students into the larger life of the church, and that starts with Sunday mornings. In this episode, we continue our series on how we at Family Church approach Student Ministry, focusing on our philosophy of putting Sundays first. Join Pastor Jimmy Scroggins and his co-host Leslee Bennett as they chat with Pastor John MacTaggart; who leads our Student Ministry across our network of churches, and Pastor Tyler Core; the campus pastor at Family Church Gardens and our former student pastor. In this episode, we dive into our 'Sunday's First' philosophy in Student Ministry, discuss how Pastor John applies this approach, the importance of integrating students into the broader church life, and the role of parents in this journey. We also touch on how this philosophy plays out across our campuses and unpack the purpose of our mid-week activities in supporting our students' spiritual growth. Key Points From This Episode: What we mean by our 'Sunday's First' philosophy in our Student Ministry. How the Student Ministry team plans their week with a focus on Sunday mornings. How we work out our Sunday morning philosophy throughout all our campuses. Why it’s crucial to integrate our students into the life of the larger church. Our goal with mid-week activities. Leslee shares her perspective as a mom who has raised teenagers and the value of Sunday mornings.  One word of advice to pastors and leaders to change their course and focus to Sunday mornings.  If you want to build families, the center of the target has to be Sunday mornings.Click To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Jimmy Scroggins on X Leslee Bennett on X  John MacTaggart on X Tyler Core on X Church for the Rest of Us Conference 2025 Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on X Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    25 min

  4. NOV 12

    CFTROU 0201: Students- Spiritual Habits

    CFTROU 0201: Students- Spiritual Habits Today, we continue our conversation on Student Ministry, focusing on the fourth leg of our Student Ministry philosophy at Family Church: Spiritual Habits. Although it’s the last talked-about leg, it’s certainly not the least important. Joining us are Pastor John MacTaggart, Pastor to Students and Families, and Tommy Lea, our Middle School Minister, both from Family Church Downtown. Tune in to hear about the essential spiritual habits we emphasize, why this aspect is so crucial to our Student Ministry, and the practical ways we help students build these habits. Key Points From This Episode: Tommy shares the spiritual habits we emphasize in our Student Ministry. John’s thoughts on forming spiritual habits in students. Practical ways we help students form spiritual habits.  We share anecdotal stories about students who have gone through programs and the fruit we’ve seen. Advice on where to start to weave spiritual habits into your student ministries.  Spiritual habits are going to create the opportunity for people to become life-long self-feeding disciples of Jesus Christ.Click To TweetI do think the impact on parents is huge. And our goal is always to partner with parents — I do think the ways we challenge our students is so encouraging to parentsClick To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Jimmy on X Leslee on X  John MacTaggart on X Church for the Rest of Us Conference 2025 Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    21 min

  5. OCT 29

    CFTROU 0200: Students- Challenging Spiritual Experiences

    CFTROU 0200: Students- Challenging Spiritual Experiences This season is all about our student ministry philosophy, and today, we unpack the third leg of our four-legged stool that serves as the sturdy base of truth we’d like to pass onto our student leaders: challenging spiritual experiences. Jimmy and Leslee are joined by Pastors John MacTaggart and Jake Kimbrell to explore how we at Family Church instigate challenging spiritual experiences for our students. We begin with why it’s important to provoke our students spiritually, the three main events that serve as great foundations for this purpose, and how we ensure that our entire congregation is engaged and actively involved. We end with how adversity breeds success, confirming why we need to constantly challenge our students on a spiritual level, and our guests share some helpful resources for cultivating the right mindset in student ministries. Join us to discover how to create challenging spiritual experiences that foster growth in your students and empower your ministry to inspire the next generation! Key Points: How we create challenging spiritual scenarios for our students at Family Church.  Unpacking our biggest three annual events: ADVANCE, Camp, and Block Party. Understanding what motivates students to grow in their faith and share The Gospel.  How adversity breeds success and why we should be challenging our students at church. Success stories from when we challenged our students spiritually.  Helpful resources for provoking challenging spiritual experiences. Challenging spiritual experiences are the most unique thing that a student ministry has to offer.Click To Tweet What we’re doing is we’re saying to the students, ‘We believe you’re not just the church of tomorrow; we believe you’re the church of today.’Click To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Jimmy on X Leslee on X John MacTaggart on X John MacTaggart on Instagram Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on Twitter Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    27 min

  6. OCT 15

    CFTROU 0199: Students- Significant Adult Relationships

    CFTROU 0199: Students- Significant Adult Relationships Our students are the leaders of today, not just tomorrow, and that’s why our student ministry is so important to us at Family Church. Today is the second leg of our four-legged stool that defines how we approach our student ministry, and it’s all about the importance of having significant spiritual leaders actively investing in their student congregations. We are joined by Campus Director Jaqueline Smail and Student Pastor John MacTaggart, and Jaqueline begins by sharing her journey into student ministry to become one of the most gifted student leaders that Pastor Jimmy has ever seen! Then, we discuss why spiritual leaders matter for students, why parents appreciate the presence of significant adults in the kids’ lives, the responsibilities of adults who have students underwing looking up to them, and the characteristics of a great student leader. We end with some advice on how to support student ministries from the sidelines, what churches should be doing more of to enhance their student ministries, and some real-world examples of when spiritual leaders significantly impacted the lives of the students.   Key Points From This Episode: Why students need to have significant relationships with significant adults.  What Family Church is looking for when hiring a student leader – must-have characteristics. How to support student ministry when you’re not directly involved.  What churches need to be doing more of for their student ministries.  Practical examples of when student leaders significantly impacted the lives of their students. CFTROU 0199: Students- Significant Adult RelationshipsClick To Tweet“We actually have a lot of people who are very gifted Bible teachers, and we have environments where we can create that. What we don’t have is authentic, life-on-life disciple-makers.”Click To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode Jimmy on X Leslee on X Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook John MacTaggart on Instagram Jacqueline Smail on Instagram Family Church on Instagram Church For The Rest Of Us Conference 2025 Church for the Rest of Us on X Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    26 min

  7. OCT 2

    CFTROU 0198: Students- Partnering with Parents

    CFTROU 0198: Students- Partnering with Parents Welcome to a new season of Church for the Rest of Us! Today we are joined by student pastor, John MacTaggart and student minister Christian Rodriguez to discuss student ministry and how to partner with parents. We then delve into ‘the four-legged stool’ that they implement in student ministry at Family Church, where it came from, and how our guests use it in their ministry. Today we focus on the first ‘leg’ of the stool; partnering with parents as our guests tell us how they create a sense of community within their student ministry, how they connect with parents and disciple their children alongside them, and so much more! We even discuss some important values we, at Family Church, like to instill in our children before John and Christian share advice for anyone in ministry wanting to connect with their students. Key Points: The biblical foundations of student ministry and why it’s so important.  A breakdown of ‘the four-legged stool’ and how Family Church developed it.  How they disciple the children in their church alongside their parents.  The milestones they emphasize for both children and their parents.  How John and Christian connect with the parents of the students the disciple.  The kinds of questions parents as student ministers and their potential solutions.  We don’t just want kids showing up on Sundays and Wednesdays, this is a family affair!Click To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Jimmy on X Leslee on X Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on X John MacTaggart on LinkedIn John MacTaggart on X John MacTaggart on Instagram Christian Rodriguez on LinkedIn Christian Rodriguez on Instagram Axis  Faith for Exiles Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    28 min

  8. SEP 5

    CFTROU 0197: A Simple Way to Share the Gospel

    CFTROU 0197: A Simple Way to Share the Gospel In our final episode of this season, we delve into a simple method for sharing the Gospel. Joining us on the podcast today are Pastor Todd Thomas, who serves at Family Church Sherbrooke, Chris Kish, minister to the young adult’s ministry, and Robby Christmas, campus pastor at Family Church in the Farms. Together, we unpack the Three Circles, a gospel-sharing tool developed by Pastor Jimmy and one that we frequently utilize. Tune in to learn about the genesis of the Three Circles, its evolution into a globally recognized gospel-sharing tool, and why we prioritize not only teaching but also training our community in its use! Key Points: Pastor Jimmy recounts the story of developing the Three Circles tool. How the tool has developed into a globally used gospel-sharing tool Why we don’t just teach, but train people, in the Three Circles. Robby walks us through what a training session on the Three Circles looks like. Why you, as a church leader, should have this tool. Key Quotes:  “What I want to do is make sharing the gospel normal. For the Christian, it should be normal!” — Chris Kish “When you are training you are not just transferring content, you are transferring skills.” — Robby Christmas Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Family Church Three Circles Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations Jimmy on X Leslee on X Family Church Network Family Church on Facebook Family Church on Instagram Church for the Rest of Us on X Todd Thomas on X Chris Kish on Instagram Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

    30 min
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