Pastor Ken Keith, Logan Barth, and Matt O’Brien discuss their involvement in Heart 4 Christ and student ministries at the church on this week’s program.
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Episode Transcript:
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these twenty five minutes together telling you the stories of our church, interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We have two services at Harvest Baptist Church every week, the first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM on Sunday. We have Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service, and that’s when we livestream at hbcguam.org. Hbcguam.org. We hope to see you this Sunday at harvest. Let’s begin today’s harvest time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. You know, the fall is, one of the seasons in the year when we it’s kind of a restart season. And, you know, it affects a lot of different things. School starting, schedules are a little bit different.
And sometimes it can it can also be a season of life when you get, reignited or reengaged with, some things that have kind of fallen on the wayside. You might be listening, to us today and think, hey, you know what? I haven’t the summer kind of happened, I didn’t really go to church, or I haven’t been to church in a while. The fall’s a really good season to start some new habits, begin some new patterns. So if you’re already going to a good church on island, then of course we want you to continue to go there.
But if you’re not connected somewhere, I really would like to invite you to join us this week at Harvest. You are gonna hear, the Scriptures being taught. You’re gonna hear people singing songs of genuine worship. I’m very confident that you’re going to sense the fact that people are expecting God to meet with us. And so let me invite you to come.
Chris already mentioned the two times for the services, you can find that out online. But we’ll have a warm welcome for you at the door and hopefully you can just come in and make yourself comfortable and perhaps hear from God. I’m glad, to have a couple of really important people, in the studio with us as we, here on Harvest Time. Pastor Ken Keith is with us.
Ken Keith: Good to be here.
Gary Walton: Matt O’Brien is with us.
Matt O’Brien: Thanks for having me.
Gary Walton: And Logan Barth is with us.
Logan Barth: Hi. Thank you for having me.
Gary Walton: Yeah. And these three guys have a lot of different ministries going on at Harvest, but we’re here today to talk about student ministries. Pastor Ken and his wife Sam have recently reengaged in leadership of our student ministry, specifically talking about teens ministry. We call it Heart for Christ. And then Logan and Matt have been team leaders for a few years now, and so they’re engaged in a lot of different ways. A lot of things are starting up with student ministries, Ken. That’s really why we wanted to talk about it today.
Ken Keith: Yeah, we’re excited. As the school year starts, and as you just said, you come out of a summer, our teens are in the same boat, many have been off island, many have had different responsibilities in the summer, and the beginning of the school year kinda puts them back into a schedule. And in that schedule, we want to invite them to our Wednesday night Heart for Christ. It’s a it’s a place where we’re really meeting with the teens and desiring for them to have genuine Christ honoring relationships both with our sponsors, which is why these two guys are here and many others who help, in that group, to to be around people who are not you know, in the school, we’re teaching, academics and sports skills and leadership, But in Heart for Christ, our goal is to to speak to the inner man, to speak to the spirit, and and see them grow spiritually.
And that happens through relationships both with, our sponsors and with, like minded teens. I was just explaining this to the teens this Wednesday. This is a room where everyone in here is here, for a purpose, and they want one of the purposes is is to be around fellow Christians. We’ve got many who are in schools and some in homes that don’t have a spiritual pulse, anyone pushing them spiritually or talking about the things of God. So they’re able to come together, and then together meet, and then we do look at God’s Word.
Our goal is for the all from seventh grade to twelfth grade as these as these students are with us, that they the one big thing they walk away with is that God’s Word has the answer to their life today, to their life tomorrow, to their future. And so, yeah, we’ve got a lot coming up. We’ve got some activities we’re working through. We just had a big planning with the with actually the youth group. We did a little planning this as as a group, and then as leadership in the next next week and a half, we’re gonna try to get a picture of what that’s gonna look like over this semester and really into next semester too of some activities, some growth opportunities for the teens to take.
We’re really excited. It really is a it’s a new beginning of just everyone, like I said, everyone’s in new mode, and we want to be part of what they’re planning to do this next semester.
Gary Walton: Logan, you’ve been working sponsors, really engaged with, our teen guys in particular for a few years. How long? Tell tell us a little bit about that.
Logan Barth: I started back, I think, in 2021, and our involvement with Heart for Christ, me and my wife that is was more focused on the bus ministry. So the guys that we pick up from there, we’ve invested a lot of time in them as we pick them up, as we hang out with them at Heart for Christ. And, it’s been amazing. It’s been a blessing for us to be with them, to see them grow, see them, just show Christ like love. We have one boy that he’s like the crux of the group.
He brings he invites people. He is just so awesome. And so it’s been really enjoyable to be a part of that ministry, but then how that has affected Heart for Christ and the kids that come.
Gary Walton: You maybe answered this a little bit, but every leader brings a unique burden, passion to the table. What’s something that God’s placed in your heart for this generation of students?
Logan Barth: I want them to love the Lord and I want them to not be confused about Christ, about and specifically about salvation. If there’s one thing that I felt like I struggled with a lot as a teen, it was, you know, knowing for sure if I was saved. And so I know there’s a lot of kids that grow up at Harvest that I don’t know if they got saved young, but I can assume they got saved young. And so there are those concerns. Also, there are kids that come that are Catholic or they come from Catholic backgrounds, and we want to make sure that they understand what they’re learning here and how how it differs from what they’ve heard at their their Catholic churches.
Gary Walton: I I really appreciate all of that. You know, there’s a it’s it’s a communication of this idea. We we want Harvest and our teen ministry to be, a place that anybody on Guam, any parents would say, man, I desperately want, you know, my kids to be a part of that because God’s at work. And a big part of it has to do with leadership, honestly, you know, with you guys. And so I’m thankful for your willingness to invest.
I mean, Pastor Ken and Sam are part of it, but you guys, you know, investing are are such a huge part. Matt, you’ve been involved with the Heart for Christ for a year, a little bit more than a year now?
Matt O’Brien: Yeah, just about one year.
Gary Walton: Okay. What’s one thing that you’re finding in engaging with the kids that students today are hungry for, even if they don’t always know how to say it?
Matt O’Brien: Yeah, no, good question. Would say conversation. I think every teenager wants to be heard. They want they have their own thoughts. Like Logan was saying, they have questions.
And they’re going to either ask somebody or ask nobody, And you I think it’s good. It’s great even to have a place where we can gather in a group. This whole past summer, we’ve had little discipleship groups after the message or even during it, and just discuss, talk about, you know, what are these topics that we’re going over? What is the purpose of the Bible? Who is Jesus?
And having those conversations is so important, because if we just assume that they’re showing up, they’re hearing things, they’re going home, you know, it’s not it’s not quite enough to rely on that. We wanna engage them in conversation. So that’s something that I personally really enjoy.
Gary Walton: That’s really perceptive. I mean, pretty simple, but they got questions. Yeah. They’re either gonna ask somebody or they’re not.
Matt O’Brien: Right.
Gary Walton: Right? And we want them asking the right people, but we want them asking them. I mean, we gotta have a place where, you know, there’s relationships built where they feel like, hey, I can talk to somebody. Can Yes. There’s things that I got going on in my mind, in my heart, and so thankful for that.
Ken, you’re not new to ministry, but you’re stepping into student ministry in kind of a new way. What drew you to, you know, this chapter? What excites you most about it?
Ken Keith: Yeah. I’ve been in youth ministry probably well, I’ve been in youth ministry a long time in some way, shape, form. We’ve run the the summer ministry, the camps, been highly involved with with a variety of youth activities. As a youth pastor, I think maybe about ten years, if I do the math right.
The exciting part of it and what kind of drew us out of our old age into
Gary Walton: Oh, you’re not that old.
Ken Keith: In teen years, I feel it.
Gary Walton: Is teen But years like one to seven?
Ken Keith: It feels like it. I tried to play basketball the other day, and I think I’m still feeling the, the effects of it. Though I impressed a couple guys, they were surprised this this fat man could move like he does. I shouldn’t have moved like I did because I’m not moving well anymore. But, no.
What what brought Samantha and I back to this to this is, just the need. These as these guys were just saying, these teens are looking, they’re searching, and we we wanna be a source let me let me rephrase. We wanna be a place they can go to the appropriate source of information.
Gary Walton: Mhmm.
Ken Keith: It is a technology driven world. They they’ll ask, everything from ChatGPT to their friends to just watching passively, you know, what is TikTok to YouTube to whatever. And there are some true things out there, but man, there is a lot of things that are not true.
Gary Walton: Right.
Ken Keith: And just a place, as Matt was saying, a place where they can come, they’ve got the questions, they’re trying to figure out, especially those who know Jesus and the Spirit’s working in them. And they’re like, I know I shouldn’t be doing this or should be doing this or this should be a part of my life. How do I how do I do that? We wanna be a place where where they can come and and ask those questions without fear of judgment, without without fear of, you know, this is gonna hurt this relationship. It’s gonna strengthen our relationships with these kids cause we wanna help them.
We’ve been there. What’s neat about our our group right now of sponsors is there’s every background. Mhmm. And and I and I think that’s of God. I’ve seen too many times, I know God has his hand specifically in our youth group because too many times I’ve seen God lead, interact, what we would think of sponsor just happened to sit by this kid or this kid just happened to go in that discipleship group, and it being the best sponsor if we were to look at the whole picture for them to be with.
And again, just because of an understanding, a personality, you know, they might have the same hobbies, it just breaks down walls and allows us to speak truth into their lives from God’s Word, which is what we want to do. We have nothing to say. We talk about this. I have nothing to say. Ken Keith’s words will bounce off of your chest.
They got they got no power. My I mean, just look at, you know, raising children or getting my dog to obey. You know, my words have zero power. God’s words created everything. God’s words can change lives.
It’s powerful. It’s alive. It’s active. And that’s what we’re trying to that’s our focus in Heart for Christ. And all that saying, that’s the excitement of it.
I get to be part of God’s plan for these teens to hopefully realize those truths that God’s Word’s it. Christ we’ve we’ve been talking, one of our first steps is, you know, everyone wants to change. We’re here because we want to change. We’re here at Heart for Christ because we know we’re here in the Bible, we want it to affect us. And there’s three things God’s given us.
After salvation, He gave us His Son for salvation, and there’s three things He’s given us: His Word, His Spirit, His church. Right. And so we’ve been walking through that. We just finished his word. We’re about to jump into his spirit, and then we’re gonna end with his church, those around us, that God wants to use.
So all that to say, that’s what excites me, is that I get an opportunity, we get an opportunity to share those truths. And I’m excited for the team. There’s an awesome team that’s in there. You know, I got I got, able to step in where there was a very strong team, and they have I mean, you’re talking to the Yes. Yeah.
Sponsors. Right. That are there. And, I do have other responsibilities here at Harvest. Actually, I was just talking to Logan about this.
I’ve got other responsibilities. I can’t, quote, unquote, put the youth group on my back and carry it by myself. I need a team, and God’s been teaching us that Yeah. A lot. And I’m just so thankful as I’m learning in that journey, who I have around
Gary Walton: Right.
Ken Keith: Me to to help. And it’s really a team effort. It’s it’s not it’s a a group of youth leaders more than it’s us, the youth pastor and wife. It really and that’s the desire, and I think that’s where we’re gonna see God do a work. So to answer your question a very long winded way, to be a part to be a part of of the journey of seeing these kids realize who God is.
You you said this, I don’t remember what scenario you said this in, but I’ve said it a few times, and I don’t know where we we got it. Maybe I got it from you. Maybe we all got it from, you know, Doc. O or someone, but it it, you know, between about 16 and, like, 27, 28, the decisions these kids are gonna make, their view of God, their their view of themselves, their view of what God’s word is, all these things are gonna have the biggest impact on the rest of their life. I mean, all these decisions they’re making right now are gonna impact them dramatically unlike any other space. So where they go to college, what who they’re gonna marry, and then the spiritual, like I said, who what do they think about God?
What do they how will they deal with sin? How will they deal with what with where their joy is found? All of these things this time has such a huge impact, and we get to be a part of it. And I take that very seriously, but I do have an excitement behind the fact that we get to be a part of that. Yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s great. I think the, you know, the statistics are like 75, 80% of the biggest life directing decisions of your life are made between, you know, 16 and 30, 16 and 28. And, and it’s at a time when, I mean, we can all look back on those years when we’re not always thinking the clearest. No.
And so we gotta have people around us and foundations around us, to help guide this. Maybe I can ask this to all three of you, anybody that wants to chime in on this, but, as you guys and the whole team are shaping the future of student ministries here at Harvest, what kind of culture or environment are we hoping to build? Logan, got any thoughts about that?
Logan Barth: I want there to be a culture where students feel comfortable asking us the questions that we want them to ask. You know, the questions that you know are on their mind, like Matt was talking about. They all have questions. They all want answers. Ideally, they’re looking for answers.
And so we want to make sure that they know that we can be the people that can answer those things for them.
Gary Walton: Matt?
Matt O’Brien: Yeah, I would say something that’s important on my heart in creating a culture is one of change and visible growth as well, that these students would come and there would be a spiritual difference in the lives of those who pay attention, who get something out of it, you know, where maybe new students are coming and seeing this is different, this is different from school. This is different from home, maybe. As an example, if you take kind of a struggle with swearing, a lot of these kids grow up where that’s very just like what you say. I mean, I’ve been out for walks, I hear little, tiny kids, you know, just like using these words, and just how they grow up. So if you came to a place where, you know, the adults don’t say that and the kids, the kids don’t say that either because they’re learning and they’re growing.
They’re growing fruit and they’re developing. I think a culture where there’s real visible change and it’s different from the world, that affects everybody. Almost doesn’t matter where you came from, will change how you view things going forward.
Gary Walton: That’s awesome, man. Anything, dad, Pastor Ken?
Ken Keith: Yeah. Going off of what Matt just said, it’s it’s really a burden. We we don’t want anyone feeling judged coming in like, oh, I’m so different. But the the picture I’ve had in my mind is the lazy river. You know?
You go to the water park and you’ve got this lazy river, and you feel the current when you get in. It’s not a strong current, but it’s moving in a direction. We want Heart for Christ to feel like it’s moving in a direction. We don’t want you to be walking and, oh, you said that word, you’re bad, or you do this or you think this, you’re bad. No.
We we don’t think that we’re all bad. We all have issues. But there is a current that we’re all trying to grow, and that mean, that’s one of my burdens, with the culture is that we have a culture of growth. We ask them weekly, what’s changed this week? And and your relationship to God’s word, we’ve been talking about God’s word.
What’s changed? Have you read more? We’re not pointing fingers at people, but I want them to feel challenged just like we need to feel challenged because we can be very complacent very quickly, and we need that. The other, just one that, is is kind of outside the spiritual box, if you will, is we want them to be able to have fun Yeah. Clean fun.
Mhmm. And and the world offers a lot of not clean fun, and what they call fun, actually. It because it’s fun for a minute, and then it’s it’s with regret, shame, guilt. And, one of the things we’ve we’ve been able to experience and see these kids and teens saying is, you know, it’s I can have fun with without any guilt, shame, and regret. And so that is one other side.
We want them to have a blast. It is fun. It is fun. And, but it’s it’s good, clean fun, and God intends us to laugh and have fun. So that’s one of the other I would add to it.
Gary Walton: Looking ahead, alright, maybe all three of you, what are your hopes for, you know, where Harvest Student Ministers’ Heart for Christ would be two or three years? And, how can the church family come alongside to support that vision?
Logan Barth: I really want to see more students involved. We wanna see them welcoming students at the door. We wanna see them helping lead music. You know, if some of them are bold enough to share their testimony, I wanna see that sort of thing happening. And we’ve had students in the past, but I remember when I was a student in Heart for Christ, there was so much interaction.
There was I feel like the only thing that pastor Scott did was preach. Mhmm. And, like, maybe do a little emceeing, but, like, you know, the Students were leading the music. Students were, you know, doing a good job of making people feel welcome.
Gary Walton: So. Love it. Love it. Matt? Yeah.
Matt O’Brien: If I could build off that a little bit as well.
Just to to have the students grow in a way that then they wanna take that with them and go, you know, Whereas we’re equipping them, but they’re they’re those relationships are being built, walls are kinda coming down, and then they wanna take that back to school with them. And there’s a change there where maybe all over the island even people are hearing about Heart for Christ through students, not just radio programs and, you know, flyers. But yeah.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Love that.
Ken Keith: And I just said every the top things I would I would say, honestly. I mean, that is that’s our burden. That’s that’s what we’re all aiming for for these kids. And, really, I think it could be summed up in as, Christianity becomes theirs, that that this is a place where, they are growing in their their faith, not just hearing it, but they are growing and acting. It’s I mean, come serve or come grow, serve go is not just a big church.
Right. You know, it’s happening in our in our youth. Because there is no if you by the way, you look in the Bible, God used a lot of teens.
Gary Walton: Yes. He did.
Ken Keith: So there’s no age like, hey, you gotta sorry, you gotta your frontal lobe has to fully be developed before we’re allowed, which is in your mid twenties, so we’re not gonna have you. No, God used all ages, so I would love I’m pumped to hear these guys because that’s our big goal. I mean, that’s our goal. So what it would look like, obviously, we would love to see a very robust, strong youth group that that is growing. I don’t know what the word I’m looking for.
And it through itself. I I like how you said it. Not through radio programs or announcements. It’s growing itself. So I’d love to see that.
How the church can get involved, number one, pray.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Ken Keith: Number two, we are going to try to get the church involved in a couple different small areas to begin with. We’re kind of growing this thought process right now, but you retied us and there is an older teaching the younger, there’s so many godly people in our church these kids don’t know. So just a couple different avenues, whether that starts out with just, you know, baking some cookies and being around for an event, Hey. Could you bring dessert and just hang out and meet some of the kids? To maybe in the future having some events that are more of a, you know, the world does this, unfortunately, very well where where they have guys coming in, women coming in, and and doing the, boys and girls club that, but just that inner spiritual interaction.
So, kinda be listening for that. It’s gonna be slow rolling as we we develop it, but it is definitely in the future, one of the things we wanna do. But right now, pray, encourage the teens. I’d encourage you to ask them how how they’re doing. I’m telling you right now, you ask those simple questions and walls go down, instantly.
Hey, how you doing? You don’t don’t ignore the teens in our church and and embrace them, engage them. You know, how you doing? How can I pray for you? If every one of our church family, you know, recognized a teen, and each Sunday, they sought that teen out and just figured out their name.
Where are they going to school? What year are they in school? What sports are they playing? Maybe hit up a sport event, and you just kind of sponsor and adopt, sponsor, whatever you want to call it, a teen in our church, man, I think that have a huge impact. And really, it’s minimal engagement on your side, but maximum results where these teens are feeling.
It’s not just it’s it’s not just me out here. It’s not just the youth group that’s supposedly supposed to be doing this. It’s other people in this church who wanna see me just see me grow. It’s a huge impact. If I could just leave with one thought, we the guys who made the biggest impact in my life spiritually weren’t pastors.
As a landscaper, a general contractor, a a science teacher, a music, the guy who’s the head of music, he had me over. I mean, he’s just like, hey, wanna I wanna have you over for dinner with my family, just me as a teen. I was like, this is kinda weird, but then it was like but then it was like, he just wanted to he was just, I I wanna engage what I just explained. That was what they were trying to do. And it it kinda weird at the beginning, but then it was awesome, and I’m so thankful for it, today.
But those were the people in the church that engaged and had an impact in my life. And pastors did too. Right.
Gary Walton: But but,
Ken Keith: just an encouragement to the church.
Gary Walton: Well, know the church family cares. You know, just hear that often and to be able to be invested, I think that’s really powerful. And, I mean, you guys kind of said this, but the burden is, you know, I’ve said this a few times, we want families across the island, parents across the island to hear something like this and know, hey, we’d be crazy not to want to have our kids involved there at Harvest. And we want kids to feel the same thing. I got to be connected.
The opportunities, Wednesdays?
Ken Keith: Wednesday nights right now. Wednesday nights at 07:00 in our cafeteria. We are going to start some Bible studies. Those will be coming out that will start before around six on Wednesdays.
Gary Walton: It’s kind of like personal discipleship.
Ken Keith: Yeah, small group, small group discipleship. And we are, working towards a and we’ll get the time out, for this, but we’re working towards, a teen community group. So when the community groups meet, we’re gonna have discipleship groups, with our with our teens and fellowship. Same thing that’s happened on the community group side. We’ll be talking to the parents about the timing of that, but that’ll be also coming up.
And then we’ve got activities. Please be patient with us on the activity side. We’re going to have that calendar finalized in the next couple of weeks and we’ll get that out. But we’re excited about a variety of activities we’ll have this year.
Gary Walton: Okay. Parents can reach out to Pastor Ken, either of these guys, you’ve got connections with Matt or Logan or any of the other teen sponsors. So alright, you guys. Thanks. Praying for you.
Believe that God wants to do work in our teens.
Chris Harper: Well, thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always wanna invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. We begin at 08:45AM on Sunday morning. Also have a service at 10:45AM. There’s Japanese and Korean translation available during the 10:45AM service.
We also bring you that service live here on 88.1FM and khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.