The Youth Group Podcast

Tom: Hey there, podcast listeners and welcome to the Youth Group Podcast, where a couple of youth group leaders try to figure out how to do youth group better. My name is Tom French and I am an author, speaker, youth leader, and I am here in Melbourne. And today joining me. All the way from up the road is Alex.

She is a dance teacher and a youth leader, and the voice of your ai. How are you, Alex?

Alex: Very good, thank you.

Tom: I don't know. I dunno how you feel about being the voice of ai.

Alex: I generally don't use ai, so I don't know if that checks out or.

Tom: Yeah, I am. I saw a video of a voice of a woman who got upset because her voice got stolen for ai, well, stolen by AI to be the voice of trains in Scotland, even though she, she never said that was okay. So there you go. But you don't use AI that much, but your voice, it is. You are the voice. Anyway, how are you apart, apart from not using ai.

Alex: Yeah, I'm pretty good getting over a cold after VCYC, but feeling a bit better now.

Tom: Did your youth group have a good time at VCYC?

Alex: Yeah, they loved it. We had some sleepy youth on the way back. But one of our youth has said that they. Can't wait another year to go back to VC yc. Unfortunately, they will have to wait another year to go back. But I like the

Tom: Yes, they will. Yeah. And was there a, a, a meeting of Sam Bury for your leader?

Alex: there was. We have a photo of our group with Sam Albury and our leader got to show his Sam Albury socks to Sam Bury.

Tom: Oh, he was your, your leader had the

Alex: Yeah, we, we were the, we got a shout out both for the beanie and the socks. So it was a big day for

Tom: It was your beanie as

Alex: Yeah.

Tom: Oh, wow.

Alex: have a photo of him in our beanie with the socks.

Tom: wow, man. You had a real impact on

Alex: we really did.

Tom: Yeah. Wow. So for those who were not there, which would be some of our listeners yeah, Sam Bury mentioned a youth group, gave him a beanie and that someone had Sam bury socks and that was all deeper youth.

Alex: was. Yeah.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah.

That's a big deal. There's a good chance that you have changed the course of his life now

Alex: yeah. Most people

Tom: his ministry will be different.

Alex: face on socks, so we're, I'm sure we're now at cinema illustration.

Tom: Yeah, that, that's pretty good. Yeah, my youth group was trying to put my face on our hoodies for, that was the 20 last year's hoodies, not this year's hoodies, but it, it didn't win, which I was very pleased with. 'cause I didn't wanna be walking around wearing a hoodie with my face on it. I think it said Supreme Leader, Tom French or something like

Alex: It feels a bit dicey.

Tom: Yeah. But I'm so committed to the process that if it won, I would've, I would've done it.

Alex: Commit to the bit

Tom: And yeah. Yeah. People, people would've said, Tom, you didn't, you didn't have to do that. And I was like, well, I have to. 'cause

Alex: the youth group declared

Tom: Yeah. They voted for it. Yeah. So, and were your beanies well received by the rest of your

Alex: they were. Yep. And we've seen them then warned to the youth group since. To church. It's come very timely. Winter's definitely come in Melbourne. It's very frosty. So good time to have a beanie.

Tom: Yeah. That's, that's good. Yeah. Maybe, maybe we'll get a beanie going for my youth group, but I don't know too, I don't want, I don't want, I don't have to deal with too much merch. That's, that's a bit of work. But if we don't do a new beanie every year, then,

Alex: Yeah. Then just the one you buy up big and then you've got the stock.

Tom: How many beanies do you have in stock?

Alex: we don't have that many we probably got

Tom: got like 25 or something. Is that what you said?

Alex: I think even, I think 20, yeah. 20 or 25. So we Yeah. Don't have that many spare.

Tom: Not too many. And will, like when new people come to youth group, do you offer them a beanie?

Alex: Yes.

Tom: Is it like.

Alex: Will we?

Tom: do you, do they put, was it like, do they have to purchase a beanie or is it like, in your welcome pack you get a free

Alex: No, our hoodies and beanies are opt-in purchases.

Tom: Yeah.

Alex: get a deeper youth notebook as your induction, like that's included. We have named notebooks. But yeah, if you want a hoodie or a beanie, unfortunately they come at extra expense.

Tom: You go, you're not, you're not a megachurch.

Alex: we don't have a gift shop.

Tom: Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right, so now let's talk about youth

Alex: Mm.

Tom: So how was youth group last week?

Alex: Yeah. Youth group was good. We had one of our biggest ones yet in attendance yet. This definitely biggest one, this term, probably biggest one so far this year. We had ready Steady Cook night, so we had some friends come along for that. That was good fun. Although we were reminded in the pack up, why we only do this once a year.

We only do one baking or cooking thing a year. And it's because it's a lot of work for the leaders.

Tom: Yeah. Yep. What, how did, how did Ready City Cook work for your youth

Alex: Hmm. We really could have done anything 'cause none of them knew already Steady Cook was, even though it's still

Tom: know what it is either. Yeah. Is it like a daytime show?

Alex: It was like, at least for our leaders, like when you were homesick from school ready, steady Cook would be like on the tv.

Tom: Yep.

Alex: Eddie is like, they are still airing, but I don't know how often it's on.

The actual show has the premise that like a home chef brings in their groceries and then two chefs like make things out of the groceries. And they have 20 minutes to make three dishes from a surprise bag. We gave all our youth the same bag because we do, we don't want fights.

Tom: Yep.

Alex: and we gave them an hour to cook two dishes instead of 20 minutes to cook three.

Tom: Yeah, that, that

Alex: yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom: And what kind of cooking facilities do you have available?

Alex: Well, we, we turned on the church oven and then we got four little camping stoves and put them around our hall so they had a camping stove and then, you know, bowls and knives and chopping boards and stuff like that. And then, yeah, if they wanted to use the oven, they had to get in quick because limited oven space, so.

Tom: Yes. Yes. Good, good. And all right, tell me, tell me more. What, what else do we need to know about the night?

Alex: Well we started with a study, so we did

Tom: Are you 'cause you, 'cause that's what, that's the way

Alex: Yeah. DP Youth does a study every time we meet or

Tom: yep.

Alex: or a talk or whatever. So we looked at Mary and Martha. So that was a great, a great reminder of. What is the best thing, and we can be doing good works for Jesus, but if we're not spending time with Jesus, we are missing.

Missing a key element.

Tom: Mm. Was the was the activity, like the, was the activity a, a themed activity to go with the story?

Alex: Yes. Busy with many things,

Tom: Great.

Alex: but first

Tom: a, if a youth, if a youth decided to not do the game, but read their Bible, would they have won the game?

Alex: maybe no one did, but,

Tom: Okay, good.

Yep. Yeah. So, and how, how did the youth respond to the study?

Alex: yeah, I think good. I think there was some kind of, we had to kind of redirect a little bit. I think some people were under, we got into the mindset of maybe. Martha was trying to impress Jesus or earn favor with Jesus. She was doing all these things so that yeah, he would like her. But we seem like, oh no, actually Mary and Martha are dear friends of Jesus.

And she's doing good work for him. Not to impress him, but to help him and to love him. It's just she was missing the main thing. So we kind of talked about that and then looked at the end of that chapter, talks about yeah, what are some other things that we might, might get in the way of following Jesus.

Tom: Yeah.

Alex: So what are the things that get in the way for us? Yeah. What are other things we put in that?

Tom: And what, what were some of the things that the youth thought would get in the way for them?

Alex: I think a lot of them are like. Sport or school technology a little bit. Yeah, they're all, all very busy, which I'm sure is the case for a lot of teenagers. Yeah. So there were lots of things that they thought could get in the way. Yeah, school's a big one. But then yeah, encourage them to think about some other things and as one of our year six has said.

Well, there actually is always time to spend with God. It's just about priorities and I went Spot on. Yeah,

Tom: Great, great work. Cool. And then, and then you rolled into Ready Steady

Alex: yeah, yeah. They all got their bags of ingredients and they got their teams and an hour and had to serve us some food.

Tom: Hmm. Did you do cooking yourself or just received

Alex: Well, yes, we were, we judged, we were receivers. But also it was a lot of making sure no one got injured or yeah, watching people go in and out of the kitchen and things like that. Yeah.

Tom: Yeah, that's, and what, what did they cook for you?

Alex: So we had. We had, they had six ingredients in their in their bags plus pantry staples. So they had

Tom: I.

Alex: avocado, puff, pastry, lemon, dark chocolate, pasta and spinach. And they had to make two meals out of that or two dishes. Note no dairy or meat. Just outta food safety.

Tom: Yep.

Alex: so we had a lot of pasta dishes of various forms.

We had quite a few chocolate croissant things with the puff pastry. One team made a cake, made like a chocolate cake, which was very impressive.

Tom: That is impressive.

Alex: the pantry like the. Flour and the oil and the chocolate and like put together a cake, which was Yeah. Very impressive.

Tom: Were they allowed to use the internet or did they just have to make it up

Alex: we gave extra points if you didn't to look up a recipe. So of our four teams, two of them did. Two of them didn't. Yeah.

Tom: Okay, good. Which and did, did looking it up on the internet help.

Alex: It, well, that team, one of the teams that looked it up did win, but they, yeah, it didn't actually help that much. They, it was two points, I think, out of a possible 30, so I don't think it contributed too much to the

Tom: Okay. Okay, good. Yeah, that sounds

Alex: Hmm. That's good.

Tom: Yeah. And what are, what are your reflections from that? Unless there's anything else you have to tilt, you have to say,

Alex: No, I don't think

Tom: early.

Alex: I think my, yeah, as I said, kinda my reflection before was, there's a reason we only do this once a year is because there's so much cleanup. And they all kind of like skip off home, you know, there for another hour. Yeah, I think. I think a good reflection is like in a lot of ways food bonds, people like preparation of food and eating food yeah, is a great way to find community and you kind of see that there.

And yeah, I can kind of then also see that in, in Mary and Martha Way. Martha is trying to do good work. She's trying to prepare the house and make it welcoming and build that community.

Tom: Yep.

Alex: So it's really, yeah, I'm probably have a tendency to be a author. So a good reminder that it's, yeah, it's good work but not the best option.

Yeah, and I think another reflection is just an encouragement of how switched on some of my youth are. Like, actually a lot of them do take a what in, and a lot of them are really. Yeah, really actually keen to talk about Jesus. And it's really exciting to see that's a if we give them space and we're equipping them, that they will go out and do good works as yeah, as part of the church now that they're going out and telling their schools about Jesus.

We had some stories from them, from one of our youth at school. Yeah. And that was a real encouragement as well.

Tom: That's great. That's exciting.

Alex: Yeah.

Tom: Yeah. And did the friends who came, were they, were they churched kids or

Alex: No, no.

Tom: unchurched

Alex: both non-church kids, so one's a school friend and one's a scout's friend. The school friend is actually in the same dance class as. Youth attender and I teach the class, so I was like, come along, I'll see you on Friday. But yeah, so those, those two students go to a Catholic school. But yeah, the family, a large proportion of the families that go to this Catholic school are not Catholic nor Christian, nor just.

Kind of attend as it's a good school and helps them kind of get into Catholic high schools and things like that.

Tom: Right. Yep. Yeah. Good. That's

Alex: Yeah.

Tom: Did they, were they, how did they respond to the, to the night?

Alex: Mm, I think both. Yeah. All the friends or the fringe people got very involved in, in the cooking. It was a, it's a really good opportunity to make teams and to work together and to get people involved. I think yeah, it's interesting. It kind of depends on the friend who's the friend that comes along.

So one of the friends one of our youth who invited someone is a big note taker and is like really locked in on all our. Their friend took notes as well. I'm not sure how much was, like, it may, it may be that there was stuff that was really impactful, or it may be that that's what all the other people around them were doing.

And then one of our other youth who brought a friend sometimes struggles to kind of engage with studies. And I found the friend was, yeah, pretty similar, maybe a little bit distracted. So

Tom: yes. Good.

Alex: kind of makes sense.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. B, birds of a feather,

Alex: Yes. That's it.

Tom: they say.

Alex: Yeah,

Tom: Oh, good. It sounds like a good

Alex: yeah. It was, it was good. How was your youth group, Tom?

Tom: Ooh. Well, we didn't do youth group like normal. It was slightly different this week. So we we had church nights, which means not that we have church, but that we split up into our. Individual churches sort, sort of we, like we had there were three groups that kind of did stuff. So we've got two big churches in our youth group, and then we've got a bunch of smaller churches and two of the smaller churches joined together and did something, but I don't actually know what they did.

And then another, another church went to. A local shopping center and did laser tag and ate dinner together. A local shopping center that was just in the news for a a machete attack. So

Alex: Very

Tom: I, I resisted saying anything inappropriate on the chats, but when they, when they said they were going there, I was like,

Alex: Hmm.

Tom: have a good time.

Alex: Stay safe.

Tom: Yeah. Which as far as I know, they stayed, they stayed safe and didn't, and also didn't engage in any

Alex: Yeah. We're not on either of the sides.

Tom: Yeah. And, but my church, we had a what I call a feast frenzy, which I, I, I feel like it kind of lived up to its name. So the idea was, our, well, our church building is on a street in a suburb where there's like, it's just like the main street and there's a lot of kind of food shops on that street.

So I can do a lot of takeaway and there's a supermarkets and bit bit of other stuff. So it's a really great street and when I get to make use of it for youth group, I like to, so what we did was we had a, we get, we gave each of the group, we told them they had to bring $20 and then they got into teams, and then each team got a different course.

So there was one team doing entree, one team or two teams doing a main course and one team doing dessert, and they had to go out and spend the money that they had brought along with them and buy that meal for everyone like that, course for everyone, and feed everyone. Which is pretty fun. And then they were gonna get judged on, on a few different things, like on actually I'll find the actual judging criteria that the judges came up with.

'cause that will be more interesting 'cause they even did alliteration so.

Alex: Oh, very nice.

Tom: Yeah, you can't go past that. They had flavor, sensation, fabulous presentation, fun coordination, and fantastic creativity.

Alex: So they

Tom: these, what did I, what did I say? Isn't the literation when they start with the same

Alex: Yeah. Did all of them

Tom: Fun. Flavor, sensation.

Fabulous presentation, fun coordination. Fantastic Creativity.

Alex: Oh, all of those. I was like, flavor and sensation. Do not start with the.

Tom: Oh, no, no, no.

Alex: So all

Tom: sensation is one. They all start with F and there's two words

Alex: they do rhyme like

Tom: three of them.

Alex: There we go.

Tom: Yeah, three of them end in Sean. Creativity

Alex: that's okay. I was like, those are not the same.

Tom: Fan, it should be fantastic. Creation, creation, flavor, sensation, fantastic creation. That's what it should have been. Then it would've been alliteration and rhyming.

Alex: Got it.

Tom: Yes. Well, when I go back in time, I will amend that. There'll be the first thing I amend when I go back in time. Anyway, so, so that, that was the judging criteria which is worth keeping in mind because there's some controversy coming up because of this criteria. So the teams had about $120 each to spend, and they headed on out.

I got the, I was on a team with mostly like. Most of the guys who are less less engaged than others they're, they're the ones who we tell them the rules. For any game, we'll tell 'em what's happening. And then inevitably when the game begins, they'll say, what are we doing? And so

Alex: for youth group.

Tom: yeah. So I got that team and so we told them what was happening and then they said once we start, they said, what are we doing? And so the other leader who I was leading with, he kind of took. Took some leadership and told 'em what was happening and kind of helped them plan what they were doing, which was useful 'cause I was running around trying to make sure everyone had enough money and all the like, and so my team was doing a main course and they decided they were gonna buy a lot of chips and a lot of potato cakes or potato scallops if you're in New South Wales.

And then they'd go up to the IGA and buy. Some corn chips, some cheese and some salsa, and then they'd pour the salsa on the corn chips and the cheese on the corn chips, and then put 'em in the microwave, and then you got nachos. So that was the plan, and they spent $90 on. Chips and potato cakes

Alex: So much money.

Tom: it was a lot.

Yeah. And then they then went up to the IGA and we ran into a bunch of the other groups there, and then we came back and and then we put it together. But they had to like present it nicely because that was part of the criteria. They did not, they just kinda

Alex: a.

Tom: just took the foil off the top and put it on the table and then didn't even get time to put the corn chips in the microwave. And so

Alex: Cold.

Tom: just had corn chips with cheese, cheese on top, I didn't think. And they didn't put the salsa on either. They just had the salsa sitting there. So it was. It was yeah, not the most beautiful presentation, but as the night happened it was pro, it was the most popular table because you can't go past a huge pile of hot

Alex: And

Tom: that is.

Yeah. And one of our leaders is a vegan, and it was pretty

Alex: all. Yeah.

Tom: she could eat. And as someone who is gluten-free. It was also one of the only things I could eat. So yeah, I was, I was happy with it. I couldn't have the potato cakes, which was pretty sad, but that's okay. And another, another team, which was our youngest team they.

There were, I think a bunch of girls who were like year six and year seven and year eight, and they decided to just buy cheese pizzas and they decided to be a, it was a make your own pizza bar, so they just got like margarita pizzas, but the things to put on top of the pizza for the make your own pizza.

They did have like salami and maybe some proto, is that what we call it? Prodo? Yeah. Yeah. I, I was worried that I'm going to call things the wrong name. I literally had to look up, how do you say? Oh no, I can't remember the word there. There's a pizza. Cal Reezy. Krey Cal. I had, yeah, I had to look that up. That one. Yeah. 'cause I, every time I ring up the pizza shop to order it, I see it wrong and they correct me and then I die a little bit inside. So I had to look up YouTube anyway, so I get stressed by Italian words. But that's not important, this story. But they also had sprinkles to put on their, make your own pizzas.

And they had some pizza shapes because they're like, well, they're pizza flavored. So you could put pizza shapes. They were the, so my, there was my group and the other group, we were the younger groups. And then the older groups, the boys did the entree and they had like, they had these really kind of nice, kind of set up with bini. There's another. Another thing I can say. They also had some, like, some cold, cold cuts of meat and some cherry tomatoes and the ideals you're gonna, you put it all in a skewer, but they didn't get enough time to make skewers.

And so they kind of had a half presented piece to present to us. Like it was, you could see where it was going, but it wasn't done. And then finally the older girls, like year 9, 10, 11, and 12. Girls, they did dessert and they had quite a spread of, there was I mean, I didn't actually pay a lot of attention to it.

There was, oh, there was Ros and dipping sauce and some like nice cookies and some very nicely cut strawberries. And yeah, I, I mean, I looked at it, I was like, that's all gluten, so I'm not gonna,

Alex: Yeah.

Tom: not gonna visit it too much. But it looked very nice. And then when it came to judging time. My team came last, which was not surprising. We, I don't, I think the entire thing was brown, so it wasn't a fabulous presentation. It wasn't fantastic creativity. It wasn't a create, it wasn't a fantastic creation. There was a bit of fun maybe. And a lot of flavor. 'cause it's, I mean, it's hot, hot chips, you can't,

Alex: Can't get it wrong.

Tom: just, they're just the best really.

But yeah, we didn't win the the maker and pizza bar. Didn't win, even though that was quite, quite creative. But it was down to the older girls who had, that looked fabulous, and the older boys who had not really finished on the execution of it and the older boys won because they, it was, they met more of the criteria.

Alex: for the other

Tom: They met the flavor sensation. They thought the fun coordination was in there. And the fantastic creation creativity, but the presentation was off and the girls' presentation was amazing, but they were told that there wasn't enough kind of variety in their taste and like, it's dessert. What are we gonna do? Anyway, it was nice, it was a nice bit of controversy. I, I think I would've given it to the girls myself. But that's why I'm not a judge. I'm just swayed by superficial things,

Alex: All looks.

Tom: Our two leaders who are, you know, professional chefs, they're not, but they could be. One of them is studying design, so she, you know, she would know about presentation and the other one, he's an engineer, so he would know about.

I think he knows about like metal alloys and stuff, so that's pretty important

Alex: right.

Tom: for, yeah. So anyway, so we, we did that. I was, and similar to what you were saying, like it was really, it was just kind of good to get the groups doing stuff together and eating together and creating food together. I was just a kind of, it was this really fun night.

During the eating we had a discussion about youth church, which we are going to. I'll be running youth church at the end of the month. And so it'll be our first youth church. It's not like we're studying a new service. It's just gonna happen a few, few times this year. So we were talking about that, and then there was a plan for me to do a talk about GIZ and Zacchaeus. But we, I, when it was time to do that, I looked at the time and it was like five to nine and I was like, oh, no wait. I have not left enough time for the talk after coming off last week where everything was perfectly timed. We came, we were back to back to our normal, normal selves and we had five minutes left for the talk, which I normally don't put the talk at the end.

In fact, I didn't have the talk planned for the end. But when I realized we were all sitting around tables and in a great position to chat to each other, I was like, we should do the chatting first. Anyway, so I did a very short talk on Zacchaeus and how, jesus comes to find the lost, and we maybe lost people like Zacchaeus who've maybe thought we were going in the right direction and found ourselves in the wrong place.

But Jesus comes not to punish us, but to bring us into God's family, to seek and to save the lost. So it was nice to see that we had a few visitors and I was glad I could tell that to them. And I. As I was finishing the talk, it was exactly nine o'clock, and when it hit nine o'clock, the door of the church flew open and a stream of parents came in.

It's like they were ready to go until they saw all the leftover food and they

Alex: Then they mill around. Yeah.

Tom: yeah, they hung around and ate a lot of food. And I think. Yeah, I think my reflections were yeah, like I said, good, just good to be hanging out and eating and doing food together. And also, like, as someone who runs the Combined Youth Group, doing stuff with just my church was just really nice.

Like it was just going, like, it was, it was just a simpler kind of. Thing. 'cause you're not thinking about who's hanging out with who and how do we, you know, what leaders do I need to put where so that you know they're making the best connections and that we could have a conversation at youth group about something that's happening on a Sunday and make some plans for that.

So that we have, we have some, there's like integration across, across the week, the ministry week, which we just don't get with our combined. Youth group, and we've been struggling to find a way to talk to our youth about youth church. And so when this happened, I was like, oh, this is great. We've we're doing it.

So yeah, it was a reminder of, the thing that I regularly say is that a combined youth group is better than no youth group, but not as good as your own youth group. And, yep, I'll, I'll continue to encourage the churches who are part of our combined youth group to start their own youth group, but I don't hold out hope.

Alex: Oh, there'll be more traders like our church.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah, so like I was talking to one of the churches about it and they were like the minister, and I was interviewing her for my book, which I'm writing about combined youth groups, so I can tell you what she said because it's definitely public. She was being recorded while she, well, she said, but she's so committed to the idea of Combined Youth Group.

I was like, would you, could you see yourself having a, not being part of Combined Youth Group? She's like, well. Not really. No. I was like, oh, okay. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how this will, like, we've just got very different ideas about what's important for ministry, for to young people.

I mean, no, not, not very different. Like we both want our young people to know Jesus and we both. Value youth group like having like age specific ministry as a part of a wider plan to have all age ministry across the whole church. But we, yeah, we, we have different ideas about the value of combined thing.

So anyway all that to say I really enjoyed just hanging out with my church for, for a bit. One day that might happen some more. Yeah, there you go. That's they're my reflections. And alright, so the next thing we have, there's not much to go, but I have it, we have another email. So the, yeah, the, the inbox is going wild, Alex, it's just, yeah.

Now I. I, I'll pretend that you listened to last week's episode.

Alex: cold out,

Tom: would,

Alex: shamed. I'm getting there, Tom.

Tom: you would

Alex: earlier in the.

Tom: would know, yeah. Okay. It's, we are rec, what do you mean? Earlier in the week? It's came out on last Thursday, and this is Wednesday. What do you mean

Alex: It's not been a full week. I'm not behind yet.

Tom: Yeah, I guess you, I guess you've still got, you've still got a like, I don't know,

Alex: Wednesday's normally my day. Wednesday's the day I drive further to teach a dance class at my old studio. So I drive 45 minutes there and back. So that's my podcast day.

Tom: And you could. Yeah, so, sorry,

Alex: Thank you.

Tom: well as, let's, let's try that again. As you would know, because it's Wednesday, which is your podcast day, and by the time this comes out, you will have listened to. Episode, episode, you, you, you, at the time this episode comes out will know that we discussed hot chocolate

Alex: Good.

Tom: and yeah, so Lauren had some hot chocolate woes, well not woes, but she found it difficult to, to, you know, be present for all the different parts of her youth group as well as serve hot chocolate.

And so we got an email with some pro tip, some hot chocolate pro tips, and I'll share it with everyone. Because I'm desperate for things to share from the email, but I, I'm, I'm not gonna stoop as low as sharing spam again, but this is not spam. So this is from Dave Phillips, old, old friend Dave of the of Presbyterian fame.

And he has emailed us again. He says, Hey Tom, thanks for your continued commitment to the podcast. Love your work. I'm going to assume that that's all of us. That he

Alex: we are old Tom.

Tom: We are all, that's, that's, that's our new merch. We're all gonna get t-shirts that say that. Thanks for your continue commitment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we. Try and make large portions of hot chocolate. We use a slow cooker. It can handle a lot of milk. Is good for stirring with a ladle and can be served quickly while keeping the rest of the milk warm. This exa this recipe, for example, trying to avoid the American recipes, which use heavy cream and other dubiously healthy things.

Sorry, American listeners. And, you know, dubiously healthy things. Are you ready? Here's the website. Write this down. Https slash slash www coles.com au slash recipes dash inspiration slash recipes dash slow cooker dash cooker, no slow dash cooker dash hot dash chocolate. There you go. Or you can just search for slow cooker hot chocolate and you'll find how to do that.

And. When he said that or when he emailed, I was like, that's a good idea. And then I mentioned it to to Emily, my wife and she was like, we've already done that. And she, and that, she reminded me that we have already done that. It was a, and it worked well as I think back to the youth event where we did it, I don't remember exactly which one it was.

It feels like it was at a camp maybe, but it was just nice 'cause you, you make it beforehand, it just sits around and then you serve it out and.

Alex: Yeah.

Tom: Ready to go. Yeah. So I mean, maybe Lauren was doing that as well, because just serving 30 hot chocolates is gonna take a long time,

Alex: Yeah. Service is what

Tom: but

Alex: yeah. Still useful.

Tom: but there you go.

Yeah. Yep. So you put that, stick it up your sleeve, your slow cooker, slide size sleeve, and you can. Pull it out when you need to. So there you go. And he also, he also gave us a, or gave me a, a, a reference, not a reference, a link to something, which I haven't listened to yet. Just to out myself now. So if it's, if it's worth sharing I'll share it with you all next week.

'cause I can then, I can stretch the email out of it two weeks. Yeah. If you have any any other. Anything you wanna tell us? Any pro tips or questions? Remember email at, do you know the email address, Alex?

Alex: No, I was just more thinking also slow cook of recipes.

Tom: Oh, yeah. Well, if you slow, yeah.

Alex: Send us slow or more to the point you bulk cheap youth meals. I would love that.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. And if actually if you can se send one through, if you're listening to this on Thursday, the 5th of June, and you wanna send one through, or, or even on the morning of the 6th of June that'd be useful because I've gotta feed a lot of people at youth group on Friday night, and I, I don't have anyone lined up to do dinner, so

Alex: you want to supply food for Tom's Youth Group

Tom: Yeah.

Alex: sign.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Any, anyone you want to give us food for? Because I mean, if you're listening to this and you're not a youth leader or my brother-in-law, then I don't know why you're listening.

Alex: Welcome, welcome. Either way,

Tom: Yeah, yeah. No, happy to have you. And you want us help with the. Feeding the youth groups. Yeah, we'd love to have you as long as we can also make sure you're a safe person. So I, it'll be, it'd be difficult to get through all the screenings for my,

Alex: the Safe Church

Tom: church in time. Yeah. But I guess you could bring the food and hand it to me and

Alex: we get them to drop it off ahead of time.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. And and then, and put up, you put up a screen so that they can't see. See anyone inside, they won't know whether there's young people inside or

Alex: They just hold the dish through the door. Just the hand comes in.

Tom: Yeah. That's it. I think that's what the Safe Ministry Protocol says. So anyway, email us hello@youthgrouppodcast.com.

We'd love it. We'd love to hear from you. Alex, what's happening at your youth group next

Alex: We actually are not running youth group because it is a long weekend in Melbourne. And a lot of our families go away, but the week after, we are having a youth group hangout with Tom's Youth group and another youth group.

Tom: Woo. Yeah. And another one just, I didn't, I didn't tell you this, but we've

Alex: Oh, another another

Tom: youth group. Yeah. So there's, there's four youth groups coming together for our combined event. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be fun. I've been trying to figure out. All the stuff I'm meant to be doing for that, which is not that much stuff, but

Alex: No.

Tom: you know, I think, I think I'm providing food and someone's giving a testimony.

Alex: and I think I'm doing the task that on the spreadsheet says Alex slash Tom. I think that's an Alex task.

Tom: I think it,

Alex: Yeah,

Tom: I think so. Whatever it is, I'm just gonna say that's you

Alex: Lock it in.

Tom: anyway. Yeah. Cool. So you're having a week off just to relax. Yeah.

Alex: it's one of our youth leader and my husband's birthday on the Saturday, so we've all said, thanks, Tim. Week off. Also. Thank you

Tom: hold on. Yeah. Jesus and Charles. But hold on. When you say one of our youth leaders and your husband, are they separate you is, or is that Tim, your husband, who is your youth leader and your husband? Yeah. Okay,

Alex: Both one person.

Tom: was like, yeah, one person, one birthday. Different roles, multiple roles. You can be one person with multiple roles.

Alex: yes. As Tim is.

Tom: good. Well happy birthday Tim. What are you doing for his birthday? Is it a secret? Oh

Alex: we're having some people over for coffee and brunch food. We do like a home campaign.

Tom: Home cafe. Nice. That'll be good. And my youth group is we are doing prayer. We, so we are doing, we're one to the next the next of our spiritual, simple spiritual disciplines to help you keep going with Jesus. And so we're talking about prayer. One of our youth leaders is gonna. Talk. Talk. Do the Bible talk.

I dunno what he's talking about. He said, what should I talk about? And I said, just you talk about anything you want to do with prayer to encourage the youth to pray regularly. And I was like, but don't, you just can't do it on the first two lines of the Lord's Prayer. 'cause that's what got talked about last week at Youth Group.

And so he's got quite a lot of scope there. So I dunno what he's gonna say. Yep. There's someone's running games. I'm pretty sure it's not me. I think I've got very little that I have to be doing this week. And so I have to go and look at the roster after this and text everyone and say, are you all ready to go?

So, yeah, all I know is that we're doing prayer and all. We're having dinner. No. So maybe I've got a lot to do 'cause I've gotta solve dinner. See, I've forgotten that bit. See, that's bit the roster. That's the blank bit of the roster where I haven't found anyone to do the dinner. It's down to me right now. I was, yeah, I, yeah, I don't know, dunno what it's gonna be, but it could be good or it could be a disaster.

And that's, that's what's coming up. So

Alex: Sounds

Tom: yeah. I'm looking, looking, looking forward to, to that. And now. So that brings us to the end of the podcast and let me, let me say the things I need to say. Thanks everyone for listening to Youth Group Podcast. If you have any questions, suggestions, or slow cooker recipes or you want to slow cook something for us, remember, send them to us at hello@youthpeerpodcast.com.

You can find all my books and other podcast and stuff at tom french.com au. Alex doesn't have anywhere you can go. And so keep loving Jesus. Keep loving young people. We'll see you next week. Bye, Alex. You're allowed to say bye.

Alex: okay. Bye.

Tom: You don't have to. Do you want me to edit out the bye? I

Alex: No, no. I think this is a good a good addition fareWell,

Tom: Okay, good. Okay, bye-bye.