NextGen Pastor Interview Rough Draft
My friend and former co worker vince smith is currently a senior pastor in florida. He was the
family pastor at my current church a couiple years ago. He was a family pastor for 10 years before
becoming a senior pastor.
Vince was raised in church his whole life but his family changed denominations a lot growing up.
Vince played sports all of his life and went to a public college on a baseball scholarship. He
dreamed of running a sports camp but after college his plans and dreams did not work out. He
interned at a church youth group after working with a local FCA group. He realized his Rec
undergrad degree would be helpful for a youth group but wanted more Biblical training. He
worked towards his Masters while working as a Youth Pastor. After receving his masters in Biblical
studies and Christian Ministries, he became a full time Family Pastor also called the Pastor to
Students and Young Families. When Vince neared his mid thirties, he desired to be less hands on
with young people as it required late nights, lots of events and other things that conflicted with his
growing family.
As the Family Pastor, Vince was the Youth Pastor who oversaw birth through college aged
students plus their families. He primarily taught the large youth group while equipping the small
group leaders for the boys, girls and broken into age groups.
Vince’s church has a Preschool Director, Children’s Director and College Director. Vince also
coordinated with the adult Sunday School departments, primarily the ones with the young adults
that have children at home.
Vince only teaches the youth. The other ministry directors lead their own departments. Vince is
kept aware of all that goes on in each ministry but is not hands on. He attends children’s, college
and adult events but isn’t the one to plan all of them. He also preaches sometimes on Sunday
mornings on occasion. He fills in for adult classes as needed.
The students all meet in large group together for the intro, games, and ice breakers. They meet in
a large group for an overview and then go to small groups to discuss and dig in deeper.
Following the introduction to the lesson the teens break up into middle school girls, middle school
boys, highschool boys and highschool girls. Because of size seventh and eight grade are together,
ninth and tenth are together and eleventh and twelfth grade are together, also separated by
gender.
Vince has tried most curriculums out there but uses Grow for Sundays and Wednesdays. Grow is
hands on, interactive, it requires participation. It allows time for the teens to work in groups and to
connect better. One of the main strengths is that every lesson points to Jesus. Even if the
lesson is from the Old Testament there is an element that still points to Jesus. The lessons are
applicable and easy to understand. They also have aspects that are deep. The only weakness he
mentioned is that there is a theme each month and they tend to repeat the same basic elements.
The story may be the same but they will pick a different main theme with new points.
When teaching the students are interested in friendship, mental health, family, sex, addictions,
dating, grief, peer pressure. Grow does an overview of these in a relevant and applicable way. The
students participate by asking questions and talking about their own experiences.
The youth meet in their own building across the street from the main church campus. The
heybuilding had a big meeting room that is used for large group time. There is also a kitchen and
gym. The youth are allowed to play in the gym upon arrival or hang out in the big room eating
snacks or palying games. Table games and other games such as ping pong are available. The big
room has circle tables and chairs. It also has a stage with chairs in a row for the big meeting time.
There are also smaller break out rooms used for indvisual classrooms. They meet in the same
area on Sundays and Wednesdays.
The teaching location is mostly good. The large group area is large and inviting. The classrooms
could use a little attention. They are clean but look rather boring. The classrooms could use a
theme, colors or something to separate it from the other rooms. It is adequate for what is needed.
The walls are a neutral color so the walls could use decoration, more color, graphics, pictures etc.
or an ascent wall that is colorful. The space itself is big and has room to grow. There are board
games, pool, ping pong, air hockey that are offered for teens to play and connect.
The best learning happens when teens are actively involved. Vince uses a lot of hands on object
lessons, videos, science experiments and utilizes active learning. The same method is not used
every week. Vince and his team change up to keep it fresh.
The most important thing is to keep the learning methods of the students at the forefront. It is
important to teach how they learn best.
Regardless of the means, the students are given opportunities to discuss and practice what they
learned and put it into practice.
Vince does not just spit out facts by reading the Bible. He helps involvle the kids in discussind
and analyzing to better understand. After working with teens for more than adecade, vince
realized that teens don’t want to sit still and hear a boring lecture for thirty minutes. Information
is not just spilled out without a vision of pointing to Jesus.Vince also likes to teach by using
stories form his real life kind of like how Jesus taught in patables. People connect to stories about
real life that helps engage students to learn and get closer to the truth. Vince left me with this
question to ponder: When teaching, what do I want the students to do after hearing the Word?
What do I want them to accomplish for the kingdom?”
