Gregg Garner, Jeff Sherrod, and Laurie Kagay are joined by Josh Beers, President and Founder of OneLife, a gap year program operating across the US. In this discussion, “Coach Beers” delves into the importance of discipleship and the distinct advantages a gap year provides for students uncertain about their future steps. This episode is particularly insightful for those considering a break from traditional academic paths to explore personal growth and vocational clarity.

College Conversations Season 1 Episode 7: Gap Years - Life Changing Break or Delayed Future? (Podcast Transcript)

Jeff Sherrod
Hey, everybody, welcome back to college conversations. Super excited to be here. We've been at the last episode we talked about, we're at the a big conference still here. And I think one of the really cool things about being at the ABHE Conference is the opportunity to meet different people. So we have a guest on today. So I'm really excited about that. We also have Laurie Kagay, Director of Enrollment, our President Gregg Garner, and then today we're joined by Josh Beers. Josh had a long history in college education and Biblical education at Lancaster Bible College, and then now as part of OneLife Institute. So welcome, Josh. Thank you. Yeah, I'm super, super excited to be here.

Josh Beers

Me as well.

Jeff Sherrod 0:52

yeah, just so maybe for people that don't know, you know, who you are a little bit of your background love to kind of say, Who's Josh Beers? And what do you do? Sure,

Josh Beers

it's not that exciting. But I've spent nearly 30 years now working with youth, or college students. So my entire life has been devoted to the probably the 15 to 25 year old, with most of the energy spent at the college level. 15 years at Lancaster Bible College, like you mentioned, went there as a VP for student life ended up in the enrollment area as well. And so a lot of that energy and time was, was spent, they actually changed my title. Without changing my salary, it was a really good work working deal will give you an increase in title than anything else. Thank you. Thank you exactly lots of responsibility. But it was great I was over student experience is what we call it. So from the moment we met a student, until they walked across that platform, everything in the Student Life area, was my responsibility. And it was actually a real blast, because we were recruiting mission fit students and we were able to then be part of that process going through with them. Sometimes there's a disconnect between the admissions process and the student

Gregg Garner 2:00

Engaged in the in retention elements. Absolutely.

Josh Beers

we said discipleship started with the first time we had a conversation, and we handed the baton to somebody else when we handed them their diploma. And obviously, faculty were a huge part of it. And they didn't let me anywhere near that, but and with good reason. But the rest of it, the student experience side of things, and then in close collaboration with our provost. So it was a really great experience in the processes that about 10 years ago, one life, which is where I work now, we helped launch that on our campus, which is a nine month gap year program, really helping students grow in their faith deepen in who they are in Christ, and it was just a natural fit for the mission of LBC. And three years ago, they kind of moved independent, I stayed with one life, and I've been leading that organization the last three years.

Gregg Garner 2:54

Wonderful. That's awesome. And for those who don't know, maybe you can give us a quick definition as to what a gap year is.

Josh Beers

So for us, and obviously, there's a lot of the way we define it, because you got to define the terms. A lot of students are taking a gap year and not doing something intentional. For us. It's students who are intentionally saying, I'm going to take a year between high school and college or high school and the rest of my life, to grow in some specific area for us, it's to grow deeper in who they're becoming in Christ. And so we're very intentional about that year being a year where growth is taking place and who they are right, and obviously trying to discern what are the next steps in my life? Is it? Is it college university? Is it a career path? Is it entering into a trade or whatever that is? Because we're, we're very confident that college is not for everybody. Yeah. And so it's that intentionality of a gap for specific area of growth. Some people, a lot of people do it with travel, and we incorporate travel into what we do. But I will say there's a lot of people who have told me over the last three years, I've learned this, painfully, I'm gonna take a gap year, what are you going to do? I think I'm gonna play video games for a year. I just don't count that as a gap year. I mean, it is a gap, but you still have a gap after your gap is done.

Gregg Garner 4:06

Yeah, term isn't unique to the One Life Institute. But the distinctive for the One Life Institute is that this year is set aside with intention to grow in your relationship with Jesus.

Josh Beers

That's exactly right. Yeah, we want to be very intentional about that. And we're unique in the sense that we offer up to 30 college credits. Yeah. And so that

Gregg Garner 4:25

dynamics that 30 and nine months, they can go so

Josh Beers

similar to a two semester if you're taking 15 credits each semester, 15 General Education 15 Bible credits, so transfer into a lot of schools, obviously, on the faith based side and we feel that's where my passion is. I'm a strong believer in that the 18 to 20 year olds as much coming of age as it is career path. I think there's an undue pressure at times on an 18 year old to know what they're going to do with the rest of their life. As we look at students today that data supports that right? But for us, it's it's Exactly right like let's go deeper in who you are in Christ. In fact, we talk about a very clearly like, who you're becoming is more important than where you're going. That's right. And so we're intentional about that. And that's what distinguishes one life and a number of other great gap your experiences that are out there. You

Gregg Garner 5:15

know, we have a similar phrase to what you said, who you're becoming is more important than where you're going, we say, who you're becoming is more important than what you're doing what you're going to get. Yeah. So like, maybe you can flesh that out a little bit for us what you mean, when you say where you're going? Well, I

Josh Beers

knew I liked you. Were going to a new level. But that's, like that exact point of so many times, really, we're dealing with with adults for us often is mom and dad want to know, what are you going to do with your life? What are you going to do? And so so many times I'd ask, even back to my LBC days, I'd say what do you what do you think God wants you to do with your life? And students would say, This is what I think I want to do and say I appreciate that. But I was asking what you think God wants you to this framing that little tweak on it? And so then obviously, we with one life, it was like, you know, what, if I don't grow in my character, if I don't grow in who I am, how can I fully discern what God wants me to do? Or even if I sense that what God's given me a passion or a burden for, you know, a specific area or arena of life? If I'm not deepening? Yeah, how do I go out? And so one person said to me, you take care of the depth and let God take care of the breath. And so we're really trying that attempt with students as well. So we want to see God Transforming Your Life, the transactional side of what job or career path you go, is actually going to fall into place pretty easily. Yeah,

Jeff Sherrod 6:36

even though that's all the anxiety. Oh, for

Josh Beers

sure. And I think sometimes, again, I think we as adults need to decrease that anxiety, I think oftentimes, it's being pushed down from a parent or a well meaning leader, who's saying, I see potential in you, and therefore I want to help you figure out what it is you're going to do, instead of saying, no, let's, let's take a little bit that iceberg approach and what's beneath the surface. And let's go after that. And let's equip you for 3040 50 years of impact, not just can you land your first job. Right,

Gregg Garner 7:05

right. And while there may be some high school institutions out there that are prepping high schoolers for this type of consideration, the grand majority probably don't. And do you feel like the one Life Institute is meeting a need? That is even perhaps more necessary at this time for this generation? Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Josh Beers

Oh, without a doubt, one of the things that's happened, at least what we've seen in a lot of education, K through 12, is we've begun to teach for the test to teach for the for the life. And that is really from my perspective has to be blamed again, on leadership who has said, schools are more concerned about test scores, and they concerned about the young man or young lady and what they're struggling with as they navigate the complexities of being a young person today. Yeah, full candor. I think it's way harder. I just part of what I love kids so much. The challenge of being a teenager today, compared to the last millennium, when I was a teenager is completely different. And I mean, even just the reality of technology and what gets thrown at them. Yeah, but there's an element of we teach instead of teaching to help a middle schooler, we teach them how to get from fifth grade to sixth grade to seventh grade. And that's not the goal, the goal is help preparing them. And so now they get to us all sudden say, well, the what was the goal of high school to help them graduate? Right, that wasn't the goal. Yeah, we've got the wrong targets. And as a result, they're less equipped for the life we are sending them out to the world we're sending them into. They haven't been able to discern least from my perspective, to be able to have the soft skills that if we're candid about are as important for a job as they are. All the other things artificial intelligence is exploding. Yeah, more important, more important. I'm with you, 100%. On that, Greg.

Gregg Garner 8:50

Wow. I think so much of what you said, I wanted to pause, and then ask more questions about, but I think with regard to that high school student and the pressures they have in the way you put it, the way what they have to go through and what they're exposed to, in contrast to what maybe their parents had to go through that there's some necessary examination that parents have to do to ask themselves questions, instead of just thinking back, what should I have done? I wish I wouldn't have messed around and just got serious and knocked out my degree immediately, and said, going, like, what are these guys exposed to? And as you said, that I just, I thought about the garden and how, you know, the Lord wanted to walk with them the color of the breeze and around the tree life. He wanted to teach them about life. Yeah, that's, that's pretty. And because I was thinking about you, I Just name one life. I'm like, Where's it coming from? But I'm thinking, you know, you got this tree. It's a tree of life. God wants to walk. God wants to open your eyes. God wants to teach you. But they're over here and they're wanting to access the knowledge. And they believe that the knowledge is what's going to give them the power to navigate all the unpredictable things right? Am I gonna make life beautiful? How am I going to make it sustainable? How am I going to let other people have some kind of pride by the wisdom that I've chosen to get this knowledge? And it opened their eyes. And unfortunately for our kids, it's really difficult to filter what it is they get their eyes open to true, especially independent of walking with God. Right? So it seems like one life is saying, it gets there's an element of unplugging them from a lot of things right now,

Josh Beers

we're very intentional about that. And part of it is just the ability to slow down, right? I mean, and let's be very candid about education, we could, I mean, we're, there's so much we could talk about here. But the reality of it is, we can ask a question in class 30 years ago, and we all need to memorize things. Now we can Google it faster than the professor can give it to her. So if we don't adapt to that reality, but then they've got so many things, and they don't get to turn it off. So we have intentionally said, we're going to turn it off for you. So we unplug from technology a few days a week that one life with the sheer intentionality of one of our student values of being all in. In other words, I want to be all in Yeah, with our conversation right now. To me, that's the most important thing I can be doing. Right? Yeah. So many times that well, okay, well, my phone's calling this, and all of a sudden, I can't be fully engaged in the conversation, we think that's a, we think we give a students a great gift by equipping them to be all in wherever they are, and being able to help them slow down. You talked about walking around the garden, I don't think the pace was let's get another 14 hour day and or I gotta check my phone at 1130. Right? Yeah, Adam and Eve aren't doing that. Because the reality is they were enjoying fellowship, the ultimate fellowship. And I think if we don't give space for fellowship to take place for relationships with God and each other, yeah, we take a gift away that I think is intended by our Creator, for us to be enjoyed. That deepens us for all of life. Yeah, that's yeah,

Laurie Kagay 11:49

I was talking to a student the other day, we take our students on, typically two to three, or four mission trips throughout their education. And when we can take them abroad, specifically, they don't take their phones with them, you know, we're like, you're not taking them away from away. And and that's not always been an easy conversation for them, where their parents are like, this is better on so many levels. But one student was like, it was actually my favorite part of summer internship was not even having the option. I think she had to write something like, what's the lesson you would tell to a future intern or something like that? And she said, Honestly, the freedom from my device allowed me to be all in, you know, allowed me to fully engage to be president. And so you know, we've done it, especially in those international trips that kind of test it for them. But it's Yeah, it

Gregg Garner 12:35

It seems to that for this generation of visceral connection with God is just not their normal experience, like all of their experiences are coming on the other side of what is on their device. And the you sometimes you can hear Gen Z talk about like, Yeah, I saw that. And what they're talking about is what they saw on a device, where I think like their parents generation, they said, Yeah, I saw that they literally mean, they had, you know, they were there's some kind of proximity consideration for being present. But it's, it's assuming I'm in attendance or whatever it is. But for them to actually get a venue where they're tutored into how to be president. Gosh, that's, that's fantastic. Because I'm also well, people always talk about me as being an entrepreneur, but I have several other businesses. And so I do a lot of hiring. And you can get these bright students who are graduating top of their class master's degrees in their early 20s, and then coming into work, and they can't be present. Like they lack the tools to actually make themselves present without having to execute like, you know, all the common excuses. I'm a little add. Just I need a break. I can't sit that long. It's like, man, dude, we're only been here 10 minutes. Like,

Jeff Sherrod 14:05

you can do this, to self diagnose. Yeah, yeah. So

Gregg Garner 14:09

it's Wow, that's, that's really great. Laurie, I know that you had some.

Laurie Kagay 14:12

Yeah, I had another question. Which was, I know, you said not every student. Maybe College is a good choice for them. But even I was wondering the reverse with gap year. Do you feel like there's certain students who you would really recommend a gap year where others you may see them? Ready? You know, Greg mentioned some schools do do a good job of prep here. Yeah, some high schools of preparing students. We have a K 12 on campus. And I think that's part of their curriculum from the beginning is helping them kind of discover their giftings and what they could do, but I suspect for so many students, that may not be the case, but I just wonder like, if there is a high school senior wondering, should I go to college next year, Should I do a gap year? You know, how would you help them sort through

Gregg Garner 14:55

what would be the deserting

Josh Beers

Great question Laurie because I think it's a When I think about what what kind of student we're looking for, it's interesting, we have students who have our incredibly bright students full ride scholarships to universities who have done our gap year program. We have students who I never want to go near another book after I finished my last high school class, and both have thrived in the environment of small community for us, because we're, our programs built around 24 to 30 students at each location. So we have four locations, and we continue to live in cohorts and moving cohorts, and we do a few things together. But like, as we leave for Israel next week, with our first cohort, they'll go be in Israel, the next eight, six weeks with four different groups. one's touching down on the next one's elite, you know, leaving and so on. But that dynamic of the question is, so many students don't know. And my first response when someone says you don't know is, don't go borrow $50,000 to figure it out. And so now we're saying let's have we're graduating students with them, but we laugh about it, but I'm serious. They're graduating with a mortgage and no house, right? And they have no, we had five students last year reach out as they graduated from secular universities call and say, Can I do your One Life program? Should know we're for 1819 20 year olds, they said, I said, Didn't you just finish your degree? Yes. And I have no clue. To me, that's a failure at those universities as much as I look and say something's broken, right? And so for an 18 year old is a slow down, say, what is it that I believe God wants me to do is what I'd be like, what Who am I do I have an idea of where I'm at in life? What are the opportunities and for people to slow down. So I'm going to consider these things, a gap, you're going to school, working, maybe working, if I'm involved in my local church, and maybe some community college, there's a lot of great options before you start sacrificing your future. Because your peers are going into this university, and they're borrowing 3540 $50,000. And they are right. And then they're graduating with 100 plus $1,000, of debt, sometimes closer to $200,000. And they don't know. And they've got a generic like, it's understand, you're going into medicine. And you know, that's the path God has for you. One life, the only option we are is to help you go deeper, so that you can we can launch you out as an ambassador for Christ in the in the field of medicine, we're not Equipping You for medicine, I want somebody when that my knee was replaced last year, I didn't want somebody who had done one life as my key person. I wanted somebody who understood what it was like to replace my knee. And that dynamic is If students know, and they're and a gap year is not going to expedite launching them into their calling. I'm saying get going to it. But

Gregg Garner 17:45

there will be one life graduates who will go on to be surgeons who could fix your knee, that's going to be the even better combo. And you're

Josh Beers

exactly right, Craig. And what I simply say is we're there and we'd love it. We'd love to pour life into you. When when we think of Jesus and what he did. He spent 30 years preparing for a three year earthly ministry with a very intentional purpose, obviously, right. But that dynamic of preparation, sometimes we're so quick to get to the transactional side of preparation is to say, you know, what am i i use the iceberg earlier. But that idea of what's beneath the surfaces are character, and how deep am I going to go my character, and again, that's why schools like yours, I get so excited about because you're so intentional about that. I mean, I don't think we can even do if sometimes we get to the end of nine months, and we're like, we barely scratched the surface. But hopefully we gave something to the students. And a number of them. A lot of them go into faith based schools, but a number of her going a different direction. And we're like if we equip them, to launch them out as ambassadors for Christ. Yeah, as missionaries in their calling. Yeah,

Gregg Garner 18:47

I mean, so many good things. You're saying. But the collaborative effort is just reminds me of Paul apostles conversations where he has to end with God's going to give the increase, but there are different parties who contribute to the life of that plant. And you know, we being God's field, God's planting in us. So One Life Institute then is really engaged in sowing the seeds that will, by God's grace, manifest even no matter what future direction they go, that's

Josh Beers

the heart of it. The heart of it to us is exactly that is we want to help you take the next step in who you are. So that wherever you go, whatever you choose to do, we've better equipped you for that. Yeah, and particularly when it comes to being anchored in their faith and and realizing both how God's uniquely wired them. We think calling begins with loving God and loving others. So no matter where you're a surgeon, you're called to love God and love others. You're an engineer, or you're a pastor, the call that aspect of calling is under spoken about, in my opinion, by too many of saying, the calling of every one of us, as Christ followers is to love God and to to love others and helping students then connect that calling to their vocational calling, is where we see our role. Some of them get it in that nine month period, some of them we hand the baton to a university to a school like yours and say, Hey, here's the next step. But hopefully, they're better equipped the, the Back to the Garden has been the soil has been turned up a little bit tender there already. So yeah, so maybe we've planted and maybe the watering is now taking place. So God can give that increase. Yeah, that's

Laurie Kagay 20:29

good. And we've experienced, I think, on the other side of that, sometimes we receive students, and that's been cultivated so much. So everything's kind of a shock. You know, I think even as a teacher, it feels like the first whole semester, they're just trying to figure out my bank account, and how do I pay that? And how do I do the laundry on time and, you know,

Gregg Garner 20:49

mystical things. But going back to this the soil metaphor and thinking like Matthew 13, we the CB, the word of God, what we're trying to give people, that it really its effectiveness is conditioned by their hearts. And for these young people coming from these various walks of life. They there is a variety of soil, and the best soil. I mean, no matter what we think of the first three soils, right, none of them are the good soil. Right? Yeah. But the good soil we know is cultivated, it's turned up and opportunity like one life is to get your heart cultivated.

Josh Beers

Yeah. Well, I love that you referenced Matthew 13, because our pastor spoke about it last week. And he was talking about when the the fourth soil that bears the fruit, because all of them heard it. Yeah. But then it says the fourth one, excuse me understood it, he understands it. And I think that's where we're helping. How can they understand if we don't slow down to help them like, honestly, Laurie, it is important to reach them. And those are sometimes, in fact, especially post COVID, we've had to slow down a number of things we do, because we would say the soil their hearts wasn't quite ready. And so what we've done is say, You know what, we're going to turn this up a little more gently, we're going to help them we're going to try and reach them a little bit where they are Jesus modeled that so well for us. And we have that flex in our program a little bit per se, let's adapt to where they are. I know just the little bit conversations we've had, you're doing some of the same things of like, let's not one size does not fit. All right, right. But allowing that was they hear it to say Do they understand it? And this person might understand it, because they came in and had that foundation. And this one doesn't understand it. But a couple years from now, we might find out that person that was behind is actually the one who took deeper root and you're bearing much more fruit in that process. Yeah,

Jeff Sherrod 22:30

we're like not we're not mono cropping. Yeah, exact harvest. Works careful gardeners.

Josh Beers

And that's, and that's why I believe the hope, for me is so much in the smaller Christian colleges, Bible colleges, universities who are saying, We aren't trying to do it on this exponential level. We're doing it the way Jesus did it one life at a time. Yeah. I mean, his model was and even when the when I believe it was Paul and X or Peter and X when they were saying, Who are these guys? And they're like, other untrained, uneducated man, but but they had been with Jesus. Yeah. element of exactly they would they caught his life. And it's very difficult when we're saying, Well, you know, I'm teaching 1000 students at a time, how do you catch the life of that professor? Or somebody who's gonna say, You know what, I'm going to help you. You've never done your laundry? Let me help you. And could that be a springboard to go deeper in their faith journey? Because somebody actually showed care that maybe they didn't experience growing up? Maybe they didn't have the luxury of having a mom or dad teach them things that my mom or dad taught to me? And and to meet them where they are? Yes, good.

Laurie Kagay 23:35

I think you both have done a lot of, you know, taking young people on mission or even in travel experiences, I wondered if either of you could speak to kind of what happens in the mind of a young person is they're taken out of what they've considered normal. And now are entering a cross cultural experience. You know, what, what eight is,

Gregg Garner 23:56

By show you mean, coming out of their base culture and moving into like, yeah, they

Laurie Kagay 24:01

stayed in their parents home most of the time. And I think, you know, part of them growing up as seen, there's people different than me, I was talking to a student the other day, and she was like, all my roommates are so different than me. I said, Well, yeah. Do you want them to have gone through what you went through? Oh, no, That'd be terrible. I was like, oh, yeah, this is an opportunity for you to grow and you know, develop people on like you. But I think even having been betting on person who went on trips with you, even the experience of driving a bus through Uganda, and you pointing out certain things to me and even even just the travel days are instructive and reflective and to my faith, and I just wondered what you thought about kind of that. We've talked about unplugging, but also kind of uprooting them and exposure to different for

Josh Beers

us. It's as simple as one of our students we have six student values I already mentioned be all and other one is comfortable with the uncomfortable and so we just I openly look at parents and students say we want to make you uncomfortable this year. And so for some of them, it's a cross cultural trip, because they get out of that the things that that alone is so valuable. And again, our American brains have often been trained to say, no whatever you can do to give your child safety and security, which safety is very important. But keeping them comfortable is actually very detrimental, and is proven to be detrimental to their growth. So when you get on a cross cultural trip, and you're riding along, or you're, for us some of the trips of cramming 18 people into what should be 10, passenger van, or whatever it is, and you're experiencing those things. And you're seeing the way people live, and all of a sudden, your perspective is changing, because you're uncomfortable, and you have to listen, like one of the things we do we send our students out, we deal with some dynamics around culture, well, we spend a week with Native Americans out in the middle out west, it's better than any classroom, I can take them in tie and students come back changed. Because they were forced out of a comfort zone of what their view of the world was. Yeah. And all of a sudden, it gets flipped on its head. Yeah, no, Greg, you could probably speak to a lot. Going back

Gregg Garner 26:09

to that visceral experience, that they're actually utilizing their senses to engage a reality, especially when they're unfamiliar with I mean, yeah, you guys have a much nicer way of saying it, you've come through with the uncomfortable, but for when when I started doing all this in the 90s, I would use the phrase to facilitate suffering, oh, well, you can imagine how you imagine what goes on with parents. But the concept of facilitating suffering was that, you know, like, Paul told Timothy, like a good soldier of Jesus Christ, you're gonna suffer. And the concept of facilitating it is creating a controlled environment, we're in the student can have facilitated for them, what it is they're inevitably going to be doing in, in life, but in some kind of cared for simulated real life mode. Because because when you have teachers and leaders there, we're looking out for him, right, it's like, we're not, we're not going to allow a pilot to fly or 737 800, if they haven't sat in the simulation deck, and then they haven't sat with a more experienced pilot, who's going to grab the whatever's on pilot, you know, at anytime. But it's like, funny how, with the young people, we're gonna send them out into the world. And nobody, nobody put them in the simulator. Nobody's sat in life, you know, like, I get the academic side of things. But in life element. Another thing that I'm criticism that I have, would be that, at least for me, the Christianity I grew up with, which was awesome. When I was a kid, I loved that I was a church kid, fourth generation ministers kid, you know, like, good times. But the Christianity that I learned, excellent for me as a kid, wasn't enough for me as an adult. And I think that people need to recognize that in parents in particular, if your kid, you love them, they're amazing. They've graduated, they're so bright, they've got a long way to go. They're not as grown as you think they are. And I know to you, you, you're you're reminiscing all the times, you've taught them to walk on the first days of school and all that stuff. But they still need that stimulation they need teaching, you know? And so I guess to answer your question for me, what, when you unplug a student from their environment, they become more aware, right? There's so much axiom to them, when they're in their base culture, they're just moving around, they're not really looking anything. But when you go to someplace that is unfamiliar to you, the contrasts, all of a sudden emerge. And as educators, recognizing like Bloom's Taxonomy, we know that at the very bottom, people have to be engaged in some kind of awareness campaign, to grow and to learn. So getting them out of their comfort zone, putting them into another situation, they have to ask questions they've never asked before. And part of our job as guides in that is to, again, help them even know what the questions are to ask and that they're free to ask those questions. And, and, you know, naturally, they end up reflecting on their own experience, because that's what you do with contrast.

Josh Beers

I love that you said that. I think the piece to add to that. Yeah, really well is the experience. So you talked about your upbringing, and I think about my own, I learned a lot about God, and I was drawn to God. But there was an element of experiencing God working in and through me. And sometimes in those experiences, students start saying, Oh, God can use me and I think that's one of the gifts we give them when we take them out of that comfort zone of saying no, we're gonna we're gonna let you put this into practice. We're gonna let you own your faith. Because for a good while, I would say my high school journey was my parents faith. Now, as I began to own my faith in college, I think You have to realize, well, my, my own faith looks a lot like my parents, but I was being forced to own it. When you're out on those experiences that you asked about Laurie, you're forced to own your you reveal some things about yourself that otherwise wouldn't be revealed because of what you just described. And that's a good thing. And to give students space to wrestle through that, and then to begin to get a taste of, you know, Psalms does taste and see that the Lord is good. It doesn't just say, just keep learning more and more about him. And sometimes crosscultural experience let you taste and see, wow, this could this could be an adventure better than that screen that I'm staring at and playing games or looking at clips over whatever. There's something real taking place here that I get to be part of. Yeah.

Gregg Garner 30:40

And you're rightly noting that for most young people in their traditional and probably even like majority experience, they're not getting a venue to experience exactly how it is God could use them and work on them. So you're facilitating that for them. That's awesome.

Jeff Sherrod 30:58

Yeah, I love that. One of the questions I had is, as you're working with students, you know, we've had students who have taken gap year, sometimes they're like, on my third year of my gap year, I've almost never seen those someone just take a break, especially out of high school, come to college, and then do better. You know, like, where they're just like you said, I'm just sitting around, I just needed to break. And I just wanted to do my own thing. So yeah, how do you counsel students, I just want to do nothing for a little bit of

Josh Beers

My unhappy coach monster comes out, I've been coaching for 29 years, it's, it's the halftime speech, when someone says, I'm not going to do anything. I look them in the eye and say, That's not what God wants you to do. Yeah, I can promise you this. I don't know that he wants you at one life. But I know this, he doesn't want you at minimum, go get a job, work hard. Save money. So when God shows you what's next, and a lot of us, well, maybe I'll work a little. And I literally have sat with parents very emphatically saying, God does not want, they may be tired of school, they may be just flat out tired. Let's be candid, some of the last few years have created some unique health, mental health concerns and so on. I'm all for that. But those issues don't get resolved by sleeping 18 hours a day, or whatever it is, or sitting and watching the screen for the other however many hours again, so I'm just really passionate that the option the option should not be just to sit and read nothing the option is, and neither should it be work for jobs. It doesn't have to be that. But it should be an intentionality to whatever you do post high school, right? Even if you have no if the horizon seems so unclear, then work in safe and be prepared for what that might be. Be involved in your local church, volunteer a little bit more in your community, volunteer in your church, get involved with a kid's ministry, just do things that maybe are going to help you understand the gifts you have, that you might not even realize you have I think that's the fun of discovery of this age group. And sitting and doing nothing doesn't allow that ongoing discovery and equipping for what God has for them.

Jeff Sherrod 33:13

Yeah, that's, that's good. And it almost feels like it has an exponentially negative effect. You lose more, you're not just losing a year, sometimes it feels like you know, you're because then it takes time to even get back into.

Josh Beers

We've we've had those have the data support it we've had 10 or 11 students who especially coming out of this Cova era of things, who said, I want to come but I'm going to take a year and then I'm going to come none of them have come. Yeah. And we tracked followed back up. Now I think I'm just gonna end they're basically still drifting. And my heart aches because I want to help them stop drifting because they have great potential. But it's just easy to get comfortable, right? And we're wired that way. As human beings, I take the path of least resistance. And so unless somebody comes alongside a young person says, Listen, that path of least resistance isn't going to take you where God wants to take you isn't going to allow you to fulfill who you were created to be. They're going to continue on the path of least resistance until somebody or something pulls them out of that. So it rarely we haven't seen it be successful when it's I take a gap and then I'm gonna take a gap, right? So they literally that's what they told us. So that's not original to me. I'm gonna take a gap and then I'm gonna take a gap. And I said, then what's after the gap gap? And you know, you're just like,

Jeff Sherrod 34:33

it's just a chasm. Exactly. Well,

Josh Beers

You might want to could trademark that that may be on something.

Gregg Garner 34:41

Josh, you said that you've been a coach for 29 years. I'm just curious in what what sport so

Josh Beers

I've coached primarily soccer the last decade or so with soccer and basketball and I've loved coaching soccer, not because I want to coach basketball because I love the impact I felt a coach can make on basketball. I love the game and I fell into soccer because my kids love soccer. And started in coaching. I was coaching coach a little bit the college level to Division Three level. But my, I absolutely love it. I'm wired as a coach. But I love soccer because it's a player's game. And it's taught me a lot about my own leadership journey, because I just can't like so many times, especially when I was coaching some club teams at a younger age, I've just want to beg if I had one timeout in soccer doesn't offer a timeout. And it revealed how poor a coach I am because I hadn't prepared and but it's helped me so much as a leader working with youth and college aged kids of like, we're gonna miss things. But are we are we sometimes it's so easy to want to coach them to be a certain way instead of coach them with the principles they need to adapt in real time. And again, back to our conversation. That's why coaching and working with youth in college being a part of a gap year right now just it aligns so well, because my heart is, hey, you know what, I wish I had a timeout and sometimes they call you 25, 27, 28. “Coach. Here I am. I'm stuck. What do I do?” It's like, Okay, nice. Good timeout. Yeah, it's fantastic. But life keeps moving. And we equip them with the foundation to adapt to both the blessings and the challenges or the suffering that God does to deepen us and equip us for greater impact. That's good. I went from soccer, from coaching to back to what it is, but it's all one life.

Jeff Sherrod 36:27

I think that's the hallmark of a good coach, though, is like to be able to say we're not just playing sports here. Yeah. You know, we're doing something else.

Gregg Garner 36:33

Yeah, this this doesn't mean as much if it ends here, right game, right. Yeah, there's, there's something else. So just who are your team's soccer so?

Josh Beers

Well, Liverpool is who I root for in the English Premier League. My son and I both we went to England, just before COVID hit and we actually went in the Thanksgiving before. And we went to English Premier League. And I thought United States fans were crazy. Yeah.

So we were we were at a Sheffield menu game and there was one of our kids like manual they said Please, whatever you do your you can't cheer for manual. It was a couple goals in Sheffield was winning and someone's score menu and that kids stood up? Yes. And we're like, it's fine. It's three to one or something. And I thought they were gonna throw him over. I don't these people are. And, but then I go away from say, if they're that passionate, what am I living for this that passion, but man, boy, absolutely.

Gregg Garner 37:38

Loved it. And you know, the the former CEO of Liverpool made an MLS team. And that's our team, the CEO of Liverpool. The former wind is now the CEO of our national

Josh Beers

so I do not know that you're gonna have for Nashville. Yeah, we haven't.

Gregg Garner 37:55

We have a new stadium. It's the biggest one in North America. And he designed it after the European model. I love it as a as a lot of fun. We Yeah. We love soccer. world sport.

Josh Beers

It is it is the universal language that and we were speaking of cross cultural, we went to Scotland with my college soccer team years ago, showed up they said, Hey, what are we here? And our kids start saying, Hey, we're on a mission trip, whatever else. And I mean, they were openly making fun of us. And a couple of light players just pulled out a ball and started knocking around. And next thing, you know, we had 100 kids around, we're sharing Christ and we had, and then because, again, because we were halfway decent, the platform increased. And that's why you better be the one. Otherwise you're gonna walk away. Exactly right. And sometimes the humility of that chain, because they're really good. But that dynamic for me as a coach has always been people say, Do you want to win to back to your point 100% I want to win because it increases my platform for what really matters. And that's helping equip them for life or having a platform to share live out my faith. Yeah. And so that dynamic is we want to win, but that's not winning. Winning is where are my players? 10 years from now? Yeah, because the investment winning isn't whether students graduate winning isn't whether they go through a gap year program winning is how did this equip and launch them for the rest of their life journey? And that's why the scoreboard probably won't fully be kept here on Earth. Yeah, yeah,

Gregg Garner 39:13

yeah. And even your mentality as a coach, and running your program at One Life Institute, I can just see all the benefits because I think with this generation, one of them observations and maybe I can be critiqued for this observation is just their little soft. There's a there's like, like, if you tell them I want to win, you might get cancelled, because, you know, it's like, it's like, I don't know if I if winning is good. And I don't know if we need to be that aggressive, or however they interpret your halftime speech, it might trigger them. And so it made me think about how for the Lord, especially working with a group of people who were highly traumatized by the experience in Egypt, calling them into the wilderness and then putting them Do an experience that would again, give venue for them to really learn who God was because it did unplug them from everything that they knew. So that now it was rough on them. It was hard on them. They they didn't have to toughen up. There was something about God's education for Israel in the wilderness that that made them well, he was wanting to make them the kind of people that even with respect to hunger, right, Deuteronomy eight, right, let them hunger. Yeah. So that they fed the manner that they did not know the fathers know, so that they would know, man does live by bread alone, but by God's word, and so like putting kids in a situation where again, some things are taken away in their phones, their comfortability, their cultural base, their

Josh Beers

Knowledge of a schedule. Yeah. Like, we don't know what's next. And like,

Gregg Garner 40:54

there's, there's some facilitation there that's taking place that you would hope is going to direct them towards communion with God that they're going to be like, Okay, who are you? Right? And And what's my next step? Because I've noticed, back to your question, you do take these young people on on trips, they always want to know what's next. They can't even be in that moment. They're like, what are we doing next? What's on the schedule tomorrow? What's going on. So when you don't give them the schedule, and you don't let them get access to clocks all the time, that that facilitation, that learning of how to be present? Hopefully, we put them in the presence of God. And then that becomes their practice, they start thinking, Now

Josh Beers

that slow down concept, and even the fact what's next, what's next is saying speed up speed up because when they've been programmed to speed up, and well, you know what, we're going to be flexible on the schedule that scares them. Oh, yeah. But let's be honest, it scares us as adults too. And you know, that dynamic of allowing ourselves to rest in that moment, or to go deeper in that moment, is a gift we're giving down. But it's a tough, like, it's not in real time often said, Thank you for doing that. Yeah. But you couple the amazing part to me, though, to Greg, to what you just said, I think the reason we're we've that we're, you know, if we're turning out a soft generation, I kind of have to say, Well, let's look at the parents and the adults in their own right. You know, my dad is, you know, he's, he's been in heaven now for nearly 20 years. He's my hero. And there's not a day that goes by that he didn't impact my life. He grew up in Philadelphia without a father survived, came to know the Lord. And then he said, Son, I'm gonna stay on your work ethic. And you'll always have a job. He said, because I know people in this world that can work. And this is, you know, 35 or 40 years ago, working a job at 10 years old saving for college thinking, I got the worst parent in the world. 10 years old, I want to buy a pack of baseball cards, and I can't do that. But the reality of it was, he instilled in me when I graduated from college and had zero debt and $22. In my bank account, I went and said, Dad, you've given me the greatest gift you could ever give me. And that dynamic, I look so often in life now, because the generations change. But if you care about because of the dynamic of the family being uprooted and all sorts of other dynamics in our world, if kids know you care, without being with without being wrong, as a leader, you can push them pretty hard. Yeah. But if they don't, if you don't care, then all bets are off with it. But the reality is, is I found with the teams, I coach, when they know Coach cares, they're willing to run through a wall. And I'm like, No, I don't need you to run to the wall, I need you to score on the back of the net. But whatever you say, coach, because I know you care about me. I know you care about me beat you, I know you're gonna love me, even if we lose, and that frees kids up to win. Hey, you know what, we're on this trip. We're not going to tell you what's next. But you know why? Because we got something really special, you know, what can you trust and taking them deeper. But in that relationship, I think that relational safety matters, to bring out that toughness that needs to get built into their life. And so I don't think we can shortcut relationships. But if we, if we establish those relationships, like you're saying, Great. I think we probably sometimes as leaders aren't asking enough and kids are looking for it elsewhere. They're looking for something bigger than themselves. Yeah. And we have it in the cause of Christ. Right. And so we need to challenge him to that and we can if we'll invest in

Jeff Sherrod 44:21

and then Amen, it's awesome. Josh it's been great conversation where can people go to learn learn a little bit more about one life

Josh Beers

Sure. Onelifepath.org all written out. On Onelifepath.org there are quizzes on there. There's parent quizzes that peep parents want to look at and find out a little bit more and we follow up very quickly as simple pre qualified, but that's probably the first place to start and just blessed to be on here with you. I love the heart. I love the mission. I love what you're doing and the commitment you have.

Jeff Sherrod 44:49

Same same to you. Thanks. Thanks so much. See you guys.

Also see: 

Gregg Garner
The Institute for GOD 
OneLife Institute: Gap Year Program
Josh Beers, President of OneLife

For comments, questions, or topic ideas, email us at conversations@instituteforgod.org