JACOB: This episode, we have special guest, Genesis Cruz, the Middle School Director at Southwest Church. Today, she’s going to talk about what discipleship looks like for her. So, Genesis, why don’t you start by talking about your background a bit?
GENESIS: Thank you. Hi Jacob, thank you for having me today. Wow, this—I’ve been thinking about this all week because we talked about this a week ago, and I thought, “Wow, I get to diversify your interviews.” Yeah, definitely, definitely. So yes, my name is Genesis Cruz, and I’m the Middle School Director at Southwest Church, and I’ve been doing that for a little over, I think, 10 months now—almost a year.
My background—I mean, I was a photographer before this. I was a full-time photographer. I don’t have a ministry degree, which I know will appall many people that are probably listening to this. And I would say that I was a high-level volunteer at my church, and I have been for several, several years since I got saved. And God presented this opportunity to be a director at Southwest Church, and my heart leapt, and I said yes—and it’s been history since then.
JACOB: Definitely. What were you volunteering in before?
GENESIS: Before becoming Middle School Director, I was volunteering with Student Ministry as well, so I was a small group leader for seventh-grade girls. But I’ve also been part of the Children’s Ministry, so I was small group leading and teaching the fourth and fifth graders, which was kind of cool because a lot of them ended up moving up with me when I became the Middle School Director. So that was really neat.
But I also did Worship Ministry. I’ve been singing for many, many years—that’s actually where I started. I was 18 when I came to Jesus, and the first ministry that I got involved with was Worship Ministry. I mean, the church was like, “All right, cool, you’re saved. Can you sing?” “Yes.” “All right, see you next week on Tuesday.” And that’s literally how that went. So, very early on when I got saved, I was propelled into ministry—and I haven’t stopped since then.
JACOB: Awesome. So, you’ve worked with fourth and fifth, and also with junior high. What would you say are some of the biggest maturity, developmental, and just behavioral differences with handling those two different groups?
GENESIS: Oh man, so there is a huge difference between fourth and fifth grade and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. I understand that they’re only a few years apart, but it is night and day. I mean, fourth and fifth graders are still super innocent. They are exposed to things at school—we are all aware of that—but it’s nothing like what’s waiting for them in sixth grade. Sixth grade’s a culture shock for them.
And so, I mean, you would know this, Jacob—the sixth graders at the beginning are not the same sixth graders now, right? They’ve gone through so many things at school as middle schoolers. So definitely a huge gap developmentally, psychologically, emotionally, physically—a lot of them have physically grown in such a short amount of time. So they are two different people between the ages of, you know, 9–10 and 11–12. It’s a huge difference.
And I think middle schoolers are amazing. I know a lot of people don’t feel that way. I think a lot of people feel that they’re very immature, that you can’t carry a conversation with them—but if you stay long enough, you realize that you can. And once you build trust, rapport, and just really, really delve into discipleship with them, they respond sometimes even better than adults.
So, I love the fact that with middle school-age students, I can still have fun—they’re not too cool for school, right? High schoolers, I think, you have to go through a background check, Social Security, and a blood test to make sure that you are cool enough to speak to them and to disciple them. With middle schoolers, they’re really just asking, “Hey, do you like me? Cool. You actually like me? All right, let’s be friends.” So, I love, I love that age group. They’re amazing.
JACOB: Definitely. So, why don’t you tell me about what you’re doing at Southwest?
GENESIS: What am I not doing? As Middle School Director, my job is to plan and execute all events—all discipleship points for middle school-age students. And that looks like, in the form of, I have an 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday and also an evening service for our students as well, where I teach both. It looks like recruiting and teaching volunteers, which has been probably—we’ll get there—but that’s probably been the hardest part of this journey, and I’m learning that.
That also looks like—I actually go into the middle schools during the week. So I spend some time at Palm Desert Middle, I spend some time at DR. I teach there as well, so a lot of teaching all throughout the week. And that also looks like one-on-ones with my girls. I do one-on-one discipleship throughout the week where I either pick up students from school, take them out for coffee. I just got back from another discipleship with one of my girls—every Saturday morning we get together.
I also—not only that, like making sure I cover all the points here—not only that, I’m also really involved with everything in my church. So not only that, I’m involved with sermon text, which means I sit in with all the pastors every week, and we look at what’s being taught on Sunday. So it’s a really great and learning environment for myself. I also do “Pastor of the Day,” in which I get scheduled throughout the month to be the pastor on duty. And what that means is all calls that go to the church come to me that day. So whether that means I am hearing someone’s story and they just need someone to talk to—someone to pray with—or if that means I’m referring them out to counseling, to different small groups, or just different resources that can help them further than what I can at the moment.
So, Middle School Director looks like many, many things for me, and yeah, I think every day is a learning day. There are times where I’m like, “Oh, I do that too? Okay, sounds great.”
JACOB: Definitely. What’s it like being a small group leader?
GENESIS: Oh, it’s the best thing. If I could small group lead—and I just, I love it. I love it. I have my group of girls; they vary anywhere from maybe eight to sometimes up to fourteen. It looks like just being a safe place—that’s what we do. We open up the Word, right? Like, we look at life, what is happening in their life, and Genesis may not have the answers all the time, but the Bible does. So, let’s open up the Word and let’s see what God has for you, right? Not what Genesis has for you, but what God has for you.
So, it looks like text messages and calls at 11:00 at night because, “Hey, Gen, something just happened and I need to talk about it.” “All right, that’s what I’m here for.” It looks like taking students home because their parents are too busy, and it’s like, “You know what, no, let me get you to church because I want you there. So let me pick you up and take you home.” So it looks like late nights dropping off students.
What I’d say is my life as a small group leader is doing the work—actually boots on the ground. Let’s do this. It also looks like—it’s 24/7. It doesn’t stop. But I mean, we’re Christian, and that is part of discipleship. It doesn’t stop. There’s no clock-in or clock-out time.
JACOB: Absolutely, yeah. And I mean, you’re definitely living life with people around you.
GENESIS: Totally. For sure.
JACOB: Yeah, so on that, what are some of the lessons the Lord has taught you along the way?
GENESIS: He continues to teach me—well, we’re always students, right? So, as someone who came into this position without a ministry degree, I’ve gone through a lot of self-doubt—like impostor syndrome 24/7. I have a hard time with that. I mean, man, I’ve had to tell people who have a Bible degree, “Hey, maybe you should say it this way,” or “Maybe we should…” And so, that’s something that God continues to teach me, and He continues to show me grace and love.
At the end of the day, I think I’m actively learning that everybody is called to minister. And I know I’ve heard it over and over again—that that is our job—but I think we always tend to say, “No, these people can minister, these people can do the work. I can sit here and support all day and do all these other things.” But no, these people are called.
So, I think that has been a big learning curve for me—being in a leadership position, being in full-time vocational ministry, my life changing from one day to the next, and just accepting the call that God has over my life, and being comfortable with being super uncomfortable with almost everything that I do. And the sweet part of that has been that because I feel so uncomfortable, I can’t go anywhere else. I have to lean on God. “You need to be here; you need to help me out here, because there’s no way that Genesis can do this on her own.” So that’s been a really sweet space for me, because there’s no other way that I could do this.
So, I think just a really deep dependence on God has been something that I’ve learned. Another thing that I touched on earlier was volunteers. I guess I never—being someone who was a volunteer always—I was the volunteer that you didn’t need to ask me to be there. I was always there. I’m like, “Okay, how can I help? What do I do?” And that’s my husband too, so we’re always volunteering together.
Yeah, we were just—that was just our culture. Even in our previous churches, that was the culture, right? You serve, you serve, you serve, you serve. And I would say that yes, I’ve had people walk alongside me, disciple me, teach me, and do all the things, right? But there were also many situations in which I wasn’t taught, and I had to kind of learn as I went, because ministry is ministry and people keep going, and it’s such a busy space if you allow it to be.
And what I’ve learned is, wow, my job is not to be everything to my students—because that’s my comfort place. My comfort place is my students. I love doing one-on-ones with my kids. I love creating intentional moments with them. That’s my comfort zone right there—students, one-on-one. Love it. I could do that all day.
Now, put me in the room with a volunteer that I have to coach and I have to lead—that’s hard for me, because of what I spoke of earlier, right? All the impostor syndrome that God’s like, working in my life. And so, understanding that I can’t be everything to students, and my job is to build up volunteers so that they multiply myself, right? So that they can reach out to more students than I could ever reach out to.
That’s been something that I’ve learned and I continue to learn, and I’ve messed up a lot of things. And I’m like, “Okay, all right, note to self,” and continue to extend grace to myself in that space as well. So I think those two have been my biggest takeaways.
JACOB: Mhm. So how do you do that? How do you build up a volunteer?
GENESIS: Oh, that’s a great question. I’m still asking myself that! (laughs) No, just kidding. What I am learning is discipleship—more one-on-one time with them, right? And I’ve come to understand that any good organization, any good church, is going to have a really solid step-by-step for volunteers as well.
And that’s something that we are working on building for our future volunteers this coming season. I mean, me and the other director—we came in brand new. I think he’s been here for almost a year, if not a year already. So we’re both—and we both don’t have ministry degrees. So we’re learning as we go, right? We have amazing people that are teaching us and by our side, but we’re still doing this thing brand new.
So I think what we really want to do is have a more solid discipleship pathway for our volunteers so that they feel equipped—because if I feel unequipped to do certain things, they probably do too. And so, teaching them one-on-one, having more of a pathway for them so that they don’t feel like they’re just doing things on their own and figuring it out.
JACOB: Yeah, and I know that one of the ways that you do that is by having them teach, right? So tell me the process of that.
GENESIS: Well, having them teach—I again, I try my best to offer opportunities, right? Like, “Hey guys, I do not want to be the only voice that they hear.” I’m sure they get annoyed of me from time to time. I’m teaching at 11:00 a.m.; a lot of my students go to the 11:00 a.m. and then come Sunday night, so they hear me twice in a day. I mean, my husband probably doesn’t want to hear me that often either.
So, I try to encourage my leaders to teach. “Come teach. Let’s do this.” And that has been one way. And that process looks like, okay, here’s the Scripture, this is what we’re trying to achieve—however, you still have the freedom, right? I never—I will send them like the curriculum outline to help them out, and I let them know, “Hey, you can go word for word with this, or please—the Holy Spirit resides in you—you have the freedom to teach,” right? “As long as you’re not blaspheming.”
So, I try to emulate what I see in sermon text, which is, “All right, what are you teaching? Talk me through what you’re doing here,” right? And so, it allows them to kind of talk about, “Okay, this is the illustration I’m using, and this is what I’m going to be saying,” and I provide encouragement and feedback with that. So that’s what I’ve been doing. But there’s certainly room for improvement—there always is.
JACOB: Definitely. So, as someone doing discipleship in the church, working in a lot of different departments even though you are the Junior High Director, how do you participate in self-care?
GENESIS: These days, self-care looks like some time alone with God for myself. Because something that I’ve run into is—I study a lot. I mean, there are times where I teach anywhere from four to five times a week in separate occasions, right? And I’m not preaching the same sermon, so it’s like different subjects. So I’m constantly triple-checking, quadruple-checking that I am preaching God’s Word the way I should be, right?
So, I end up spending a lot of time doing that and then catch myself not spending time with God because I have to, right? So self-care at this point looks like intentional quiet time with God—not because I have to teach, not because I, you know, X, Y, and Z, but because I need Him right now.
So yeah, I think that’s what it is. I wish I could tell you I go out and go horseback riding or do something or go get my nails done, but right now in this season of life, where my family is still adjusting to full-time ministry—I mean, I do full-time ministry, and my husband works part-time for the church as well—so we’re constantly there. We’re constantly, like I said, picking up kids. He helps me do that too. And we’re constantly being dragged everywhere.
So quiet, intentional time is my self-care right now; otherwise, I’d go nuts.
JACOB: Definitely. What are some of the successes in ministry that you’ve been able to learn from?
GENESIS: What are some of the successes… you know, I would say that watching a student connect with God—that moment that you see the student, right? Because you can be doing discipleship weekly, and sometimes you wonder, like, “Man, am I reaching this kid? Like, am I really doing what I’m supposed to be doing here? Does this kid even care about God at this point in their life?”
And then you have that moment where you can tell it just clicks—whether that be at camp, whether that be in small group, whether that be—I mean, I’ve had students that have just come to me and just hugged me and cried. And those moments are so tender, because I know that God is doing something in their hearts. And I know that sleepless nights—a small group leader that may not have the time to disciple as much, however, sacrificed a few hours to just be with their students—those moments are so special because it gives you some fuel and motivates you and reminds you, like, “Okay, all right Lord, You’re in control. Even when I don’t see it or feel it, You’re in control, and You’re doing it despite everything that I may be thinking.”
So, I think those moments when I see them come to Jesus in a raw way—at camp, in small group, or even one-on-ones—when I have students that just…the light bulb turns on, it’s just so cool.
JACOB: Definitely, yeah. And what are some of the failures that you’ve had in ministry that you’ve been able to grow from?
GENESIS: I think when I look back at these last 10 months, I would say it’s volunteers. And when I say that, I mean what I have to offer to my volunteers. That has been something that I’ve had to look back on, and as someone who—I don’t want to say I’m a perfectionist, right—but I am someone who strives to do the best they can. When I look back, I feel so much conviction when I think, “Man, I could have done this better,” and, “Man, I could have spent so much more time with my volunteers,” and, “Wow, I didn’t do this, and I didn’t do that.” However, when I look at that in a healthy way, I go, “Okay, that is okay.” I have time to reflect, to talk to God, and, “All right, how can we do this better next year?” So I think that’s what I would say one of my failures has been—just the way I show up for my volunteers. And I mean, I’m excited because it allows me to look at it in an honest way and make it better.
JACOB: Definitely. So let’s talk about advice and resources. What is some advice you’d give to yourself if you were to start over, or to someone else who’s starting fresh? And then what are some resources that you’ve found to be really helpful—some resources that you’ve created, that you use, or anything like that?
GENESIS: Advice—don’t bite off more than you can chew. I think I came in super excited and thought, “I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that, and oh, this sounds cool, and this sounds cool.” You get so excited for the possibilities and then can get yourself overwhelmed really quickly when you realize how much there is to do. So I’d say focus on a few things and do those really well rather than spreading yourself so thin trying to be everything and for everyone. I think that would be a big piece of advice.
Also, spend time for yourself. I mean, I have a family—I have two kids—and something that convicts me at times is, “Wow, sometimes I’m discipling other students more than I have discipled my own children.” That is very convicting in my life, where my daughter has to watch me leave the house physically to go pick up a student from school or to go have coffee with them. So also dedicate, schedule time for yourself, schedule time for your family—especially those first couple of years of ministry—because I think that you’re just going to continue to learn and learn and make mistakes and learn from them. So that’s what I would say.
What was the second question—resources?
JACOB: But on that family thing—no, I totally agree. I’ve heard it put this way: God can raise up anyone to be the pastor of these people, but He’s raised up one person to be the parent of the family.
GENESIS: Absolutely, definitely. And it’s so easy, because I think that what you’re doing in ministry is inherently good. I mean, who’s going to tell you that you’re doing something wrong, right? Like, I mean, you’re going out, you’re picking up kids, you’re taking them to church—I mean, it is all so, so good, and it builds the Kingdom. So it’s so hard to be real with yourself and ask, “Man, how much time have I actually spent with my child and discipled my own child?”
Yeah. Yes. And I mean that. I think that’s the biggest thing that I can really contribute to that question.
But resources—I mean, obviously there are many resources online, but you really learn the thing when you’re doing it. I think the best resource that I could say is to be discipled. Find yourself someone that is ahead of you, that’s been doing this for much longer, that can talk to you, speak life into you, admonish you. You need people in your life—you can’t do it alone.
So yes, resources, school—all the things—those are awesome. But you need people ahead of you, beside you, and behind you. Have someone that you’re discipling. Have someone that you can laugh and just vent with. You need that friend. But you most of all need someone that can disciple you—someone that you can be real with, and you can say, “Hey, I am stressed out,” because ministry will do that to you. I mean, it is a blessing, but I think anyone that’s been in ministry for any length of time can tell you that it can take a toll on you. So to have someone that you can bring that to is so important. So I think that would be my—yeah, I think that’s what I would say.
JACOB: For sure. And in the American culture, and even in the American Christian culture, there’s always a temptation to view self-care and being discipled as something that’s not productive and therefore is a waste of time. Have you seen a lot of benefit from doing those things?
GENESIS: Absolutely. The truth is, your calendar will lie to you and tell you that you don’t have time. I’ve struggled with the calendar, because I look at it—I mean, my husband and I often look at the calendar and go, “How are we going to make this happen?” Because although I’m so involved obviously with my church, we still have our own small groups. For instance, our small groups are on Tuesday nights, and there have been times where me and my husband think, “Man, maybe we just say no to small groups this season because it would be really nice to just have a couple of hours off.” And then we look at each other and go, “Yeah, no—we have to do this,” because we need it. We need community. We need discipleship.
So the calendar is going to lie to you and tell you that there’s no way. But once you do it—once you are there with whoever you’re meeting with—you go, “Okay, God, thank you. This is exactly what I needed.”
Also, don’t get discouraged. I know that a lot of people may think, “Well, who’s going to disciple me?” Don’t be afraid to ask. I’ve had to. The person that was discipling me a few years back ended up becoming more of my friend, and I had to really be honest with that and go, “Wait, this has become more of my friend than someone who is actually actively discipling me.” So having to go out and look for someone and asking the Holy Spirit, “Okay, who are you leading me to?” Don’t be afraid to ask someone, “Hey, can you disciple me?”
And you know, there’s going to be people—I’ve had people say, “You know what, I’d love to, but I don’t have the time right now.” And I love that, because what I hear when they say no is, “I value what you’re asking me, and I can’t commit to that,” because discipleship is commitment. You can’t just expect to be discipled or to disciple and just do it every now and then. It should be a regular rhythm in your life. Discipleship should be regular, if not weekly. And some people may go, “What?” Yes, you have to make time in your calendar at least once a week to really see the fruit of discipleship take place in your life.
JACOB: Definitely. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I know that when I was talking to a pastor who’s up on the mountain, he was saying that one of the really good ways of having self-care is to just purposefully protect time with your family—have family time, go on dates with your spouse, things like that—because, like what we were saying, it’s really easy to see things as not productive and therefore not worth the time. Like what you’re saying, living life with other people is not about productivity, it’s about availability.
GENESIS: Yes, yes, that’s beautifully put. Absolutely, absolutely. And God will—what I’ve found is when I sacrifice my time, God is faithful to multiply my productivity. I mean, there have been plenty of times where I thought, “There’s absolutely no way that I can do this, but okay, here, Lord—figure it out.” And somehow, He allowed me to do four hours of work in an hour. And I’m like, “Lord, thank You, because there’s no way I would have done that without You.” So I think that’s also—it’s like a really serious trust fall with Jesus.
JACOB: It’s a shame that the idea of taking a Sabbath is such a taboo, because when you mention the word “Sabbath,” people think, “Oh, you’re a legalist. You’re one of the Judaizers from the New Testament—I’ve got to watch out for you.” But no, it’s almost like God has made us for a rhythm of resting in Him and being recharged enough to actually go and work.
GENESIS: Yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah. And that’s something I love about my church—our leaders are constantly reminding us to take a Sabbath. Constantly. Especially in our busy seasons—Easter, the launch of the school year, Christmas—all these different events that we have going on, they are always reminding us to Sabbath. That is actually why our church is intentional about not scheduling things on Saturdays, because they want us to Sabbath on Saturday.
Another wonderful thing that they also do is, knowing that we put in so much time during Christmas, we have a dark week afterward. We did Revival for the first time in February, and they gave us another dark week in July because of that. So I think having a church that sees the value—not even the value, but the biblical importance—of rest is so important. Because you’re constantly hearing it, you’re constantly being reminded.
I know that some churches can get lost in productivity, definitely. So I think it’s important to have leaders that value it, that speak of it, and in doing so, give you permission to do it. Sometimes we just need permission. I know that I’m someone that can get tunnel-visioned and will plow through work, and that’s all I’ll do. So I love the fact that I have people in my life that I look up to who will ask me, “When was the last time you Sabbathed?” I mean, that’s another important aspect of discipleship, right? Someone who’s going to disciple you will ask you, “When was the last time you Sabbathed?” You better have an answer for that.
JACOB: Yeah, yeah. And you know, apart from self-care and accountability like that, burnout is always a season away, which is a scary reality for pastors who are stretched so thin.
GENESIS: Yeah, especially since COVID—because staff numbers are down, right? There was such a restructuring that took place in all churches. I see that. I see it in the health industry, I see it in different pockets, but I think churches have been really affected by it. So more than likely, when you look at any church staff member, they are very likely doing more than one job. Like, you don’t even know, right? You’re looking at this person, and they are very likely taking over all these other positions.
So yes, burnout—you’re only one season away. I’d say you’re one step away from burnout at times. So yes, taking your time off, Sabbathing, doing things with your family—even if it feels like you don’t have the time—just do it. I think that, in part, is also trusting God that He’s going to allow you to finish what you need to finish.
JACOB: And it seems like your church very much values self-care and Sabbathing and things like that. I imagine sometimes it’s difficult to balance the productivity that’s expected for working somewhere, for being paid, with also the self-care that’s required of being stretched so thin.
GENESIS: Yes, definitely. That’s where I really recommend organizing your work week. I mean, if we’re aimlessly doing ministry as well, we’re very likely to not have time for these things. So I say, if we have budgets for our finances, we should probably have a budget for our schedules—and ensure that we can schedule things in. Me and my family heavily rely on our calendars. If we don’t schedule something in, it just doesn’t happen. Like, it really just does not happen. So scheduling that intentional time, scheduling that vacation, scheduling that time with my kid—“I’m going to disciple my child on this date, at this time”—I think those things are important, especially for those that struggle with this.
Because some people have no problem Sabbathing and resting, but then there are others that have a really hard time. And you can make your job an idol really easily that way.
JACOB: Yeah, and I imagine it’s also difficult to schedule that kind of availability while also keeping the spontaneity of it. Do you ever, like, schedule yourself out—block out six hours or something in a day where you’re just available for people? Do you ever do anything like that?
GENESIS: I would say I don’t think I’ve done it in an intentional way like that. And when you say people, are you speaking people like in my personal life or for—
JACOB: Either. Whoever needs you at that time.
GENESIS: Honestly, I feel that that is anytime, to be very honest. The people in my life know that they have access to me. The kids that I’m discipling one-on-one know that they have access to me. And when I—yeah, I would say so. I have, generally, kind of an open-door policy for my friends, for people I’m discipling, for my colleagues. Yeah.
JACOB: Definitely. Well, I don’t have any more questions. Anything else you’d like to say?
GENESIS: You know, ministry is for everyone. And I have to constantly remind myself of that—that we’re all called to ministry, and that it’s a blessing. But spend time with your family. Spend time with the people that you love, because you will get burned out if you don’t, and it’s so important. I can’t stress that enough. And I’m still learning, and I’m still having to figure this thing out, but I can’t stress enough—spend time with your family. It’s going to get done, right? Your work is going to get done. God is going to meet you in that place where you feel that you just can’t do it.
JACOB: Definitely. Thank you very much, Genesis.
