Switch Leader Podcast

Week two of Gospel Shaped Relationships takes Switch Leaders into Acts 2:42-47 to see what it looks like for the early church to be devoted to Jesus together. Kaitlyn and Josh walk through the 3-2-1 for this week's message: three barriers to godly community (the enemy's plan, pride, and past pains), three truths to live into, and two small group questions to get students talking honestly. Then comes the challenge: leaders go first by picking one thing to be devoted to for a week, then walking alongside their students as they do the same.

Switch Leaders, we're kicking off Gospel Shaped Relationships and stepping into the book of Acts. Josh and Kaitlyn unpack Acts 1:8 and why Jesus chose the word "witness," not expert, debater, or scholar, for the people He sends. When Jesus changes your life, you can't keep it to yourself, whether that's the day He saved you or the way He's still changing you today. Kaitlyn challenges us to go first: if Wednesday night is the only place we talk about what God is doing in our lives, it's time to take our story further, starting with a simple "I was, but God, and now" testimony.

SwitchFest is this week's big bring-in night, and Josh and Kaitlyn unpack the message students will hear. We'll be teaching on doubt, built around John 20 and Thomas's encounter with the resurrected Jesus. This episode reminds us that doubt isn't disqualifying but can actually be a doorway to deeper faith, along with practical ideas on how to sit with a student's hard questions without rushing to "fix" them. It's a strong reminder that your job in small group isn't to erase every doubt — it's to be a safe, present guide as students bring their questions to God, process them with people they trust, and choose to keep following Jesus.

Fresh off The Bash where 420 students said yes to Jesus, Josh and Kaitlyn dig into why how we follow up matters just as much as the bring-in moment itself — walking through Switch's bring in, build up, train, send out strategy and landing on the core truth of Ephesians 2: we're not saved by good works, but when we're saved, it's time to get to work. Leaders will walk away with a clear, practical framework for coaching students toward one gospel conversation a day, plus language for helping students name the insecurities that keep them silent about their faith. It's a great reminder that this challenge starts with us — if we want students practicing gospel conversations, we have to be having them too.

This week's Switch experience is The Bash — a party with a purpose, and this year that purpose is preparing Switch Leaders for one of the most important conversations you can have with a student. Josh and Kaitlyn walk through Stay Here's ACT training (Ask, Convince, Take Action), modeled after Jesus's own approach to the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5. You'll learn how to ask the hard question with compassion instead of shame, how to convince a student that their life is worth living, and how to walk alongside them toward real help and healing. This episode is a summary — not a substitute — for the full ACT training linked below, which every leader should complete before Bash night.

ACT Training