Lisa Fields: Hello. Welcome to the Jude three Project podcast. I’m your host, Lisa Fields. I’m the founder of the Jude three Project. Well, thank you for watching another episode of the G3 Project podcast. As always, I’m your host, Lisa Fields, the founder of the g three project. And today, I’m joined by my friend Natasha doctor Natasha’s sister Robinson. Welcome.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Hi, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me.
Lisa Fields: Thank you for joining us. For those who don’t know who you are or haven’t seen you, you’ve been a part of courageous conversations. You’ve been on a podcast a couple times. Let our audience know a little bit about yourself.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Yeah. People keep watching those clips, so thank you for that. Thank you for that. So I I am, doctor Natasha. I reside in Durham, North Carolina now, a Carolinian. This is our third time in North Carolina, born and raised in South Carolina. But I do leadership development and Christian spiritual formation. That’s primarily what I do, and I do that in different ways. So, my background’s in the military, so I served six years as an officer in the, marine corps, did financial management, then went to department of homeland security before transitioning to be a social entrepreneur. So I have a small business. I do leadership development through consulting and through executive leadership coaching. So that’s what I get paid to do. Of course, I’m a writer, I’m a speaker, so that’s what I do for ministry a lot as well. And I have a nonprofit where we do leadership, education, character, and spiritual development, where we are investing in, small groups of Black girls and young women, and really preparing them to be change makers and global leaders. And so that’s my nonprofit work.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. And I think it’s so vital. We need that leadership development and leadership training for, this gen the the next generation, because it is it to to be, I think, impactful, you need to be trained. You need A 100%. Mentorship. You need somebody to walk alongside you. You can’t do it yourself. You have a a project coming out with 10 by 10, and we both are, work with 10 by 10 extensively. For those who don’t know what 10 by 10 is, so we’ll have context for the conversation. Just just to let them know what the program entails.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Yeah. So the 10 by 10 initiative is really, concerned about the number the millions of youth that have basically left the church. And you and I noticed, Lisa, having been raised in the church, it’s like youth don’t take themselves to church. Like, somebody takes them to church or someone introduces them to the faith or someone encourages them in the faith. So if the youth are leaving, that means that the adults are also leaving. And it used to be before COVID that, you know, with the research through Bonner and some other places, the Pew research, was that we were seeing this in predominantly, white churches or evangelical churches. We were not seeing that trend in black churches. And then since COVID, we also started to see that trend in black, churches as well. And so I I think there’s a lot to be unpacked and discussed there. But basically, that issue of young people leaving the church was a primary concern and catalyst to say, we need to put some intentionality and funding behind, really being, you know, agents that are going after these young people to, have them grow, like, first of all, get to know who God is, to hopefully cultivate a relationship with God, and to have their faith matter in their day to day life. And so they have these this framework and principles that they, encourage people to kind of follow as they are seeking to disciple young people. And, you know, quite frankly, this is stuff we’ve always done, like, through my nonprofit. And so when I saw the framework, I’m like, oh, we don’t check check check. Like, we’re already doing these things. And so it was an easy yes to kind of become a a a a very you’re among their first group of, nonprofits and and leaders that are partnering with them in this work. And so that’s that’s what ten by ten is doing. And then there are several projects and initiatives where we are supporting, the efforts of that, but it’s really a extension of the nonprofit work that we were already doing.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. And you have a project coming up in collaboration with them. We’ve been working, they partnered alongside us in our ACTS initiative. But what what project are you working on with them and how is it gonna impact the church?
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Yeah. Oh, that’s that’s a good question. So, and I think too, I think for context for your audience, because I I think it’s important that we’re not just talking about projects. Right? It is, like, really, we’re talking about equipping people, so that we can be disciples who make disciples. And one of the things I say that we are mentors who multiply, because we serve a faith that that that’s that was the intention. You know, you read you talk about acts, the book of acts. We see the church growing. And I remember when I was in my master’s program, you know, my one of my seminary professors is like, you know, everything that grows isn’t healthy. He said, weeds grow. Right? And so I don’t think we should be determining, evaluating the success of our church or the health of our churches just by how big it grows or how quickly it grows. I think that’s another conversation. But, I think how we grow is particularly important. And so, you know, my premise is that we go grow deep. Right? Like, you plant seeds and you water, you cultivate, so your roots are are deep. You know, you’re you’re abiding in the vine. If we look at another metaphor, and then you will bear fruit that will last. Right? And and to me and then that’s how you know, you’re doing the work of the kingdom. And so when we think about that, for us as a nonprofit, you know, I think we have to consider you know, when we say church, like, what do we even mean? And so, when I think church, I’m not just thinking about local congregations. Although I think local congregations are extremely important. Like, I’m a I I I love the local church. I’ve I’ve always been a member of the local church. I’m a member of local church now. And so I think I think that’s important. And, you know, what Hebrews writes about, like, we shouldn’t be forsaken ourselves assembling together with with other believers. And so I’m I’m seeing I think some of the ways that we’ve evangelized young people and and people in general in the West is we always wanna create things for them to come to us. And I do I I I think, like, people gonna do what they do in their day to day lives. And and if we’re living, our lives as disciples of Jesus, we can be sharing that truth and living that authentically in our day to day lives. And so we meet people where they are. And when we think about, you know, even the first believers, the first disciples who came with Jesus, they came because of relationship they have with their friends. Look at Philip and Peter and Andrew and Nathaniel. You know, it’s the brother who told his brother, a friend who told his friend, you know, and and then that’s how people followed. And, you know, the woman at the well, like, come and see the man who told me anything everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? And so it’s first those relationship connections with people that we know, love, and trust, that have a firm conviction about who Jesus is and the relationship they have with Jesus and why that even matters. And then once that’s established, then they can share with you authentically, you know, about that. And then you are more prone to, you know, in your day to day life, however you are engaged, you know, if that’s at the gym or your sports team or, you know, at the your extracurricular activities or in the classroom, wherever it is that you’re engaging people at the club. Right? Wherever it is you’re engaging people. And then, you know, as you grow, you start looking at the other ways that we can deepen that faith. But the entry point is normally just because of relationships we have with people. So we start there, and I think that’s important to say because I think we have a lot of believers, disciples of Jesus, who are not, looking at themselves with agency of leadership to share the gospel with people that they just interact them with every day, that they’re waiting for somebody else to do that. They’re waiting to send them to your podcast or to send them to their pastor or whatever. And I’m at the days of that has never worked really, but it’s also we that’s we’re just not gonna get there if everyone doesn’t understand that, you know, the LaSalle Congress says the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. Like, we all have work to do, and I’m about you know, as a leader of leaders, I’m about mobilizing the whole church to to get to work. Right? So that’s what we do, and so that’s why for me, the nonprofit work is so important. And so, yeah, we have a few projects with with 10 by 10. The first one I’ll share just because it kinda speaks to that, kind of where do we start, thing. And and it’s it’s just you know, I have a bible study on the Nazian creed, and and, Lisa, the reason I wanted to have this conversation with you is because you did the wonderful, unspoken documentary. And, you know, I know you have a lot of conversations about, you know, questions that people are asking they’re curious about. And one of the questions, like, is Christianity is a white man’s religion. I was like, the only people who would ask that is people that don’t know history. Right? They don’t actually know know the truth. And so I thought you just outlined that so, beautifully in the documentary about, you know, the work that African theologians were doing even before, the ecumenical councils. And so, the first lesson in the study is actually the history and just a quick understanding, like, who is God? And so we present Christianity as a monotheistic basis. We serve one God, not three gods in the history of the councils. And so, that’s the first lesson. Then we just have a conversation, like, who’s Jesus? Who’s the Holy Spirit? What does that mean for the church and us as a believer? So I wrote that study. It’s a six week bible study. What we’ve been able to do with 10 by 10 is to do these short video introduction series, for that because people who haven’t been able to go to seminary, who people who don’t understand the language, they can be intimidated by, you know, like, Nasim, Nasir. Like, what is if I don’t know how to pronounce that, then I’m not gonna go take that to a kid because I’m gonna feel like I’m dumb or stupid. Mhmm. And nobody wants to feel incompetent or like they’re failing at something. So I provided these video studies so you’ll know this is how you pronounce that. And I’m not even great with pronouncing things. Right? But this is how you pronounce that. This is what this means. This is the definition of that term. This is how you break this down for a 12 year old to understand, a 13 year old, 18 year old. So we provided these introduction videos. So first, the adult can be formed and grow in their faith because these are essential doctrines, Lisa. These are not there are some things that we we call nonessential that we can debate about. You know, whether, you know, you let women, and I say let in some places. Right? But whether you think women should lead or whether they should pass or whether they should be elders. Like, those are nonessential things. People disagree on that. We cannot be disagreeing about who Jesus is. Like, we have to get Jesus right.
Lisa Fields: Mhmm.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: We gotta get Jesus right. And so, so, like, to me, these are, like, the fundamental doctrines of the, doctrine of the faith. And so, so we have the the bible study people just get on Amazon. They can just go through it at their own pace. But we have now this sort of video these these little introduction videos so people can, purchase those. And when they purchase those, a 100% of those proceeds go to support the work of our nonprofit. And then we offer these free resources. They can just go to the nonprofit website. I’ll share that with you, and they can download what we call a facilitator guide. This is how you teach this doctrine to youth. And the guide can be used both as a lesson plan, but it can also be used as handouts for small group study. So you think about a youth minister or a parent with their children or a teacher in a Christian school. Right? They can use it. So the handout’s already available for them so you don’t have to figure out a curriculum. Like, you already have one. And then we have a YouTube series now. It’s free of, like, actually teaching adults about how to talk about this this, this mystery, and this difficult theology with the youth in their life. So those youth kind of facilitation resources are available for free on our nonprofit’s YouTube channel and our website they can download.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. No. That’s I think that’s essential to help walk kids, particularly Black kids, to those essential Christian doctrines that they might not know. I think I always tell people young people have the ability to learn this stuff probably better than older people because they’re in school. Older people sometimes haven’t picked up a book since they graduated, and they’re they they don’t realize that younger people are if you’re taking calculus, if you’re taking algebra, you’re taking biology, you’re taking chemistry, you can learn Christian doctrine. A 100%.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: I just wanna say that. Yeah. And, also, you know, I think it’s important to I think there’s a question and conversation about relevance. Because this so this is how, like, how I wrote the the, facilitation guide, the teaching for you. It’s like like like, what does this mean? Like, so what? Like, what’s what’s my what? Like, what what can I take ownership of here? What are the questions I’m asking, and why does this matter at all? Because I think sometimes if we’re just, like, studying scripture, and I love scripture, you know that, if we don’t connect the dots for people that’s the difference between a bible study and discipleship. Like, discipleship is you you helping people connect the dots of this truth that we believe and how that’s applicable in their lives. And so I I think we we need to really be be prepared, the bible say, to always have an answer for what it is we believe when we are having a conversation about relevance. And then I also think, you know, we need to have fun. Let’s see. We need, you know, we need to have fun. And so, you know, I think about the work we do at our nonprofit. You know, like, we have a creed even in our nonprofit, and so we are just a few months into our mentoring season. We have some new kid you know, kids in the program. And I said to them, I said, you know, by December, you need to know our creed. Right? So if you haven’t been practicing this, you know, by now, you need to know it. I said, you could turn this to to a jingle. You learn song lyrics on the radio. Right? Whatever how do they listen to their music now? But, you know, you learn song lyrics. Like, you can learn this. Like, make it a jingle. I don’t I care not. But I know you are incapable I mean, you are capable of learning a lot of words. Just some of these words are not important. You do that consistently. These words are important, and you are able to do that. Like, if you were not able to do it, you wouldn’t do it. So we turn things into jingles. We turn things into dance. We reward them for, like, memorizing scripture. Right? Like, they turn we turn things into little competitions. Like, we give them wisdom awards. And so I think there are ways we want to think about I think sometimes we are focusing too much or sometimes on what kids get wrong and not reporting them for what they do right. Right? And and this is the thing, like, a biblical principle. It doesn’t always work this way, but blessings for obedience, you know, consequences or curses in the old testament for disobedience. And so we they need to get an immediate reward of some kind when they’re taking initiative to do something positive, doing something right, doing something just. So they can equate that with, yeah. I want you know, if if they get the dopamine on social media for doing nonsense and wasting time, then we should also be considering, like, how can we, create our time together relationally or in in study or whatever we consider Christian church stuff, to make that, an enjoyable time, something they actually want to do, not something they thought they have to do.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s that’s critical and important. Yeah. I love the distinct distinguishing discipleship, making it relevant. People wanna know why they need to know this and I think sometimes, like you said, we don’t communicate the why, so they don’t wanna learn. There’s no incentive to learn. How have you seen the dots connect for young people that have taken this study?
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Yeah. So in our nonprofit leadership links, so we follow the discipleship model, Jesus. So we invest in small groups of people over long periods of time. We believe that that’s how we’re gonna have the greatest impact. So we start our programming with sixth graders all the way up to twelfth graders. And so and we expect them, like, we don’t have any events driven ministry. Our work is really that slow like, you know, that long obedience in the same direction, what Eugene Peterson was saying. So, you know, we have youth come back year after year after year. And so, if they come in sixth grade and they stay to twelfth grade, that’s a seven year investment, which is not a small thing. And so we have we’re on our ninth season of mentoring now. So we’ve already run this kinda whole cycle for a time. I have 22 girls in college. Right? And so, our first girl graduated college this spring, of this year. So, with that reality, of a seven year curriculum, they will go through the study twice. Because, again, you know, part of our spiritual discipline, we learn this in Exodus, is is remembering. So I don’t expect them you know, they go through it one time. I don’t expect them to remember that, right, all the time. I mean, even though we we we take a lot of time with like, we would take so a six week study, we would go through that over a nine month period. So we were not just rushing to it to complete it. We’re thinking about mastery, like, knowledge, knowledge connecting wisdom and understanding that we really focus on. Do do you do you get this? Obviously, the Holy Spirit is the able teacher, and then they teach each other. Like, we really focus on peer to peer mentoring. So some people, if they’re getting it right way or or if it’s a struggle for them, like, to help have them the relevance piece is to have them share with each other of how this scripture is coming back to them or how they’re using that in their life on their sports team or at school or, you know, if they’re like, the book we’re doing now is, like, Mastering Our Emotions with scripture in it. So, like, how they are applying that in their day to day. So, that’s the beauty you get when you are making long term investments in people’s lives is that you have communal sharing and learning. So it’s not just the expert in the room. Like, they all become teachers. And, again, what Hebrew says, right, like, we don’t want no just drinking milk for the next twenty or thirty years. We want them to be able teachers, at least at a minimum to their peers and their siblings. And so, that’s a good opportunity, and we see that. I tell you, Lisa, we see that happening all the time. And I could tell you, even a testimony today, even when it doesn’t happen in real time, the Lord keeps encouraging us that the children come back. Like, I literally just got a message this morning, from one of the girls that’s in, in college, you know, and and she was just, just rededicated her life to the Lord and and was just so thankful for the times that we spent together and was really, just sharing her heart about how appreciative she was now that she that she has eyes to see better. You know? And so, really, really thankful that the Lord is faithful to sustain the work, and the efforts that we’ve been able to put forth to see the fruit, because you don’t always get to see the fruit, you know, right away. You know? And and it’s not, you know, right away. It’s been ten years of doing this. But my point is you have people that labor for a lot longer and and don’t always get to see anything. And that doesn’t mean the Lord is not in it, you know? I will say that too, because sometimes the Lord just has to continue to be faithful in that thing, period.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. I love that. I love the the the impact of mentorship. My friends in education always, point to the fact that we have a crisis of parenting. In in our world right now, Every educator I know is talking about this. One of my friends is in education. Said, on Instagram the other day, she was like, if there’s any year in education that makes her wanna get her tubes high every day, it’s been, this year in in the in school system. Yeah. And the crisis of parenting, makes me think about the necessity of your work as a mentor. Mhmm. If you can’t if you can’t necessarily first impact the parent, if there’s a lack of parenting, mentorship kind of comes and fills in a little bit of the gap. You can’t replace a parent. But for those who are missing that maybe the involvement or sometimes people don’t know how to parent or they overcorrect because they were mismanaged in parenting, so they kinda take a hands off approach. Mhmm. They go to extreme gentle parenting, so there’s no discipline. Mhmm. Mentorship kind of helps bridge that gap.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Yeah. I think I mean, you know, I get to wear these different hats. Right? So I’m a parent. You’re right. I’m a mentor. You know? I’m a I’m a you know, I develop leaders. I’m a coach. Like, I’m a certified coach. You know? I’m a friend. Right? And so I I I get to see these things from different angles. I will say from a posture of a mentor, because I think it’s I think it’s very important that I see myself as a support and partner to parents. Right? You know, it’s never my desired goal. And the same way I train my team that we’re not trying to use parents’ authority. We’re not trying to replace parents. We certainly don’t undermine parents, and so we’re trying to have conversations. And sometimes at the parenting or enforcing certain values in the home, we want to make sure that we’re aligned and we are supporting that. And sometimes, you know, you know, because we are communal people, like, so we try to, like, we we’re very intentional, like, mentoring across generations. And so, like, we don’t have programming per for parents per se, but there are opportunities to engage and kinda share and, have that peer to peer mentoring happen even among our parent community. And we encourage that. And we we tell them that’s because sometimes as parents, you feel like I’m the only one dealing with this with my child, and then you talk to other parents. You’re like, oh, no. We haven’t all having the same conversation. Right? So I think that’s part of it. I think that, you know, and this is kind of part of the 10 by 10 work too. The reason they’re focusing on providing trainings for adult is why I said with our bible study, like, the youth I mean, the adults need to go through the study first for themselves. Mhmm. Right. You need to go through it first for yourself before you think about, oh, this is a resource I can use with with, discipling young people because, again, you know, help, like, hurt people hurt people, heal people help people. Right? That’s the thing. And so, you know, we want to ensure that parents are doing their own work. Right? So I think, you know, we have a lot of challenges and temptations as parents, you know, whether that is, you know, we haven’t done our own work to heal or, you know, whatever traumatic experiences we’ve had or whatever disappointments or unforgiveness, all these things that we hold in our heart that we don’t deal with, that we either take out on our kids or we project onto our kids. You know, so because that’s the reality of things. I think, you know, you also have an issue sometimes with parents and trying to live their lives through their kids. Right? And so, that puts a lot of pressure on young people and not even honoring the persons that, you know, God created them to be and giving them the freedom of of, you know, within boundaries of trying to understand and figure out that their life’s purpose is instead of whatever your agenda is for their life. And so, you know, I think that’s a that’s a challenge for some parents as well. And then I think, you know, that we need to be confident and comfortable enough to confess and say when we don’t know something. Right? So I think sometimes, you know, we we are, we may just lack knowledge in some areas. Instead of saying that, you know, we can feel intimidated or act out as grown people. Right? Because we don’t understand something. And then we try to, so I have I run a organization. Right? There there are standards and things that and and whatever you do in your house, that’s your domain. Right? But what we do over here, that doesn’t change because you haven’t settled whatever you, you know, you did over there. And so I think sometimes we have to just be mindful that people are dealing with their own things. And if we haven’t dealt with our own things, then that does that does directly impact how we parent our our young people. And so as a as a mentor, sometimes with parents, I’m taking a role of coach. Right? I’m taking a role of coach. I do a lot of asking of questions. Help me understand, you know, this. What what what is your thoughts regarding that? And this is what we are teaching over here. Right? And, and this is how you can support that. So, for example, if we’re doing a Hope for Us bible study and then I see Queen study, you can also purchase that study on Amazon, and you can go through that on your own, and then you can make that part of your dinner conversation. Right? So that’s kind of the ways we approach, our
Lisa Fields: relationship sometimes with parents. I think that was so vital what you said. I think it’s helpful, particularly as you know how difficult it is to be a parent. But you also know the importance and helpfulness of a mentor being collaborative between the parent and child, which I think is complete very, very vital. What other things do you want our audience to know before we before we close out this conversation about the work you’re doing and the upcoming upcoming initiatives that they could partner with?
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: Yeah. So, I will say just kinda wrapping up the last piece of, you know, the African proverb, it takes a whole village to raise a child. Right? Mhmm. And and we that’s one thing I think that is unique for black, at least it used to be for black families. And so we wanna be very intentional in, bringing that back, if you will, having that intergenerational communal. I want for other people’s children what I want for my child, right, and treating their children like that. So if their children are with me, I’m like, they’re as good as taken care of because I’m a do for your child what I would do for my own child. And so I think we we want to just be, considerate of how we can better care for our children, especially when there’s so much up against black children, in particular, both boys and girls, different challenges, but challenges nonetheless. And I just think we need to be more intentional in how we care and support them and affirm their human dignity and prepare them for the real world in opposed to us just, focusing on whatever it is we’re trying to do. We have to it has to include our intentional investment in in our young people. And so, that investment for us is is mentoring Black and Black girls and young women. That’s what we do at Leadership Links, and and we are doing that particular audience because, historically, nonprofits that are led by black and brown women and girls or that support black women and girls are historically underfunded specifically in the Southern Region, and that’s before this last, you know, all these recent federal changes and political changes. And so that’s just a a a philanthropy issue, because we know if we don’t have the the money and resources, then we we are not always as effective as we could be at our work. And so, so that’s part of our target. The other reason is is just, you know, you know, not just my lived experience as a black girl leader, but also as someone who’s well read and well researched that girls in general starts to lose interest in STEM around that’s science, technology, engineering, math, around the age that we start our programming. They also start losing their confidence in their ability to lead. And not only that, this is a study from the Harvard Business Review, that their parents start to lose that confidence or, discourage it in the in in their peers as well. And so we’re creating an environment where the human dignity of black girls are affirmed, where, our love for them are affirmed, where they have a communal, community and sisterhood, and that representation is in play. In other words, they see other black women, that are leading in various capacities, and they’re leading, from a place of competence, but also from a place of their deep of conviction of their of their, their being disciples of Jesus. And I think the other part of this is all the, intangible ways that we really mentor and disciple and lead black girls, through the life skills, through the intentional leadership development and discipleship, but also, you think about things being taught and things being caught, the other relationships we have. And so even though this is our targeted audience, our leadership team, our support network is intergenerational, it’s multi ethnic, it’s men and women, it’s organizations, churches, schools, businesses that are, basically providing that support, school that we can create access and opportunities and thriving for black girls. Because what history tells us in this country, Lisa, and you know this, is that, black women, we we fight for everybody. Right? You think about any major movement of justice or righteousness in this country, whether that be the women’s suffrage movement, the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, black women have been at the heart and center of those struggles, even if they haven’t gotten the credit, even if they have not been, put up as the leaders. We know those things. The Montgomery bus boycott does not happen without black women, right? And so, which was the catalyst for the civil rights movement. And so we know that to be true. What we also know is that we tend to do that at a detriment to ourselves, meaning we’re not taking care of our health, we’re not taking care of our mental health, our physical health, and we will exhaust ourselves at the expense of other people. And so what we’re trying to do is create a psychologically safe, loving environment so that they can be knowledgeable, aware, and committed to righteousness and justice because of who Jesus is, but they’re doing that in a way where they are well supported, They are taking care of their whole person. They are honoring their own human dignity. And because we know it, we care for black girls and young women, that, that will be good for everybody. You know, that that will actually ripple out into everybody. And so I share that because, we offer, training for mentors, and so we have a we are, based locally, but we have a national presence. A lot of our program is our hybrid, so people can participate virtually. They can mentor virtually as well, but you have to go through our training to do that. So we offer mentor training, so if people want to, think about being a mentor of us, either a career mentor, which you don’t have to be a woman, but you do have to be a leader, and you do have to be excellent in your field, that just come in and do a workshop. But if you’re interested in being a program mentor, those are all women, professional, leaders, who love Jesus, but to be, on our leadership team. And they have those are the ones that go through training. So we offer training for mentors because we know, again, the research says people don’t mentor because they don’t feel confident they can do it. They don’t have the time, or they haven’t been properly trained. So we’re trying to eliminate at least two of those. They could do it, and they’ll grow in confidence if they get the training. And so we have seen that to be, the case. And so if you’re interested in that, obviously, go to our website for that. And then the last thing I’ll share, briefly, Alyce, is this initiative we did this this year that is gonna ripple into some other, conversations and and opportunities for people is that we took, part of our learning doesn’t just happen, like, through reading. We read all the time and and kind of that thing. But, in the mentorship, that happens as well. But it happens through the access and opportunities and experiential learning that we offer our young people. A lot of that is through travel. And so we travel every year, but this is the first time this summer we took them what we call a Journey to Freedom Global Leadership Experience Tour, which is like a spiritual Sankofa. You know, they get in there and turn, go back and get it. And we took them on a fourteen day tour, charting the Underground Railroad north from North Carolina to Canada, following the footsteps of Harriet Tubman. So we were able to visit Harriet Tubman’s home, her gravesite, the property she bought, the the house that she built for the elderly, her church in Canada. It was a dynamic experience. It was an intergenerational tour. We took, several of our girls, young women, and some of the elders in our community. And so, what we’ll be doing going into 2026 is creating opportunities for our young people to teach about what they have learned in different platforms and environments. And so, that’s a wonderful opportunity there. But also, we’re gonna likely do a shorter version of this tour in the fall because we’re building that into a big a bigger conversation, about you talk a lot about this, Lisa, about truth telling as a core value amount. Like, it’s very important that we that we tell the truth. And I think there’s so much happening right now with disinformation, misinformation, people presenting themselves as experts who are not experts, you know, in their field. And then people just intentionally lying. Right? And and so, I think we need to equip people to be leaders of character who are truth tellers, who can actually become experts in their field. And so that’s what we’re doing with these young people. When history is trying to be erased and museums are being closed and books are being banned, we want them knowledgeable about this history, particularly of Black Christian women, who have been movement leaders, and also just what it means to be a decent human. Like, somebody that does not cause harm, and and a disciple of Jesus in the world because that will inform their character. It will inform their faith. It will become it will inform the type of leaders that that they become. And this is critically important, Lisa, because the leadership that we see that fails us does not happen overnight. People are they they have bad behavior. They get rewarded for bad behavior or they get away with bad behavior, and so they keep doing it. Right? And and, you know, one of our first ladies spoke about this, that that some people tend to fail up. You and I don’t come from a community of people that can fail up, right? And so most of the time, we we have to be immaculate and excellent in all the things that we are. It’s also exhausting. But what we’re doing is trying to cultivate a more just, knowledgeable, honest, not just dialogue, but actions among people. And so, when we when we inform people what we’re doing is to that end, right, that we can have better, witnesses of the gospel because people are turning away. The number one reason this is what 10 by 10 tells us. The number one reason youth are turning away from Christ is because of what they perceive to be hypocrisy. And so that means you gotta have credible witnesses of the gospel, not just in your local church. They have to be in a public square, working in various environments and being successful in those environments because that’s relevant for people. Right? So, that’s what we that’s what we work to produce, and we hope that people would, consider us, you know, as they’re thinking about how they can intentionally be part of the solution, because people are doing great work, and we need support, and we need mentors, and we need partners to continue this great work.
Lisa Fields: Yeah. Thank you so much, Natasha. It’s been a rich conversation. How can people get in contact with you? Yeah. They can On social media and your website? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So on social media, I’m pretty sure everything is Natasha s Robinson,
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: and that’s, you know, LinkedIn, Facebook, and whatever else we’re doing now. But the best way is to just, go to my website and subscribe to my newsletter because that’s who I communicate with regularly. That’s natashasrobinson.com. And then for the nonprofit, it’s called Leadership Links, l I n k s, stands for our five core values of love, inspiration, network, knowledge, and service. And so the website is leadershiplinksinc,inc.org. And that’s how you can find out about our nonprofit work and the resources we are offering to the church.
Lisa Fields: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you all for tuning in to another episode of the G three Project Podcast. You can catch all our episodes on wherever you stream your favorite podcasts or on our YouTube channel. Remember all of our resources on our website at g3project.org, from documentaries to curriculum, all the things. We could not do what we do without generous support from people like you. So consider being a monthly partner or one time giver at g3project.org. And until next time, grace and peace and God bless, and this will come out, before Thanksgiving. So happy Thanksgiving, to you all.
Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson: See you soon.