8: Tallgrass Staff Meeting

**Elisha Hillegeist** (0:12)
Yeah, that'll work, that's even better.

**Ben Dever** (0:23)
Did you already start it all?
All right, great. Hey, welcome to The Chopping Block. So we're here filming episode eight in the home of the Hillegeists. So maybe, I don't know if we'll get a chance to look around or not, but we would love to.
Next time. They're in process renovating, it's really cool. You'll have to come check it out sometime. But yeah, of course, The Chopping Block, we want to bring to you things that don't quite make it to our Sunday evening. So here we are with our full array of staff, staff team here at Tallgrass Church. So myself, of course, Ben Dever, lead pastor. Dave Galdark, associate pastor. Of course.

**Dilan Oglesby** (1:02)
We've got here Dilan Oglesby, youth pastor.

**Ben Dever** (1:06)
That's right.

**Elisha Hillegeist** (1:07)
And we have Elisha Hillegeist. I'm the coordinator for Sprouts.

**Ben Dever** (1:10)
Sprouts coordinator. Great.
So I'd love to hear just, especially from these two, because you're going to hear from Dilan and I a lot. So just in a nutshell, tell us about yourself, Dilan. Who are you?

**Dilan Oglesby** (1:21)
I'm a Georgian, so I have an accent from, yeah, it's cool. I'm married to Crystal Oglesby. We've been in Kansas, or I have, for about two years now. It's all approaching two years.
I'm an MCC student and work in a bank. So awesome.

**Ben Dever** (1:40)
Super glad to have you up here in Kansas, all the way from Georgia. Yeah.

**Dilan Oglesby** (1:43)
Elisha, accent and all.

**Ben Dever** (1:45)
A little bit about yourself.

**Elisha Hillegeist** (1:46)
Yeah, I am a previous teacher. I used to be an elementary teacher. I'm married to my husband, Taylor. We'll celebrate eight years in April.
Yeah, we have three little kids. My daughter's four. I have a two-year-old son, and then our six-month-old here, Elliot.
Yeah, I'm new to the coordinator position. I interned last summer, took a break to have a baby, and now I'm back and I'm excited. Excited to be on team and excited to work with the kiddos.

**Ben Dever** (2:16)
We're glad you're on the team.
Very cool. So, hey, Dilan, tell us a little bit about Tallgrass Youth. What is it? What do you do? What do you call it?

**Dilan Oglesby** (2:24)
What do I call it? We've had some debate on what to call it. I won't mention one of the names we've had. But, no, I think we're landing for now on TIGI, which is basically T-G-Y, Tallgrass Youth.
I think that's probably what we'll stick with for a little while till we come up with something a little more creative. But, no, yeah, we're just kind of starting out, a small group, which has been nice. We've been able to go to coffee shops and not have to reserve bigger places. It's given us the ability to all pile in the two or three cars and go places. So it's been really nice with that.

**Ben Dever** (3:00)
So you typically meet Sunday afternoons?

**Dilan Oglesby** (3:03)
Yeah, we typically meet Sunday afternoons right before Central Gathering, about 3 o'clock, whether that be at College Heights or in our home or in a coffee shop somewhere. It just really depends on the weather and what the kids are kind of feeling.

**Ben Dever** (3:22)
Well, let's hear a little bit about Sprouts. What in the world is Sprouts?

**Elisha Hillegeist** (3:26)
Sprouts is our children's ministry, and we serve birth to 12 years old, up to sixth grade. And then after that, we have a vision for the sixth graders to join Tiki eventually.

**Ben Dever** (3:39)
Awesome, yep. Very cool.
I'd love to hear, Dilan, what are you excited about with the youth?

**Dilan Oglesby** (3:45)
Excited?
I would say how they engage themselves in the situations. Whether it be, at first it was me saying, hey guys, where you want to meet? Let's meet here. Hey, do you want to go and do this certain event? Or we find that now they're the ones saying, hey, can we go to this or can we do this? Can we meet here? Can we bring so and so with us?
If we do this or that, they're engaging, they're the ones starting the stuff going on. That's super, super exciting. I mean, that's what you want. Cool.

**Ben Dever** (4:27)
So the youth initiative, taking ownership of Tallgrass Youth. I remember the Super Bowl was coming up, and you had initiated a party, and they started blasting group, and you're saying, hey, we want to have a Super Bowl party. Can we come over and then put you in that position? You had to host it, which was awesome.