5 TIPS | Promotion like a Pro! Beginning vs End of Summer?

When should you promote elementary students—right after school ends or just before the fall kickoff? In this video, we’re breaking down the pros and cons of beginning-of-summer vs end-of-summer promotions to help you make the best move for your ministry. Whether you promote from 5th to 6th or 6th to 7th, or just want to avoid the chaos of unclear grade promotions—this one’s for you!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Grade Promotion like a Pro!
00:42 Pros: Beginning of Summer
02:14 Cons: Beginning of Summer
03:53 Pros: End of Summer
06:02 Cons: End of Summer
08:10 Become a Hybrid Hero (https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry)
09:40 Tip #1 - MOST IMPORTANT!
11:54 Tip #2
14:00 Tip #3
14:42 Tip #4
15:58 Tip #5

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:19 - 00:00:32:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When should you promote from elementary into your youth ministry? Whether you promote at the beginning of the summer or whether you wait until the end of summer and closer to the fall and start of your school year. Whether you're promoting from fifth to six or from 6 to 7. This video is for you. And make sure that you stick around to the very end of the video, because I'm going to then rattle off five tips to make your grade and event promotion fantastic, and ones that you can implement right now.

00:00:32:03 - 00:01:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't forget, as always, there are chapters listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the part of the video that matters the most to you. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. When should you promote in your youth ministry from elementary into your student ministry? Let's talk about some pros and some cons from summer versus beginning of the school year, or summer versus end of summer.

00:01:00:14 - 00:01:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so two pros, two cons from each category. Pro number one from promoting at the beginning of the summer is it is just it is a clean and it is a fresh start for everyone. The school year is a immediately in the rearview mirror. And people, students especially, are ready to move on to what's next and what's ahead of them.

00:01:20:10 - 00:01:44:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the beginning of summer provides an amazing opportunity, just mentally and from a vibes standpoint, of when it feels like the most natural time to promote from elementary and to youth ministry. If you also promote at the beginning of summer, you have the option. If it's something that you choose to take advantage of, to let your most recently incoming students be able to go with you to summer camp.

00:01:44:08 - 00:02:06:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, historically, I have allowed and loved having our incoming sixth graders, our incoming seventh graders be able to go with us to summer camp. And while they're still very young, it's an amazing opportunity to kind of introduce them. And, you know, a little bit. Baptism by fire, to our student ministry, to our leaders, to me, as the youth pastor.

00:02:06:13 - 00:02:28:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And but it does really help, in my mind, help solidify their involvement, and their excitement around student ministry. Now, what are the cons, however, of if you promote at the beginning of the summer, some of the cons I would say are that it is a weird programing time for a lot of youth ministries. Your school year, youth ministry programing is pretty down.

00:02:28:05 - 00:02:51:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's pretty locked in. Summer ends up being weird. You take a lot more breaks. You have a lot more. Maybe have a skeleton program. You maybe don't even meet, like, at all. And so to promote at the beginning of the summer and then introduce your sixth graders into, like, a little bit more of a weird and kind of nebulous time on the calendar, I think can be a little bit tricky, especially with solidifying their involvement and regularity.

00:02:51:05 - 00:03:14:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so maybe, yes, I did get to go to camp, but then they came back from camp. And what are you doing in your youth ministry that they can grab on to you and that they can attach on to in their first few weeks and first few months of being involved in youth ministry? And one of the reasons for that weird and kind of nebulous programing is this other common, is that it is a vacation time for a lot of families.

00:03:14:01 - 00:03:31:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so while it may be best and most advantageous for you to promote at the beginning of the summer, those students are promoted, but then they go on vacation with their families, and maybe they're not on vacation all summer. They're gone for a week, but they come back, and then their friend is also gone on vacation and, it's staggered.

00:03:31:28 - 00:03:53:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then that friend comes back, and then the third friend is on vacation, and then the first friend is that they're like, you know, horseback riding camp or whatever. And so students are all over the place in the summer. And so a kind of promoting in the summer is you lose the optionality for just regular kind of consistent attendance and regular and kind of consistent programing, you know, for your students.

00:03:53:20 - 00:04:12:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So then on the flip side, if you're like, okay, yeah, you're right. Those are some disadvantages for sure. Maybe we should consider promoting at the end of summer. Let's talk a little bit about what the pros and the cons are about promoting at the end of summer. So a pro would be is that students do enter into your programing now.

00:04:12:13 - 00:04:48:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I would say is peak programing time for most youth ministries in the world. And so the important thing that we need to understand is that most student ministries have a solid, like, you know, post Labor Day to Memorial Day calendar of student ministry. And so if you want to give them your like best version of programing, put your best foot forward, it might be most advantageous for your students to step into your most well done, most fully hatched student ministry programing, which is going to take place at the end of summer rather than the beginning of summer.

00:04:48:02 - 00:05:13:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other pro is that they are a few months older and they are now in middle school. You got to think if you promoted the beginning of summer, they've just been in elementary school and now they're stepping into middle school version of programing, but they've never actually been in middle school. And so you'll have them for three months with an elementary school mindset rather than a more middle school mindset.

00:05:13:21 - 00:05:35:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so those three months, you might not think they're big deal, but from a, just development and from a maturity standpoint, those three months do make a major difference. And you probably have heard this before, but a kid develops the most from the ages of 0 to 3. And then the second period of time where they develop the most is from sixth grade to eighth grade.

00:05:35:15 - 00:05:54:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so there's going to be a lot of development happening in your sixth graders. And then if you know, if you promote in seventh grade, also that seventh grade level as well, they're right square in the middle of that second most major developmental three year run that they're ever going to experience in their entire life. And so a pro could just be that maturity piece.

00:05:54:02 - 00:06:19:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're able to sit a little bit longer in chairs. They're able to, experience more of a youth ministry setting rather than just simply an elementary setting. What are some of the cons of promoting maybe at the end of school year? You know, this is maybe one of my biggest cons in this entire list is that when you are done with school, the last day of school, whatever grade you're in, what do you tell everyone that very moment that you step out of the school into your parents car?

00:06:19:20 - 00:06:38:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or the very next time someone asks you what grade you're in, you don't say, if you left fifth grade, you don't say, I'm in fifth grade. No, you say you're in sixth grade. And so if that church you're not allowing them to move up when they're emotionally moving up. I think that's a tough sell for a lot of kids in that age group.

00:06:38:13 - 00:07:00:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're ready to move on to what's next. And so to hold them back for all of June, all of July and all of August, that in my opinion, that can be a little bit tough. In the same way that there's a lot of kind of tough moments and tough decisions to make when making this decision. But I think one of the toughest ones for the actual student is going to be the fact that they're not able to move up when mentally they've graduated.

00:07:00:07 - 00:07:18:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? We all the graduation has happened in May, and then to hold back on the church graduation until the end of summer, that just really doesn't fall into alignment with the way that their life, you know, is working at the time. And then the last con here about promoting at the end of summer is very simply, they can't come with to camp.

00:07:18:29 - 00:07:36:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you choose to hold them back, you do rule them out of that ability of being able to go with you to summer camp. And if that's a value of yours, if you want to help integrate new students, if you want to help give students, the the best week that your student ministry has to offer in most cases is a week of summer camp.

00:07:36:22 - 00:08:03:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They don't get to experience that until a full calendar year later. And maybe there's some value in waiting and, you know, looking ahead to, and being excited about camp, but maybe there's, a little bit of a loss there as well. And just the fact that, like, they're brand new customer, so to speak, of your student ministry and what you have to offer, and they're not allowed to go with to camp, that might just be a little bit of a bummer.

00:08:03:00 - 00:08:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you may miss an opportunity to kind of grab some momentum and ride it, into the school year. So everyone, this episode is actually brought to you by my very own Patreon. The Patreon is my bonus podcast community, and I call those people over there who are subscribers. They're my hybrid heroes, and what we do over on my Patreon is a every single resource that I've created in my shop is free for all Patreon members, along with a weekly bonus podcast episode and the cost right now to join my Patreon, I may go up, but right now legacy members can get it for $4 a month.

00:08:45:17 - 00:09:09:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So every single time I create a resource that's just through my Patreon that costs money for people who want to go on to my shop and buy something, you get it for free as a patron member, plus a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about what I do on social media every week. I talk about what I do in my programing every week to try and keep it creative and hybrid, and how we're using sidekick over there.

00:09:09:28 - 00:09:28:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this week I talk, for example, about how I didn't even have a tech person to run Pro presenter. I ran a game from the stage on my computer with name picker on sidekick by myself on my computer. It's amazing. I'll tell you how I do all that type of stuff on my Patreon, so go check it out.

00:09:28:18 - 00:09:47:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link down below in the description where it says Become a Hybrid Hero. Click that link and check it out. Hey, you get a free week trial if you're interested in it. Back to the show. With all those things being said, regardless of where you're promoting, regardless of if you're beginning of summer, regardless of if you're end of summer, I do have five amazing.

00:09:47:20 - 00:10:17:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
An incredible tips that you can implement right now. Because here's the fact when this video drops, you've probably made your be for summer or end of summer decision. But these five tips, they can be implemented by you right now regardless of what decisions have been made. So tip number one is, in light of all the pros and light of all the cons, regardless of where you land on that decision, if as we laid those out, you maybe were even swayed from like I was an end of summer guy, now I'm a beginning of summer guy, or vice versa.

00:10:17:26 - 00:10:36:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This tip is the most important tip of all the tips. Make sure that your grade promotion is in alignment with the rest of your church. And what I mean by that is you can't have your kids ministry promoting from kindergarten to first grade, from first grade to second grade and all the way through at like, say at the beginning of summer.

00:10:36:01 - 00:10:57:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then you hold until the end of summer, even if you personally are in a disagreeing state with the rest of the way, your church, especially your elementary maybe your college ministry is promoting your most important value in this is alignment with the church from top to bottom. And so, you need to make sure that you're on the same page with your kids ministry.

00:10:57:29 - 00:11:15:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You need to make sure you're on the same page with your collegiate minister so that you guys all together collectively have one big day where everyone promotes up. That's also going to make things that you might not, might not care about quite as much, like database. And like those types things all of those promote at the exact same time.

00:11:15:11 - 00:11:44:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it would be confusing if elementary and college promoted at one time and student ministry held back and promoted at another time. And so just make sure you're in alignment. And if you know your kids ministry makes a decision that you're not much of a fan of, I would I would argue that's important to either a, give in caved in to their decision, or b find a way to get on the same page so that you can collectively walk out arm's length as a church unified that says, hey, this is what we as a church are doing.

00:11:44:14 - 00:12:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That is, in my opinion, the most important thing in all of this, regardless of where you land, as far as a decision, that individual decision is made. Tip number two is that you should host a parent meeting and subsequent tours in said meeting. Now, you'll never you'll never have better attendance for a meeting than when you're bringing a fifth grader into sixth grade or a sixth grader into seventh grade.

00:12:10:16 - 00:12:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, in a recent episode that I had about ten tips with partnering with parents, which was a fantastic episode with my friend Josh Bowman linked right here at the top of the YouTube screen, we discussed how meetings are difficult for attendance for parents, and quite honestly, not the most effective use of your time. However, if you are going to have a meeting, if you are going to catch a wave, and if you are going to have a decent attendance for something, it is going to be during this transition.

00:12:37:01 - 00:13:06:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So host it, put your best foot forward, bring out all of the stops, give those parents a tour of your space so that they know exactly what there is to expect in student ministry, and that they'll feel comfortable handing their kid off from elementary. Which, you got to think about this parents have had their kids in the exact same ministry now for that kid's entire life, and now they're being asked to trust a completely new person, a stranger.

00:13:06:21 - 00:13:26:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's you and your ministry. And so make sure that you roll out the red carpet. You may not get 100% attendance, but just know this if you don't get 100% attendance, that means the people that don't attend, they probably trust you. And if they don't attend and they don't trust you, it probably just means they couldn't make it for one reason or another.

00:13:26:26 - 00:13:43:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so host that meeting and let me give you a little bonus. Pro tip from the hybrid Ministry show. Find a way to record it. Capture the audio out of your soundboard and send out the audio, podcast later. Throw a video in the back of the room so that you can link to audio in the video.

00:13:43:06 - 00:14:07:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or just like voice memo, your phone from where you're talking at the front of the room, and send that audio out later, even if it's rough and dirty. But get that in the hands of your parents, especially the ones who don't make it. Now, tip number three is find a way to celebrate those sixth graders or seventh graders arrival.

00:14:07:14 - 00:14:31:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give them swag. Create a spirit tunnel. They're the VIPs for the day. And the fact is, in our culture and in our world, that's the exact opposite. When a new grade comes into middle school or junior high, they're not the VIPs. They're the low people on the totem pole. And while they are the lowest on the totem pole from a factual standpoint at church that should be flipped on its head.

00:14:31:28 - 00:14:55:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The last shall be first and the first shall be last. And so therefore, let's make our new incoming grade. Let's make them feel like a million bucks. Tip number four is make sure that your parent section on your website, your overall website, your social media, make sure all of that is up to date. You have a whole new crop of eyes looking at your website, looking at your social media, you know?

00:14:55:21 - 00:15:29:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link down below. I have an entire four part playlist on the importance of communication in church, and especially the importance of an up dated website that is very simply the most basic step in all of hybrid ministry and all of social media ministry. Your website needs to be your backstop and your landing spot. That is what allows you to stop promoting on your social media, because your website can handle the information and the the the the disseminating of the actual data that the people are looking for.

00:15:29:09 - 00:15:57:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it you can't do that on social media if your website is not up to date. And when you have a brand new wave of parents in a brand new wave of students, it's important, just like you're programing, to also online put your best foot forward, and that includes making sure that your website is up to date and your social media looks the way that you would want a brand new parent who might be freaked out about sending their kid from elementary into middle school to look at your website like, oh yeah, I can trust this person.

00:15:57:16 - 00:16:32:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the fifth and final tip is perhaps consider creating their own week for them. So in our current context, when our, VBS is going on church wide for all the elementary age kids, we are offering a very custom specific fifth grade into sixth grade only week. And it is basically their own version of VBS. And so because of that week, we don't actually let our sixth graders come with us to camp, which is a deviation from my strategy as a 14 year plus youth ministry veteran.

00:16:32:26 - 00:16:48:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But because we offer this week, it allows them to have that same momentum that a week of camp would allow them to do without bringing such a young kid on an overnight camp. And so it allows them to have a full year in our ministry before they do ever go to camp. But it's not that they get nothing.

00:16:48:09 - 00:17:07:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They get their very own week. They're the only grade in the entire church that gets their own specific custom, laser focused week. And so it's a week for fifth graders into sixth graders and our church is called Cross Creek Church. And so we call it Cross the Creek Week. And it's the week where those kids come across the creek.

00:17:07:00 - 00:17:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We have a creek, physical creek on our campus, and the kids building is on one side of the creek. And the student building is on the other side of the creek, and we deck it out. I mean, we go all in and it is a loud it is a space already week. I mean, those kids are wild and crazy, but it is an amazing week for them to connect with us as the only time that an entire grade gets an entire focus with the students, staff, student residents, student volunteers and we pull out all of the stops.

00:17:36:03 - 00:18:11:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you have the bandwidth, the capacity, the volunteer man hours, the space on your calendar in and around your camps and your mission trips to create a custom week, it's just, morning, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for fifth graders. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday during our our work week at church for those kids to experience everything that student ministry has to offer, it feels like VBS from a schedule standpoint, but it feels so student ministry from an actual programing standpoint.

00:18:11:08 - 00:18:39:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a way to kind of marry those two weeks and create an amazing promote, time for those fifth graders. And so if you have the capacity or the bandwidth and you this one, I will say you may not be able to pull out this year, but but perhaps put it in the back of your mind and consider pulling it out next year as an opportunity to really enhance and uptake that, grade promotion for those, elementary students coming on in to your student ministry.

00:18:39:17 - 00:18:52:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey, friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, I would love a subscribe. It's free on your end and it really would make the world of difference on ours. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.