How to Welcome New Students in Youth Ministry Without Overwhelming Them

Welcoming new students to your youth ministry shouldn’t feel like a firehose of information—this episode unpacks how to create an intentional, low-pressure first-time guest follow-up system. We’ll explore the psychology behind making guests feel valued, how to use a youth group welcome box, and why timing your church guest process matters. Plus, get a walkthrough of our youth ministry calendar, a peek at our welcome video strategy, and how to keep student connections alive on social media all fall long!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 How to Wow New Students
00:26 The psychology of the Welcome Guest Box
02:12 Why We Mail a Box
04:21 The Hybrid Part of the Box

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:17 - 00:00:23:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You got new students showing up to your youth ministry, to your fall kickoff events. Are you ready to wow them or just hand them a stale pizza coupon? In this episode, we are going to detail an outline my full guest Strategy Newcomers Welcome box. It is linked down below if you want to check it out. And of course, as always, there are chapters listed down below.

00:00:23:25 - 00:00:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick. In a 15 year youth ministry veteran, and in recent years I've stumbled into this idea of a welcome guest box. In fact, we detailed and outlined it in this episode, linked right here on screen or down below if you want to go check that out.

00:00:47:17 - 00:01:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the fact of the matter is that we have discovered that the psychology behind creating an intentional follow up box is threefold. First of all, you want the students who come to your youth ministry for the very first time. You want them to feel like a million bucks. You want to roll out the red carpet for them, and you want them to feel like you have thought about them and that you have, you know, you've planned to have them there.

00:01:11:01 - 00:01:30:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, like in recent years, we've discovered more and more with this generation that it's an overwhelming experience to walk into a youth ministry for the very first time. And so imagine walking into a place it's completely foreign, completely new, completely wild and completely crazy. And then you're like, here, here's this, and here's this, and here's this. And here's this.

00:01:30:18 - 00:01:52:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, swag ING them out. And like, that's a great notion. However, in the moment they're just figuring out like, where's the bathroom? Meanwhile, they have to hold and track and keep all this stuff that you're just like loading them up with. And they're awkward because they're holding it, but like nobody else has it. And like, if you want them to truly get involved in your youth ministry, you want them like jumping into things like Gaga Ball and Nine square.

00:01:52:29 - 00:02:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, they have things that they have to keep track of and like they don't know where's a safe place to actually lay it down. And so therefore, that's why we've pivoted to recently in our student ministry, sending a guest welcome box. And so they come, we gather all their information. We say, hey, thank you so much. So glad you're here.

00:02:08:27 - 00:02:26:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We pair them up with someone new and then we treat them just like any other normal student. Meanwhile, a few days later, they'll get on their doorstep a welcome box branded all the things, helping welcome them to our student ministry. And in that moment, they're then able to be completely swagged out and have all of the things that they need.

00:02:26:22 - 00:02:57:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But they're able to do it in a less threatening environment. They're able to do it at home. And so we love this strategy. And again, as I said in the previous episode, I've given a full breakdown of it. You can go check that out. And I also include some artwork for it. But in this episode, I'm going to include the artwork for my 2025 FA calendars so that you can include and you can start using that to start laying out and dishing out your full 2025 calendar.

00:02:57:08 - 00:03:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because again, if you're in this masterclass, which you are, this is video part two of the Fall Masterclass for Youth Ministry. Last week we talked about the world's Greatest Donut Kickoff event. And if you if that event did its job and new students came, then those students came to your youth ministry. And then now you're going to use today's episode, this welcome box to send out and welcome the new students to your ministry.

00:03:20:10 - 00:03:55:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, this first time or this, this calendar that's included in the welcome box, it is free for all members of my Patreon. If not, you can jump on and you can grab it for just a few bucks. I think it's like 3 or $4 over there on Patreon. But if you become a member, which is only $4 per month, not only do you get access to every single thing on my store, including like my seasonal social media packs, the welcome box from that past episode, and this fall calendar, but you also get a weekly bonus podcast where I go through what we do in our youth ministry and in our kickoff events,

00:03:55:12 - 00:04:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and it's basically like your weekly debrief meeting. Even if you don't have a team around you, it's always helpful to have someone else's voice and to just hear those things, to kind of get those ideas going in your in your brain and like in your creative juices. And so that's the value of, again, $4 per month is the, bonus podcast.

00:04:16:25 - 00:04:35:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the other reason that I love this welcome box idea is because as soon as you open it up, we have a gigantic QR code, right when they open it up and at the top it says Welcome video and they scan it and it takes him to our YouTube channel. And so it's a welcome video from me and other people on our team.

00:04:35:07 - 00:04:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, if you're following this fall playlist last week, you also got them on your social media. So they hopefully went and checked out your social media last week because voting for the donuts was on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever you have. And then this video also takes them to YouTube. So now it's the second social media touchpoint for them in as many days.

00:04:56:20 - 00:05:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if they're going to continue on, with this donut thing, if they're going to continue on to see this thing through, if they're going to keep coming back, they're going to interact with your social media more and more. And as we talked about in the previous video over the summer, the key to social media in youth ministry is not like a one time amazing viral video.

00:05:15:09 - 00:05:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The key is many micro connections over time so that they get used to and they get familiar with your brand and your social media, which is why it's so important to not only stay custom on social media, but also to stay, regular and consistent on social media, which is what my seasonal social media pack was meant to do over the summer.

00:05:35:18 - 00:05:58:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And big news in four episodes. The final episode of this fall, when we are launching our fall seasonal social media pack, we want to help you when creating not only custom content, but also creating serving opportunities for your students to to level up and lead these social media teams. And so now you might be thinking like, okay, so we got the world's greatest donut event, and now we got this welcome box.

00:05:58:20 - 00:06:21:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do I know if any of these things are actually hitting, if we're actually making any discernible difference in the life of our student? I'm glad you asked, because in the next episode, we're going to talk about one of the key components of this, fall kickoff event. And it's the fact that we include we alluded to a little bit in last episode, but we include this moment of like 45 minutes of free time for students to do whatever they want.

00:06:21:14 - 00:06:33:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That video is going to be linked here on screen. Make sure that you're subscribed. If you're watching this live, so that you don't miss when that episode drops next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hydrated.