Youth Ministry Interview Tips (with a twist!)

Before your next interview, watch these 5 levels of interview tips. We'll offer 5 levels of tips plus 5 levels of tests for you to land the perfect church job! The twist at the end, most youth pastors miss!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 5 Levels of Interviewing
00:29 Level 1: The Basics
02:22 Level 2 Apprentice
05:58 Level 3: Pro Mode
07:54 Level 4: Mentor Mode
10:17 Level 5: Boss Level

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you land a youth ministry interview.

00:00:02:27 - 00:00:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Congratulations. But now what? For you

00:00:05:23 - 00:00:07:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
walk in and start pitching

00:00:07:16 - 00:00:10:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Fortnite lock ins. I'm going to share with you my

00:00:10:09 - 00:00:19:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
five different levels of interview techniques that I've used in my over 15 years of youth ministry, and probably more than 50 different interviews. Make

00:00:19:15 - 00:00:25:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sure that you stick around to the end, because I'm going to throw a twist at you that most youth pastors miss.

00:00:25:15 - 00:00:28:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody to the hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:28:16 - 00:00:44:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. My name is Nick Klassen. I am your host, and we're going to be answering this question. What advice would you give to someone going into their first interview for a youth pastor position, knowing that the only experience they have is as a leader or a volunteer?

00:00:45:00 - 00:01:02:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, we're going to be walking through my five levels of youth ministry, and we're going to share a tip and then a test that you are going to lay out before the church. And so the first tip is make sure that you show up on time and that you dress appropriately like this. Listen, this is the basics.

00:01:02:05 - 00:01:22:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Be there when you say you're going to be there. Dress how you feel like you should just for the job. But the test okay is a little bit of, maybe a little bit of a surprise is that maybe don't dress quite so appropriately and see how the church responds to maybe you showing up in shorts, you showing up in a t shirt.

00:01:22:03 - 00:01:38:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, listen, you have to be willing to maybe not land that particular job, but I know in my experience, there's been times where like one time I went to a church and I didn't want to go to a church that was all stuck up and where I was going to have to dress up every single week and wear a tie.

00:01:38:08 - 00:01:57:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I went to meet the youth pastor. It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was like, you know what? I'm wearing shorts and we're just going to see how they respond to that. And to their credit, they responded actually really well. But there's, there's a, element in there where you're kind of like watching and observing and seeing how they're going to respond.

00:01:57:11 - 00:02:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, you have to know the context you have to know where you're walking into. And in most interviews that either I've been a part of or that I have hosted, the interviewee, does tend to be the more overdressed, but that all depends on the type of church that you're going to find yourself at, in the type of context that you find yourself in.

00:02:16:21 - 00:02:21:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the very basics is show up on time and be as professional as possible.

00:02:21:26 - 00:02:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Level two is what I call the apprentice mode, and in this, the tip is that you need to research the church and its values. You should watch a couple or listen to a couple of sermons. You should read their about page. You should not be surprised if they don't have a denomination listed in their name, what their denomination is that they've just changed their name from.

00:02:44:17 - 00:03:12:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you should have, some info and some basics about this church from some of the research that you've pulled up online. Now, the other thing, the test in this is that you should have questions about their values queued up that you find that you are genuinely curious about. So as you're having the interview and as they're asking you things and you notice something, they ask a certain question.

00:03:12:27 - 00:03:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want you to earmark that, because at the end of every interview, they say, what questions do you have for me? And when I'm in the interview worksheet, I want that person to ask me questions about where I work. I want to be able to help fill out the picture for what it looks like. And when they say, I think I'm good right now, that I'm just going to be honest, is a little bit of a turnoff for me.

00:03:35:21 - 00:03:59:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in the same way, be gearing up and have some questions. So for example, at the church I work at now, I noticed that their small group system all meet on Sunday morning, which at the exact same time, so does student ministry. So I ask questions about the value of small group as well as what it means for me as a youth pastor at this church, to be able to be in and around and a part of community.

00:03:59:10 - 00:04:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I got what I needed. Another thing that happened at this church was I asked questions about where they stand and how they feel about social media and hybrid ministry. This is the Hybrid Ministry podcast, and since I've been here in the last three years, we've experienced two acts growth in our youth ministry attendance and in our youth ministry involvement.

00:04:22:08 - 00:04:38:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it didn't come with a little bit of a price where some people were like, do you know what the youth ministry is doing and how much emphasis and and how much time and effort they're putting in to social media and we had to overcome a little bit of that with some people who are a little bit put off.

00:04:39:04 - 00:04:58:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But our approach to our hybrid ministry, but as you can see, it's paid off. Hey quick break, let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day as a youth pastor, scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:04:58:28 - 00:05:21:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:05:21:12 - 00:05:41:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid? Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:05:41:08 - 00:05:58:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry

00:05:58:07 - 00:06:04:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
level three takes me to my Pro mode, and it's to ask my favorite interview question of all time.

00:06:04:11 - 00:06:28:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the question is this if I accepted this job and I started tomorrow and I did an amazing job, I hit a home run. What did I do? What did I do? That's my tip. I want you to ask that question. Regardless of if you're new and just an, a volunteer stepping into a potential paid youth ministry position or a youth ministry veteran.

00:06:28:08 - 00:06:52:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's why. And honestly, the tip is the test. Because this question will show you and it will reveal. And it will, like a detective, uncover what your interviewer, what your boss, what your senior pastor, whoever it is, the personnel committee that you're sitting down with and having this discussion. It will show you what they are looking for and what they are valuing.

00:06:52:28 - 00:07:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As a youth pastor, when a youth pastor comes into their their church. And another thing that you might notice is they may have some very strict particular ideas and you might ask like, so how did how did it end with the last person that was here? And you might come to notice that they're trying to interview for the opposite person, especially if it ended badly.

00:07:17:08 - 00:07:35:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you that's not a red flag. That's not a reason to say no to the job. But it's it's worthwhile for you to take note of, okay, I'm up against this person's performance and the expectations that this person brought to the job, and they're trying to find someone a little bit different, and you're going to have to at least be able to speak to that.

00:07:35:16 - 00:07:53:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if they say this person has to be incredibly organized, you say, is it okay if I stack a team of people around me to help me be organized? Because that might not be my strong suit or or something like that, but be prepared to respond to that question. If I did a great job, what did I do?

00:07:53:12 - 00:07:53:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The fourth

00:07:53:29 - 00:08:18:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
level, which is the mentor mode level, is the tip I want to have for you is have a defined philosophy of ministry for yourself. If you know why you do what you do, then when you get in, you start talking Fortnite lock ins and ideas like, I'm just going to be honest, when I, as an interviewer, get a bunch of like ideas of like youth ministry stuff, I genuinely don't care.

00:08:18:24 - 00:08:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the reason I don't care is not because I don't think those aren't good ideas, but those aren't the real needle movers. The real needle movers are the ideas that are tied to a genuine biblical purpose. So in our church, we kind of operate out of like a four chair disciple making model. Other churches or other people like I would recommend.

00:08:37:12 - 00:09:11:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you don't know anything about a philosophy of ministry, before you hop into an interview, take a look through either one of these two books, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by the goat himself, Doug Fields, or for Chair Discipleship by Dan Spader. Or better yet, read them both. But everything you do. We just had this discussion last week with my my current interns, residents and staff, and we said everything we do around here is incredibly strategic and incredibly tied to a reason and a biblical purpose, even if from the outside looking in, you're like, you guys are just the hybrid ministry.

00:09:11:13 - 00:09:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Social media people like, know every single reason by what we do on social media ties back to a particular meaningful moment and meaningful reason and meaningful purpose. And while you're in the interview, the test for you, once you have your philosophy of ministry laid out, is you need to try and listen for balance in their in their line of questioning across all the lanes of disciple making.

00:09:35:10 - 00:10:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For example, they might lean heavy evangelism. So while you're in there, the test question that you might have is you may ask them about their, disciple making culture, or they might lean heavy on education and discipleship. And you might ask them, what's the last outreach event that you've had? So the test is you want to try and listen for an aim for some measure of balance and, and, churches tend to skew and lean, either strong discipleship, strong evangelism, strong worship, strong serving.

00:10:03:07 - 00:10:17:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you want to try and listen for or ask about, right? And if you have a philosophy of ministry and they don't talk about worship at all, you might ask about what's your opinion of worship? How does you know? How does your church? How does your youth ministry attempt to approach that?

00:10:17:06 - 00:10:21:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The fifth and final level, which is the boss level, which is where the twist comes in?

00:10:22:03 - 00:10:43:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The tip is this. The tip is flip. The interview and interview them. Right. The the bottom line about all this is this is the church isn't just choosing you though. They are. You're also choosing them. You have to decide, do I want to work? Here's this type of place I want to be. Do I like them right during this interview process, do they?

00:10:44:02 - 00:11:00:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They treat me well because here's the fact they're going to treat you in the interview process as well as their as well. Excuse me, as well as they're ever going to treat you. And can you see yourself and can you see even maybe more importantly, especially if you have a wife and kids, can you see your family there long term?

00:11:00:27 - 00:11:19:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. This is the secret cheat code that sets you apart. That is the test. That is the twist is that you are going to be interviewing them. And you see all throughout the test I offer our different little like subtle tests where you're trying to gain Intel and you're trying to come to an understanding of the church as well.

00:11:19:16 - 00:11:42:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the cheat code for this is that when you learn to interview them, they also because A you're going to be curious. They like that. They like when people are curious they like when people are asking questions. So if you think that this helped you level up your interview game, hit the subscribe button that you see here on screen, as well as hit this next episode button.

00:11:42:21 - 00:11:58:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to be answering some more questions and, trying to head through different layers and levels of youth ministry. It will help you both crush your weekly ministry as well as help you get a new job in the future. But until next time and as always, my friends, don't forget stay happy.