web02.fireside.fm Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:52:27 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Gaga Ball” https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/gaga%20ball Thu, 14 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick en-us episodic Digital Discipleship made easy Nick Clason Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick no Digital, Online Church, Hybrid Ministry, Church, Meta, Gen Z, Millennials, Digital Marketing, Church Marketing, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Nick Clason, Digital Ministry, Church Social Media, Youth Ministry Social Media, YouTube for Church, YouTube for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Churches, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Instagram for Churches, Instagram for Youth Ministry, Facebook for Church, Facebook for Youth Ministry, Cell Phone Usage at Church Nick Clason nickclason@hybridministry.xyz Episode 162: 10 Free Time Stations for Youth Ministry - Fun, Easy & FREE! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162 1f16d97f-ed7f-4687-b8dc-360c7e8cdb6f Thu, 14 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 162 10 Free Time Stations for Youth Ministry - Fun, Easy & FREE! full Nick Clason Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss! 13:31 no Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss! 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162 ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=productsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry USE CODE: “HYBRIDMINISTRY” FOR 10% OFF COLEADER.CO GAGA BALL vs 9 SQUARE RECOMMENDATIONS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c SOCIAL CHALLENGE 4-PART FRAMEWORK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 This Strategy Make Him say what?! 00:36 The Freetime Strategy Explained 06:25 Donut Tattoos 06:39 Scavenger Hunt - Hybridized! 09:19 Board Games 09:36 Decorating 09:52 Steal The (Fill in the Blank) 10:29 Kajabi Can Can 11:14 Big Screen Mario Kart Tourney 11:37 9-Square 11:44 Gaga Ball 12:09 The Social Challenge -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:03 - 00:00:19:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Your students don't want to sit through another 90 minute program. Can we be honest? Do you? In this episode, I'm going to break down my outreach event strategy, which when I shared it with my friend Eric with the kids, he had this to say about it. I love that thank you notes. That's something I'm gonna steal for future videos. 00:00:19:27 - 00:00:52:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this episode, I'm going to hit you with ten ideas that you are definitely going to want to head over to my YouTube channel so that you can screenshot these and use them for your upcoming fall outreach event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show! Well, hey everyone, welcome to episode 162 of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I'm going to be talking about one of the, strategies that we have for our outreach events that we've sort of stumbled into, and it's a little bit unique. 00:00:52:26 - 00:01:14:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, you heard what my friend Eric had to say about it, but essentially what it is, is it's creating moments of free time for your students. And so what I mean by that is we're not taking the full 90 minute block, or we're not taking the full 120 minute block of programing time that you have for your youth ministry and scheduling every single minute and making every single student do every single thing the entire time. 00:01:15:00 - 00:01:35:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But instead, what we're doing is we're opening up a window of time within our night, within our program to allow your students to kind of, like, choose their own adventure and do what they want to do. Now, if you're going to be using linked right here, the, download from the World's Greatest Donut Event Guide that we've been talking about, like, that's what, we've done before. 00:01:35:19 - 00:01:54:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I want, you know, if you're looking for something to do, I want you to consider maybe doing that event and you can incorporate these ideas, this strategy, into your upcoming fall outreach event. And so, go ahead and go grab that download. It's completely free. It's going to point you to a resource over On demand that you can use and implement. 00:01:54:07 - 00:02:22:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And these ideas are things that you can use, borrow, steal, and include in your upcoming fall outreach event. But the the philosophy behind it is, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, this is a cultivate in the spiritual CPR. This is a cultivate night. We're we're inviting friends were hanging out. We're just, kind of letting our hair down, kicking our feet up and hanging out with students and helping them see that church doesn't have to be confusing. 00:02:22:00 - 00:02:44:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Church doesn't have to be weird. But the other reason that this is advantageous is very simply, when you have a message included in your night, you don't have as much time to program. When you don't include your message, you have more time to program. And here's what we do. Oftentimes, we're still like plugging through our scope and sequence like we use Collider. 00:02:44:04 - 00:03:07:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, if you use Code hybrid ministry, I'll give you 10% off Collider for a year. So go check that out. They just dropped roadmaps. The first part of roadmaps year three. Really excited about the the judges series included in that. But, we'll just kind of keep plugging along in what we, you know, for a message that we should have taught on the night our outreach event is Worcester, upload it to YouTube. 00:03:08:01 - 00:03:30:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then our Sunday morning curriculum is derived off of our Wednesday night curriculum. And so we'll still have that conversation on Sunday morning, even though we didn't have the message on Wednesday night. And it's just on YouTube. And so at the end of the night, a lot of times we'll just show a little teaser clip and say, hey, this is over on YouTube, go check it out, scan this QR code if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel. 00:03:30:08 - 00:03:55:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they're off to the races. And I mean the whole the whole good news right about these, this donut event is that it's getting students onto your social media, which at the end of this completely free fall masterclass playlist, I'm going to teach you how to build a social media team run completely by students that helps them create content not only for other students in your ministry, but create content with other students in your ministry. 00:03:55:28 - 00:04:15:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so having this free time event opens up all of these things, opens up more options. And, you know, one of the things that we'll do is we'll, offer anywhere from like four or 5 or 6 different, like, things, little stations. And they have anywhere from 30 to maybe 45 minutes on the longer end to do whatever them that they want. 00:04:15:18 - 00:04:36:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But one of the things that we've done to kind of encourage them or highlight what's available is we'll create a little passport or like a punch card, or if they go to a station and complete it, they'll get a little sticker for it. And what that does is it just helps them. First of all, give gives your students, and anyone who's new like a little map of your area, what's included where what's going on? 00:04:36:06 - 00:04:53:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What can we do right now? And then we'll say, hey, if you, complete if you go to all six stations, come and submit this card back in and we will give you a candy bar. And then we'll also put your, you know, name or your passport in, a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the night or something like that. 00:04:53:27 - 00:05:11:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, you know, if students are maybe not interested in all six of the things, and that's one of the reasons why we do it is because we know, like, not every single student is going to want to do every single type of game that you do. And so we'll include like some artsy and crafty type things. But then we'll also include some really, really active type things. 00:05:11:27 - 00:05:30:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so some students may be like, I'm more artsy. I don't want to do that active thing at all. And they're going to opt out of doing every single thing on the passport. But other kids, they might want to try to do all of it. And so they're going to try to run to every single station. So it just it it communicates what's available and it gives students an option to just win something. 00:05:30:13 - 00:05:47:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's just a fun way to kind of program it. I try to program the amount of time, like if we got 5 or 6 stations, I want to give them 30 to 35 minutes. I want there to be nearly not enough time for them to do everything, because when they leave, I want them to have in their mind like, oh my word, that event was so fun. 00:05:47:14 - 00:06:03:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I didn't even get to everything. And that's kind of like the vibe I want them to get in the car with with their parents, right? And when they're parents, like, how was it there? Like it was awesome. There is so much to do, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's kind of the vibe that we're going for. So if you're here on YouTube, these are going to flash up here on the screen. 00:06:04:01 - 00:06:24:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These are free time stations that are high fun, but they're low prep. And some of these we've done before, others of them are ideas that I have for future ones. And if you're doing the World's Greatest Donut Event launch guide, you can use some of these. These are ones that we actually have pulled together, for the donut event starting with. 00:06:24:29 - 00:06:50:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The first one is we had a donut temporary tattoo parlor. And so we can have students come in and just get a temporary donut tattoo. Right. And it's like you're doing the scavenger hunt. Like, one of the things I've done is, a future idea is like, we've done a scavenger hunt is one of the clues on the scavenger hunt was to have to go and prove that you got a donut tattoo, so it's like you kind of kill two birds with one stone. 00:06:50:00 - 00:07:10:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They come to the scavenger hunt, which is a second idea, by the way. Come to the scavenger hunt. One of the one of the clues is you know, go to the donut tattoo thing and they prove that they've done it. And so in addition to it, we like I try to hybridize my scavenger hunt, which, if you didn't know by the way, I have a weekly bonus podcast over on Patreon. 00:07:10:00 - 00:07:36:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's only $4 a month, and I want you to think about that. Investment of $4 is like your creative programing assistant. Like, here's my question is $50 per year worth it for you to have? Almost like a programing and social media consultant and coach? Because that's essentially what this $4 tier would do. It's going to give you, for $48 for you, 12 times four. 00:07:36:07 - 00:07:57:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's going to give you, someone who's just doing this on the front lines and is evaluating everything that I'm doing and boots on the ground. I'm not just like some, you know, youth ministry content guy. Like, these are things I'm actually doing. And I'll, I'll coach you through just by the evaluation of my own strategy, how it's going, what's going well, what's not going as well. 00:07:57:00 - 00:08:15:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can just steal all that I'm doing and bonus points, at the end of this episode, I'm going to be dropping a product that's $17. That's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you continue to lean in on social media. That's going to be free if you're already a $4 tier member of the Hybrid Heroes podcast. 00:08:15:27 - 00:08:33:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I try to hybridize, and this is an example of thing I'll talk about on my podcast, The Scavenger Hunt. So, for example, we say, hey, prove to us that you voted on the first round of the donuts, because remember, at this event we're launching the bracket. And so we're doing donuts, seed number one versus donuts. Seed number 16. 00:08:33:28 - 00:08:53:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Donuts number eight versus donut seed number nine. Prove to us that you voted. And so, they can either vote with paper printouts which is the most boring, or they go on Instagram or YouTube and cast a poll style vote. Another one I'll do is I'll say, like in our most recent uploaded YouTube video, what was on so-and-so's shirt? 00:08:53:10 - 00:09:15:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What color was so-and-so's hat, who's teaching like or whatever? And so that'll also encourage them to pull their phones out. If they don't have a phone, go find someone who does have a phone and look at our YouTube channel. And then, you know, bonus points if you subscribe, like all those types of things, like, I'm trying to kind of lean into not only the other stations like the donut tattoo station, but also some of our hybrid ideas. 00:09:15:26 - 00:09:32:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so Scavenger Hunt is one of my all time favorite stations. Another one is just simple, right? Like create a board game station. Like we already have a bunch of board games in our cafe. In our game room. We'll just lay those on a table and say, you can go do board games. And here's the thing so low prep on your part. 00:09:32:22 - 00:09:53:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't have to do anything with it. We in this donut event, we've done donut decorating for like a couple nights ago in our youth ministry, it was National Sugar Cookie Day. We did sugar cookie decorating like you could do some sort of food decorating or craft decorating of sorts. One of the one of my all time favorite active games is steal the Bacon. 00:09:53:19 - 00:10:10:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so in this event, we just do steal the donut. You can buy a big donut plush on Amazon, or you can just very simply like throw anything out there, like a piece of, like we've done, like I've done like a duck tape night before. And I took a piece of cardboard and I duct taped all around the cardboard, and we played steal the duct Tape. 00:10:11:03 - 00:10:27:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, whatever theme event you're doing, like, steal that thing for, like, a steal the bacon style game where you have ten people on one side, ten people on the other, or however many. Right. And you can number them off. So this is one, this is one, this is two. This is two. When you call that number, they run on into the middle. 00:10:27:22 - 00:10:45:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Another one of our all time favorite active games is we call it One of our volunteers labeled it here called poison, but I've grown up calling it Kajabi can can just with the big trash can in the middle. And you try to not touch the trash can by holding someone's, you know, hands and dragging them into the trash can. 00:10:45:14 - 00:11:08:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You want to be the last person standing. Here's a pro tip grab dog rope. Chew toys so that you're not holding someone's like, wrist and like, crushing their knuckles because inevitably you're going to have like a senior guy football player next to like, a seventh grade girl. And he's going to destroy her hand. So give them both, like, dog rope, chew toys to hang onto with, like the ropes on the end. 00:11:08:23 - 00:11:29:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry She's got a rope here. He's got rope here. And of course, if you break the chain, you're also out. Another thing that we've done before, and I'm just going to be honest, I don't know how well it worked, but we did like, big screen Mario Kart video game, tournament video games, and Mario Kart always a hit. The part that I'm not sure that worked was the tournament aspect. 00:11:29:24 - 00:11:45:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like it was kind of chaotic and didn't really know who's next and who's in line and, you know, whatever. But it was still fun. Overall, we have in our space, we have like a nine square, so we'll just say eight. You can you know, play nine square if you want. So that's an option. Gaga ball. That's an option. 00:11:45:17 - 00:12:04:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you don't know like I recommend two portable versions. And so maybe you're in like a shared space. But for an event like this, you can drag those out and set them up. Link down. Below is my, recommended nine square option and my recommended Gaga ball option. So those are things you make a little financial investment here on the front side, but then you can use this whenever you have a big event like this. 00:12:04:29 - 00:12:23:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And those can be a part of your station, some of the things that you offer. And then finally the social challenge. So social challenge I'm going to teach you how to do that here in a couple episodes. So make sure that you're subscribed. But the social challenge is we some social media content with our students, by our students every single Wednesday night. 00:12:24:01 - 00:12:43:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in the link below, I am going to share with you exactly how you can, build your own social media team and the exact strategy that we use. And like I said in a couple episodes, I'm going to flesh out a full class on how to build out a social media team based on student ministry volunteers and what that does. 00:12:43:13 - 00:13:03:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That just helps kind of continue to create those hybrid connections. You're doing it via social media. And like I said on August 28th, we're dropping something big that is going to help you get that social media team up and off the ground. So you're definitely going to want to make sure that you're subscribed. But for the next video here, we are going to now talk about we've done this donut event. 00:13:03:09 - 00:13:25:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We've welcome new students. We've included free time stations. Now let's look at event evaluation. How do we know whether or not we hit the mark? How do we know whether or not this event was successful? How do we know whether or not the budget money that we spent with, whether the juice there was worth the squeeze? We're going to answer all of those questions on the video that's linked right here on screen. 00:13:25:05 - 00:13:31:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So make sure that you tap into that and until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth ministry podcast, hybrid ministry, Nick Clason, student ministry, youth pastor tips, youth group games, free time stations, fall youth ministry, youth group strategy, engaging students, youth event ideas, church games, donut game, passport game, low prep games, teen ministry, youth group fun, youth pastor resources, download youth ministry, youth group planning, 9 square, gaga ball, social media strategy, church outreach, youth group connection Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss!

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162

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*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

USE CODE: “HYBRIDMINISTRY” FOR 10% OFF
COLEADER.CO

GAGA BALL vs 9 SQUARE RECOMMENDATIONS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c
SOCIAL CHALLENGE 4-PART FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
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📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
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📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

--------------
🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick

--------------
🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 This Strategy Make Him say what?!
00:36 The Freetime Strategy Explained
06:25 Donut Tattoos
06:39 Scavenger Hunt - Hybridized!
09:19 Board Games
09:36 Decorating
09:52 Steal The (Fill in the Blank)
10:29 Kajabi Can Can
11:14 Big Screen Mario Kart Tourney
11:37 9-Square
11:44 Gaga Ball
12:09 The Social Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:19:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your students don't want to sit through another 90 minute program. Can we be honest? Do you? In this episode, I'm going to break down my outreach event strategy, which when I shared it with my friend Eric with the kids, he had this to say about it. I love that thank you notes. That's something I'm gonna steal for future videos.

00:00:19:27 - 00:00:52:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, I'm going to hit you with ten ideas that you are definitely going to want to head over to my YouTube channel so that you can screenshot these and use them for your upcoming fall outreach event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show! Well, hey everyone, welcome to episode 162 of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I'm going to be talking about one of the, strategies that we have for our outreach events that we've sort of stumbled into, and it's a little bit unique.

00:00:52:26 - 00:01:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, you heard what my friend Eric had to say about it, but essentially what it is, is it's creating moments of free time for your students. And so what I mean by that is we're not taking the full 90 minute block, or we're not taking the full 120 minute block of programing time that you have for your youth ministry and scheduling every single minute and making every single student do every single thing the entire time.

00:01:15:00 - 00:01:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But instead, what we're doing is we're opening up a window of time within our night, within our program to allow your students to kind of, like, choose their own adventure and do what they want to do. Now, if you're going to be using linked right here, the, download from the World's Greatest Donut Event Guide that we've been talking about, like, that's what, we've done before.

00:01:35:19 - 00:01:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want, you know, if you're looking for something to do, I want you to consider maybe doing that event and you can incorporate these ideas, this strategy, into your upcoming fall outreach event. And so, go ahead and go grab that download. It's completely free. It's going to point you to a resource over On demand that you can use and implement.

00:01:54:07 - 00:02:22:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And these ideas are things that you can use, borrow, steal, and include in your upcoming fall outreach event. But the the philosophy behind it is, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, this is a cultivate in the spiritual CPR. This is a cultivate night. We're we're inviting friends were hanging out. We're just, kind of letting our hair down, kicking our feet up and hanging out with students and helping them see that church doesn't have to be confusing.

00:02:22:00 - 00:02:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Church doesn't have to be weird. But the other reason that this is advantageous is very simply, when you have a message included in your night, you don't have as much time to program. When you don't include your message, you have more time to program. And here's what we do. Oftentimes, we're still like plugging through our scope and sequence like we use Collider.

00:02:44:04 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you use Code hybrid ministry, I'll give you 10% off Collider for a year. So go check that out. They just dropped roadmaps. The first part of roadmaps year three. Really excited about the the judges series included in that. But, we'll just kind of keep plugging along in what we, you know, for a message that we should have taught on the night our outreach event is Worcester, upload it to YouTube.

00:03:08:01 - 00:03:30:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then our Sunday morning curriculum is derived off of our Wednesday night curriculum. And so we'll still have that conversation on Sunday morning, even though we didn't have the message on Wednesday night. And it's just on YouTube. And so at the end of the night, a lot of times we'll just show a little teaser clip and say, hey, this is over on YouTube, go check it out, scan this QR code if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

00:03:30:08 - 00:03:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're off to the races. And I mean the whole the whole good news right about these, this donut event is that it's getting students onto your social media, which at the end of this completely free fall masterclass playlist, I'm going to teach you how to build a social media team run completely by students that helps them create content not only for other students in your ministry, but create content with other students in your ministry.

00:03:55:28 - 00:04:15:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so having this free time event opens up all of these things, opens up more options. And, you know, one of the things that we'll do is we'll, offer anywhere from like four or 5 or 6 different, like, things, little stations. And they have anywhere from 30 to maybe 45 minutes on the longer end to do whatever them that they want.

00:04:15:18 - 00:04:36:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we've done to kind of encourage them or highlight what's available is we'll create a little passport or like a punch card, or if they go to a station and complete it, they'll get a little sticker for it. And what that does is it just helps them. First of all, give gives your students, and anyone who's new like a little map of your area, what's included where what's going on?

00:04:36:06 - 00:04:53:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What can we do right now? And then we'll say, hey, if you, complete if you go to all six stations, come and submit this card back in and we will give you a candy bar. And then we'll also put your, you know, name or your passport in, a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the night or something like that.

00:04:53:27 - 00:05:11:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, if students are maybe not interested in all six of the things, and that's one of the reasons why we do it is because we know, like, not every single student is going to want to do every single type of game that you do. And so we'll include like some artsy and crafty type things. But then we'll also include some really, really active type things.

00:05:11:27 - 00:05:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so some students may be like, I'm more artsy. I don't want to do that active thing at all. And they're going to opt out of doing every single thing on the passport. But other kids, they might want to try to do all of it. And so they're going to try to run to every single station. So it just it it communicates what's available and it gives students an option to just win something.

00:05:30:13 - 00:05:47:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's just a fun way to kind of program it. I try to program the amount of time, like if we got 5 or 6 stations, I want to give them 30 to 35 minutes. I want there to be nearly not enough time for them to do everything, because when they leave, I want them to have in their mind like, oh my word, that event was so fun.

00:05:47:14 - 00:06:03:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I didn't even get to everything. And that's kind of like the vibe I want them to get in the car with with their parents, right? And when they're parents, like, how was it there? Like it was awesome. There is so much to do, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's kind of the vibe that we're going for. So if you're here on YouTube, these are going to flash up here on the screen.

00:06:04:01 - 00:06:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are free time stations that are high fun, but they're low prep. And some of these we've done before, others of them are ideas that I have for future ones. And if you're doing the World's Greatest Donut Event launch guide, you can use some of these. These are ones that we actually have pulled together, for the donut event starting with.

00:06:24:29 - 00:06:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first one is we had a donut temporary tattoo parlor. And so we can have students come in and just get a temporary donut tattoo. Right. And it's like you're doing the scavenger hunt. Like, one of the things I've done is, a future idea is like, we've done a scavenger hunt is one of the clues on the scavenger hunt was to have to go and prove that you got a donut tattoo, so it's like you kind of kill two birds with one stone.

00:06:50:00 - 00:07:10:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They come to the scavenger hunt, which is a second idea, by the way. Come to the scavenger hunt. One of the one of the clues is you know, go to the donut tattoo thing and they prove that they've done it. And so in addition to it, we like I try to hybridize my scavenger hunt, which, if you didn't know by the way, I have a weekly bonus podcast over on Patreon.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's only $4 a month, and I want you to think about that. Investment of $4 is like your creative programing assistant. Like, here's my question is $50 per year worth it for you to have? Almost like a programing and social media consultant and coach? Because that's essentially what this $4 tier would do. It's going to give you, for $48 for you, 12 times four.

00:07:36:07 - 00:07:57:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to give you, someone who's just doing this on the front lines and is evaluating everything that I'm doing and boots on the ground. I'm not just like some, you know, youth ministry content guy. Like, these are things I'm actually doing. And I'll, I'll coach you through just by the evaluation of my own strategy, how it's going, what's going well, what's not going as well.

00:07:57:00 - 00:08:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can just steal all that I'm doing and bonus points, at the end of this episode, I'm going to be dropping a product that's $17. That's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you continue to lean in on social media. That's going to be free if you're already a $4 tier member of the Hybrid Heroes podcast.

00:08:15:27 - 00:08:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I try to hybridize, and this is an example of thing I'll talk about on my podcast, The Scavenger Hunt. So, for example, we say, hey, prove to us that you voted on the first round of the donuts, because remember, at this event we're launching the bracket. And so we're doing donuts, seed number one versus donuts. Seed number 16.

00:08:33:28 - 00:08:53:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Donuts number eight versus donut seed number nine. Prove to us that you voted. And so, they can either vote with paper printouts which is the most boring, or they go on Instagram or YouTube and cast a poll style vote. Another one I'll do is I'll say, like in our most recent uploaded YouTube video, what was on so-and-so's shirt?

00:08:53:10 - 00:09:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What color was so-and-so's hat, who's teaching like or whatever? And so that'll also encourage them to pull their phones out. If they don't have a phone, go find someone who does have a phone and look at our YouTube channel. And then, you know, bonus points if you subscribe, like all those types of things, like, I'm trying to kind of lean into not only the other stations like the donut tattoo station, but also some of our hybrid ideas.

00:09:15:26 - 00:09:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so Scavenger Hunt is one of my all time favorite stations. Another one is just simple, right? Like create a board game station. Like we already have a bunch of board games in our cafe. In our game room. We'll just lay those on a table and say, you can go do board games. And here's the thing so low prep on your part.

00:09:32:22 - 00:09:53:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do anything with it. We in this donut event, we've done donut decorating for like a couple nights ago in our youth ministry, it was National Sugar Cookie Day. We did sugar cookie decorating like you could do some sort of food decorating or craft decorating of sorts. One of the one of my all time favorite active games is steal the Bacon.

00:09:53:19 - 00:10:10:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this event, we just do steal the donut. You can buy a big donut plush on Amazon, or you can just very simply like throw anything out there, like a piece of, like we've done, like I've done like a duck tape night before. And I took a piece of cardboard and I duct taped all around the cardboard, and we played steal the duct Tape.

00:10:11:03 - 00:10:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, whatever theme event you're doing, like, steal that thing for, like, a steal the bacon style game where you have ten people on one side, ten people on the other, or however many. Right. And you can number them off. So this is one, this is one, this is two. This is two. When you call that number, they run on into the middle.

00:10:27:22 - 00:10:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another one of our all time favorite active games is we call it One of our volunteers labeled it here called poison, but I've grown up calling it Kajabi can can just with the big trash can in the middle. And you try to not touch the trash can by holding someone's, you know, hands and dragging them into the trash can.

00:10:45:14 - 00:11:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want to be the last person standing. Here's a pro tip grab dog rope. Chew toys so that you're not holding someone's like, wrist and like, crushing their knuckles because inevitably you're going to have like a senior guy football player next to like, a seventh grade girl. And he's going to destroy her hand. So give them both, like, dog rope, chew toys to hang onto with, like the ropes on the end.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:29:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She's got a rope here. He's got rope here. And of course, if you break the chain, you're also out. Another thing that we've done before, and I'm just going to be honest, I don't know how well it worked, but we did like, big screen Mario Kart video game, tournament video games, and Mario Kart always a hit. The part that I'm not sure that worked was the tournament aspect.

00:11:29:24 - 00:11:45:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it was kind of chaotic and didn't really know who's next and who's in line and, you know, whatever. But it was still fun. Overall, we have in our space, we have like a nine square, so we'll just say eight. You can you know, play nine square if you want. So that's an option. Gaga ball. That's an option.

00:11:45:17 - 00:12:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you don't know like I recommend two portable versions. And so maybe you're in like a shared space. But for an event like this, you can drag those out and set them up. Link down. Below is my, recommended nine square option and my recommended Gaga ball option. So those are things you make a little financial investment here on the front side, but then you can use this whenever you have a big event like this.

00:12:04:29 - 00:12:23:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And those can be a part of your station, some of the things that you offer. And then finally the social challenge. So social challenge I'm going to teach you how to do that here in a couple episodes. So make sure that you're subscribed. But the social challenge is we some social media content with our students, by our students every single Wednesday night.

00:12:24:01 - 00:12:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in the link below, I am going to share with you exactly how you can, build your own social media team and the exact strategy that we use. And like I said in a couple episodes, I'm going to flesh out a full class on how to build out a social media team based on student ministry volunteers and what that does.

00:12:43:13 - 00:13:03:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That just helps kind of continue to create those hybrid connections. You're doing it via social media. And like I said on August 28th, we're dropping something big that is going to help you get that social media team up and off the ground. So you're definitely going to want to make sure that you're subscribed. But for the next video here, we are going to now talk about we've done this donut event.

00:13:03:09 - 00:13:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've welcome new students. We've included free time stations. Now let's look at event evaluation. How do we know whether or not we hit the mark? How do we know whether or not this event was successful? How do we know whether or not the budget money that we spent with, whether the juice there was worth the squeeze? We're going to answer all of those questions on the video that's linked right here on screen.

00:13:25:05 - 00:13:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So make sure that you tap into that and until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss!

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162

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GAGA BALL vs 9 SQUARE RECOMMENDATIONS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c
SOCIAL CHALLENGE 4-PART FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 This Strategy Make Him say what?!
00:36 The Freetime Strategy Explained
06:25 Donut Tattoos
06:39 Scavenger Hunt - Hybridized!
09:19 Board Games
09:36 Decorating
09:52 Steal The (Fill in the Blank)
10:29 Kajabi Can Can
11:14 Big Screen Mario Kart Tourney
11:37 9-Square
11:44 Gaga Ball
12:09 The Social Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:19:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your students don't want to sit through another 90 minute program. Can we be honest? Do you? In this episode, I'm going to break down my outreach event strategy, which when I shared it with my friend Eric with the kids, he had this to say about it. I love that thank you notes. That's something I'm gonna steal for future videos.

00:00:19:27 - 00:00:52:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, I'm going to hit you with ten ideas that you are definitely going to want to head over to my YouTube channel so that you can screenshot these and use them for your upcoming fall outreach event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show! Well, hey everyone, welcome to episode 162 of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I'm going to be talking about one of the, strategies that we have for our outreach events that we've sort of stumbled into, and it's a little bit unique.

00:00:52:26 - 00:01:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, you heard what my friend Eric had to say about it, but essentially what it is, is it's creating moments of free time for your students. And so what I mean by that is we're not taking the full 90 minute block, or we're not taking the full 120 minute block of programing time that you have for your youth ministry and scheduling every single minute and making every single student do every single thing the entire time.

00:01:15:00 - 00:01:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But instead, what we're doing is we're opening up a window of time within our night, within our program to allow your students to kind of, like, choose their own adventure and do what they want to do. Now, if you're going to be using linked right here, the, download from the World's Greatest Donut Event Guide that we've been talking about, like, that's what, we've done before.

00:01:35:19 - 00:01:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want, you know, if you're looking for something to do, I want you to consider maybe doing that event and you can incorporate these ideas, this strategy, into your upcoming fall outreach event. And so, go ahead and go grab that download. It's completely free. It's going to point you to a resource over On demand that you can use and implement.

00:01:54:07 - 00:02:22:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And these ideas are things that you can use, borrow, steal, and include in your upcoming fall outreach event. But the the philosophy behind it is, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, this is a cultivate in the spiritual CPR. This is a cultivate night. We're we're inviting friends were hanging out. We're just, kind of letting our hair down, kicking our feet up and hanging out with students and helping them see that church doesn't have to be confusing.

00:02:22:00 - 00:02:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Church doesn't have to be weird. But the other reason that this is advantageous is very simply, when you have a message included in your night, you don't have as much time to program. When you don't include your message, you have more time to program. And here's what we do. Oftentimes, we're still like plugging through our scope and sequence like we use Collider.

00:02:44:04 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you use Code hybrid ministry, I'll give you 10% off Collider for a year. So go check that out. They just dropped roadmaps. The first part of roadmaps year three. Really excited about the the judges series included in that. But, we'll just kind of keep plugging along in what we, you know, for a message that we should have taught on the night our outreach event is Worcester, upload it to YouTube.

00:03:08:01 - 00:03:30:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then our Sunday morning curriculum is derived off of our Wednesday night curriculum. And so we'll still have that conversation on Sunday morning, even though we didn't have the message on Wednesday night. And it's just on YouTube. And so at the end of the night, a lot of times we'll just show a little teaser clip and say, hey, this is over on YouTube, go check it out, scan this QR code if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

00:03:30:08 - 00:03:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're off to the races. And I mean the whole the whole good news right about these, this donut event is that it's getting students onto your social media, which at the end of this completely free fall masterclass playlist, I'm going to teach you how to build a social media team run completely by students that helps them create content not only for other students in your ministry, but create content with other students in your ministry.

00:03:55:28 - 00:04:15:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so having this free time event opens up all of these things, opens up more options. And, you know, one of the things that we'll do is we'll, offer anywhere from like four or 5 or 6 different, like, things, little stations. And they have anywhere from 30 to maybe 45 minutes on the longer end to do whatever them that they want.

00:04:15:18 - 00:04:36:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we've done to kind of encourage them or highlight what's available is we'll create a little passport or like a punch card, or if they go to a station and complete it, they'll get a little sticker for it. And what that does is it just helps them. First of all, give gives your students, and anyone who's new like a little map of your area, what's included where what's going on?

00:04:36:06 - 00:04:53:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What can we do right now? And then we'll say, hey, if you, complete if you go to all six stations, come and submit this card back in and we will give you a candy bar. And then we'll also put your, you know, name or your passport in, a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the night or something like that.

00:04:53:27 - 00:05:11:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, if students are maybe not interested in all six of the things, and that's one of the reasons why we do it is because we know, like, not every single student is going to want to do every single type of game that you do. And so we'll include like some artsy and crafty type things. But then we'll also include some really, really active type things.

00:05:11:27 - 00:05:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so some students may be like, I'm more artsy. I don't want to do that active thing at all. And they're going to opt out of doing every single thing on the passport. But other kids, they might want to try to do all of it. And so they're going to try to run to every single station. So it just it it communicates what's available and it gives students an option to just win something.

00:05:30:13 - 00:05:47:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's just a fun way to kind of program it. I try to program the amount of time, like if we got 5 or 6 stations, I want to give them 30 to 35 minutes. I want there to be nearly not enough time for them to do everything, because when they leave, I want them to have in their mind like, oh my word, that event was so fun.

00:05:47:14 - 00:06:03:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I didn't even get to everything. And that's kind of like the vibe I want them to get in the car with with their parents, right? And when they're parents, like, how was it there? Like it was awesome. There is so much to do, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's kind of the vibe that we're going for. So if you're here on YouTube, these are going to flash up here on the screen.

00:06:04:01 - 00:06:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are free time stations that are high fun, but they're low prep. And some of these we've done before, others of them are ideas that I have for future ones. And if you're doing the World's Greatest Donut Event launch guide, you can use some of these. These are ones that we actually have pulled together, for the donut event starting with.

00:06:24:29 - 00:06:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first one is we had a donut temporary tattoo parlor. And so we can have students come in and just get a temporary donut tattoo. Right. And it's like you're doing the scavenger hunt. Like, one of the things I've done is, a future idea is like, we've done a scavenger hunt is one of the clues on the scavenger hunt was to have to go and prove that you got a donut tattoo, so it's like you kind of kill two birds with one stone.

00:06:50:00 - 00:07:10:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They come to the scavenger hunt, which is a second idea, by the way. Come to the scavenger hunt. One of the one of the clues is you know, go to the donut tattoo thing and they prove that they've done it. And so in addition to it, we like I try to hybridize my scavenger hunt, which, if you didn't know by the way, I have a weekly bonus podcast over on Patreon.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's only $4 a month, and I want you to think about that. Investment of $4 is like your creative programing assistant. Like, here's my question is $50 per year worth it for you to have? Almost like a programing and social media consultant and coach? Because that's essentially what this $4 tier would do. It's going to give you, for $48 for you, 12 times four.

00:07:36:07 - 00:07:57:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to give you, someone who's just doing this on the front lines and is evaluating everything that I'm doing and boots on the ground. I'm not just like some, you know, youth ministry content guy. Like, these are things I'm actually doing. And I'll, I'll coach you through just by the evaluation of my own strategy, how it's going, what's going well, what's not going as well.

00:07:57:00 - 00:08:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can just steal all that I'm doing and bonus points, at the end of this episode, I'm going to be dropping a product that's $17. That's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you continue to lean in on social media. That's going to be free if you're already a $4 tier member of the Hybrid Heroes podcast.

00:08:15:27 - 00:08:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I try to hybridize, and this is an example of thing I'll talk about on my podcast, The Scavenger Hunt. So, for example, we say, hey, prove to us that you voted on the first round of the donuts, because remember, at this event we're launching the bracket. And so we're doing donuts, seed number one versus donuts. Seed number 16.

00:08:33:28 - 00:08:53:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Donuts number eight versus donut seed number nine. Prove to us that you voted. And so, they can either vote with paper printouts which is the most boring, or they go on Instagram or YouTube and cast a poll style vote. Another one I'll do is I'll say, like in our most recent uploaded YouTube video, what was on so-and-so's shirt?

00:08:53:10 - 00:09:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What color was so-and-so's hat, who's teaching like or whatever? And so that'll also encourage them to pull their phones out. If they don't have a phone, go find someone who does have a phone and look at our YouTube channel. And then, you know, bonus points if you subscribe, like all those types of things, like, I'm trying to kind of lean into not only the other stations like the donut tattoo station, but also some of our hybrid ideas.

00:09:15:26 - 00:09:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so Scavenger Hunt is one of my all time favorite stations. Another one is just simple, right? Like create a board game station. Like we already have a bunch of board games in our cafe. In our game room. We'll just lay those on a table and say, you can go do board games. And here's the thing so low prep on your part.

00:09:32:22 - 00:09:53:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do anything with it. We in this donut event, we've done donut decorating for like a couple nights ago in our youth ministry, it was National Sugar Cookie Day. We did sugar cookie decorating like you could do some sort of food decorating or craft decorating of sorts. One of the one of my all time favorite active games is steal the Bacon.

00:09:53:19 - 00:10:10:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this event, we just do steal the donut. You can buy a big donut plush on Amazon, or you can just very simply like throw anything out there, like a piece of, like we've done, like I've done like a duck tape night before. And I took a piece of cardboard and I duct taped all around the cardboard, and we played steal the duct Tape.

00:10:11:03 - 00:10:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, whatever theme event you're doing, like, steal that thing for, like, a steal the bacon style game where you have ten people on one side, ten people on the other, or however many. Right. And you can number them off. So this is one, this is one, this is two. This is two. When you call that number, they run on into the middle.

00:10:27:22 - 00:10:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another one of our all time favorite active games is we call it One of our volunteers labeled it here called poison, but I've grown up calling it Kajabi can can just with the big trash can in the middle. And you try to not touch the trash can by holding someone's, you know, hands and dragging them into the trash can.

00:10:45:14 - 00:11:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want to be the last person standing. Here's a pro tip grab dog rope. Chew toys so that you're not holding someone's like, wrist and like, crushing their knuckles because inevitably you're going to have like a senior guy football player next to like, a seventh grade girl. And he's going to destroy her hand. So give them both, like, dog rope, chew toys to hang onto with, like the ropes on the end.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:29:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She's got a rope here. He's got rope here. And of course, if you break the chain, you're also out. Another thing that we've done before, and I'm just going to be honest, I don't know how well it worked, but we did like, big screen Mario Kart video game, tournament video games, and Mario Kart always a hit. The part that I'm not sure that worked was the tournament aspect.

00:11:29:24 - 00:11:45:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it was kind of chaotic and didn't really know who's next and who's in line and, you know, whatever. But it was still fun. Overall, we have in our space, we have like a nine square, so we'll just say eight. You can you know, play nine square if you want. So that's an option. Gaga ball. That's an option.

00:11:45:17 - 00:12:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you don't know like I recommend two portable versions. And so maybe you're in like a shared space. But for an event like this, you can drag those out and set them up. Link down. Below is my, recommended nine square option and my recommended Gaga ball option. So those are things you make a little financial investment here on the front side, but then you can use this whenever you have a big event like this.

00:12:04:29 - 00:12:23:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And those can be a part of your station, some of the things that you offer. And then finally the social challenge. So social challenge I'm going to teach you how to do that here in a couple episodes. So make sure that you're subscribed. But the social challenge is we some social media content with our students, by our students every single Wednesday night.

00:12:24:01 - 00:12:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in the link below, I am going to share with you exactly how you can, build your own social media team and the exact strategy that we use. And like I said in a couple episodes, I'm going to flesh out a full class on how to build out a social media team based on student ministry volunteers and what that does.

00:12:43:13 - 00:13:03:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That just helps kind of continue to create those hybrid connections. You're doing it via social media. And like I said on August 28th, we're dropping something big that is going to help you get that social media team up and off the ground. So you're definitely going to want to make sure that you're subscribed. But for the next video here, we are going to now talk about we've done this donut event.

00:13:03:09 - 00:13:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've welcome new students. We've included free time stations. Now let's look at event evaluation. How do we know whether or not we hit the mark? How do we know whether or not this event was successful? How do we know whether or not the budget money that we spent with, whether the juice there was worth the squeeze? We're going to answer all of those questions on the video that's linked right here on screen.

00:13:25:05 - 00:13:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So make sure that you tap into that and until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 151: Gaga Ball vs 9-Square https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151 1c149181-0dcb-4cb8-ad5f-4c38e83692af Thu, 29 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 151 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square full Nick Clason Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game! 9:02 no Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game! 9-SQUARE https://walmrt.us/4lFQtMq GAGA BALL https://walmrt.us/42T5weo ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=productsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151 🦸 BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square 00:26 Pros & Cons of Gaga Ball in Youth Ministry 02:53 Pros & Cons of 9-Square 05:43 Making Your Decision -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game 00:00:26:28 - 00:00:52:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Today we are going to be exploring Gaga ball versus nine square. And let's just imagine that you only have a limited number of budget. And you're making a decision between either Gaga Ball or nine square. What do you choose and why? And I got links listed down below for both of them so that you can make your purchase based on and after this video. 00:00:52:08 - 00:01:22:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So let's hop in. Gaga ball. What are the pros and the cons of Gaga Ball? I would say Gaga Ball is super fun. It's fast paced, it's upbeat. It's a good time for everyone who's involved. And one of the other pros in that is it's almost an unlimited capacity. I've seen it before in different youth ministry settings of run or like even camps where there's been what seems to be almost 50 kids all kind of flooded into the Gaga ball, center. 00:01:22:19 - 00:01:44:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're like, you can get so many kids now. The game does kind of take forever, but you can facilitate a game with a high number of students. And so those are just a couple of the pros of Gaga ball. I would say a couple of the cons would be, it does take up quite a bit of like floor space, like the footprint of a Gaga ball pit is pretty massive. 00:01:44:13 - 00:02:06:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you have to commit a pretty large section of your space, a pretty large section of your floor to gaga ball in unless you get a, portable one. It's pretty permanent, and there's really nothing else you can do in that space. The other thing I'll say about Gaga Ball is, in my experience, it does tend to lean a little bit more middle school. 00:02:06:27 - 00:02:36:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It can get a little bit rowdy. And if kids aren't taking the game seriously or they're not getting out when they should, it can get a little bit chaotic kicking. It can get a little bit rowdy, and that's just something that you have to be aware of and something that you have to manage. If you look at the link that I posted down below though, however, I actually recommend an inflatable and deflate a bull Gaga ball pit because depending upon your space, especially if you have to tear it down, you can put it up every week with like just a blower. 00:02:36:13 - 00:02:54:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Think like, you know, moon bounce type style blower blows up and then it comes right back down. And what that also does is it gives you the flexibility to have it up when you want it, when you need it. But then you can also take it down when you don't want it or you don't need it there anymore. 00:02:54:13 - 00:03:22:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's talk about nine Square. What are the pros? The pros. Same thing is gaga ball. It's a super fun game. Like, it really is. But the thing that I think, makes nine squares slightly different than Gaga Ball is, there is a little bit more. Not a ton, but a little bit more strategy involved. I think it's, it requires a little bit more, strategy, a little bit more thought, than Gaga ball, which can be a little like once you get down to the end and Gaga ball, there's some strategy. 00:03:22:12 - 00:03:40:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But at first it's just kind of like, just get people out. But yeah, nine square, I think does have a little bit more strategy. Not to mention it's not as space consuming on your footprint as Gaga ball. Now it still is. Like, don't get me wrong. Like they both take up a fair bit of space. But they're both great. 00:03:40:14 - 00:04:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like free time. Get to get the games out ahead of time before youth ministry starts. Style of games. The cons to Gaga ball or I'm sorry, the cons to nine square are that you can only play with nine people at a time. Now, you know, in our context right now, like, nine square is more popular than Gaga ball. 00:04:02:02 - 00:04:21:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, that line into the nine square, like arena, like it's always moving and that that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. And people will wait like several like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people deep, to get in back into the game. But that is a con. Is that an Gaga ball? 00:04:21:04 - 00:04:40:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like up to like, 50 people, depending on the size of your pet. Can start in a game. Nine square. It's only nine at a time. The con, though, on the flip side, is that if you don't have nine to fill it on a regular basis, then it's also not quite the same. You're playing like four, you're playing like six, like, it's just it's not quite the same. 00:04:40:22 - 00:05:00:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like having the full nine, in my opinion, is really like the best way, to play nine square. And so if you're youth ministry was maybe struggle to fill nine on a regular basis or, you know, like there's just not nine kids on a constant basis on any given, you know, Wednesday night or Sunday that are actually going to happen in play, maybe it's not worth it for you. 00:05:00:10 - 00:05:24:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Maybe guy eyeballs more, you know, the way to go or something like that. Again, link down below for my nine square recommendation. And this is called Castle Squares. And the reason I like castle squares is just like the Gaga ball pit. It is portable and take down a ball as well. In our space we have a castle squares, and we have like a full nine square, like arena and the full nine square arena. 00:05:24:23 - 00:05:49:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's great. But we don't ever take it down. It's just it's too much of a pain to do that. But the castle squares instead of having, like, all the individual poles down, it only has the four on the corners. And then just up at the top, it uses straps to create your nine spaces. And so you know, I used to work at a church that I would set up the Gaga ball pit in the nine square pit every single week, set them up and then tear them down. 00:05:49:21 - 00:06:06:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I would I would set them up like middle of the day. We met on Wednesday nights, on Wednesdays, and then I would have our volunteers tear them down when it was over and put them back for me, at the end of the night. And so if you have the space and you have the budget, I would recommend, getting both of these there. 00:06:06:16 - 00:06:24:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're both fantastic. And they're also both very, like, nimble and portable. You're not going to be committing this corner of your room for the rest of your life to either be nine square, either be the Gaga ball corner. You can take it, then you can move it. You can share space with the rest of the congregation. 00:06:24:21 - 00:06:42:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then if it just comes down to like, you only have budget for one or the other, every context is a little bit different. The current context that I'm in right now, they would vote nine square, but the context that came from, back in Chicago, they would vote Gaga ball. So you kind of got to know your students. 00:06:42:00 - 00:07:01:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You kind of got to know your audience. I would say if you have maybe more high school audience, or a more strategy based audience nine square. If you have a little bit rowdier audience, a little bit more chaotic of an audience, maybe lean Gaga ball, and just make the decision kind of based on your context and based on your students. 00:07:01:04 - 00:07:19:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like I said, links to both of these down below. If you're on the fence, if you're thinking about it, these are both two products that I have used that I recommend, and that really are good for both setting up and being able to tear down and leaving your space flexible for other things throughout the week. Hey man, I hope that this episode was helpful. 00:07:19:10 - 00:07:27:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Give us a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to choose to stay hybrid. gaga ball, 9 square in the air, youth group games, best games for youth ministry, youth ministry game ideas, student ministry, church youth group, gaga ball vs 9 square, youth pastor tips, church games, youth group equipment, how to choose youth group games, budget youth ministry games, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, fun church games, youth group setup, gaga ball review, 9 square review, student ministry tools, youth group must haves Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game!

9-SQUARE
https://walmrt.us/4lFQtMq

GAGA BALL
https://walmrt.us/42T5weo

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151

🦸 BECOME A HYBRID HERO
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

--------------
🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick

--------------
🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square
00:26 Pros & Cons of Gaga Ball in Youth Ministry
02:53 Pros & Cons of 9-Square
05:43 Making Your Decision

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game

00:00:26:28 - 00:00:52:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Today we are going to be exploring Gaga ball versus nine square. And let's just imagine that you only have a limited number of budget. And you're making a decision between either Gaga Ball or nine square. What do you choose and why? And I got links listed down below for both of them so that you can make your purchase based on and after this video.

00:00:52:08 - 00:01:22:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's hop in. Gaga ball. What are the pros and the cons of Gaga Ball? I would say Gaga Ball is super fun. It's fast paced, it's upbeat. It's a good time for everyone who's involved. And one of the other pros in that is it's almost an unlimited capacity. I've seen it before in different youth ministry settings of run or like even camps where there's been what seems to be almost 50 kids all kind of flooded into the Gaga ball, center.

00:01:22:19 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're like, you can get so many kids now. The game does kind of take forever, but you can facilitate a game with a high number of students. And so those are just a couple of the pros of Gaga ball. I would say a couple of the cons would be, it does take up quite a bit of like floor space, like the footprint of a Gaga ball pit is pretty massive.

00:01:44:13 - 00:02:06:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to commit a pretty large section of your space, a pretty large section of your floor to gaga ball in unless you get a, portable one. It's pretty permanent, and there's really nothing else you can do in that space. The other thing I'll say about Gaga Ball is, in my experience, it does tend to lean a little bit more middle school.

00:02:06:27 - 00:02:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It can get a little bit rowdy. And if kids aren't taking the game seriously or they're not getting out when they should, it can get a little bit chaotic kicking. It can get a little bit rowdy, and that's just something that you have to be aware of and something that you have to manage. If you look at the link that I posted down below though, however, I actually recommend an inflatable and deflate a bull Gaga ball pit because depending upon your space, especially if you have to tear it down, you can put it up every week with like just a blower.

00:02:36:13 - 00:02:54:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Think like, you know, moon bounce type style blower blows up and then it comes right back down. And what that also does is it gives you the flexibility to have it up when you want it, when you need it. But then you can also take it down when you don't want it or you don't need it there anymore.

00:02:54:13 - 00:03:22:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about nine Square. What are the pros? The pros. Same thing is gaga ball. It's a super fun game. Like, it really is. But the thing that I think, makes nine squares slightly different than Gaga Ball is, there is a little bit more. Not a ton, but a little bit more strategy involved. I think it's, it requires a little bit more, strategy, a little bit more thought, than Gaga ball, which can be a little like once you get down to the end and Gaga ball, there's some strategy.

00:03:22:12 - 00:03:40:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at first it's just kind of like, just get people out. But yeah, nine square, I think does have a little bit more strategy. Not to mention it's not as space consuming on your footprint as Gaga ball. Now it still is. Like, don't get me wrong. Like they both take up a fair bit of space. But they're both great.

00:03:40:14 - 00:04:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like free time. Get to get the games out ahead of time before youth ministry starts. Style of games. The cons to Gaga ball or I'm sorry, the cons to nine square are that you can only play with nine people at a time. Now, you know, in our context right now, like, nine square is more popular than Gaga ball.

00:04:02:02 - 00:04:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, that line into the nine square, like arena, like it's always moving and that that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. And people will wait like several like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people deep, to get in back into the game. But that is a con. Is that an Gaga ball?

00:04:21:04 - 00:04:40:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like up to like, 50 people, depending on the size of your pet. Can start in a game. Nine square. It's only nine at a time. The con, though, on the flip side, is that if you don't have nine to fill it on a regular basis, then it's also not quite the same. You're playing like four, you're playing like six, like, it's just it's not quite the same.

00:04:40:22 - 00:05:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like having the full nine, in my opinion, is really like the best way, to play nine square. And so if you're youth ministry was maybe struggle to fill nine on a regular basis or, you know, like there's just not nine kids on a constant basis on any given, you know, Wednesday night or Sunday that are actually going to happen in play, maybe it's not worth it for you.

00:05:00:10 - 00:05:24:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe guy eyeballs more, you know, the way to go or something like that. Again, link down below for my nine square recommendation. And this is called Castle Squares. And the reason I like castle squares is just like the Gaga ball pit. It is portable and take down a ball as well. In our space we have a castle squares, and we have like a full nine square, like arena and the full nine square arena.

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:49:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's great. But we don't ever take it down. It's just it's too much of a pain to do that. But the castle squares instead of having, like, all the individual poles down, it only has the four on the corners. And then just up at the top, it uses straps to create your nine spaces. And so you know, I used to work at a church that I would set up the Gaga ball pit in the nine square pit every single week, set them up and then tear them down.

00:05:49:21 - 00:06:06:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I would I would set them up like middle of the day. We met on Wednesday nights, on Wednesdays, and then I would have our volunteers tear them down when it was over and put them back for me, at the end of the night. And so if you have the space and you have the budget, I would recommend, getting both of these there.

00:06:06:16 - 00:06:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're both fantastic. And they're also both very, like, nimble and portable. You're not going to be committing this corner of your room for the rest of your life to either be nine square, either be the Gaga ball corner. You can take it, then you can move it. You can share space with the rest of the congregation.

00:06:24:21 - 00:06:42:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if it just comes down to like, you only have budget for one or the other, every context is a little bit different. The current context that I'm in right now, they would vote nine square, but the context that came from, back in Chicago, they would vote Gaga ball. So you kind of got to know your students.

00:06:42:00 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You kind of got to know your audience. I would say if you have maybe more high school audience, or a more strategy based audience nine square. If you have a little bit rowdier audience, a little bit more chaotic of an audience, maybe lean Gaga ball, and just make the decision kind of based on your context and based on your students.

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like I said, links to both of these down below. If you're on the fence, if you're thinking about it, these are both two products that I have used that I recommend, and that really are good for both setting up and being able to tear down and leaving your space flexible for other things throughout the week. Hey man, I hope that this episode was helpful.

00:07:19:10 - 00:07:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give us a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to choose to stay hybrid.

]]> Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game!

9-SQUARE
https://walmrt.us/4lFQtMq

GAGA BALL
https://walmrt.us/42T5weo

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151

🦸 BECOME A HYBRID HERO
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

--------------
🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick

--------------
🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square
00:26 Pros & Cons of Gaga Ball in Youth Ministry
02:53 Pros & Cons of 9-Square
05:43 Making Your Decision

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game

00:00:26:28 - 00:00:52:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Today we are going to be exploring Gaga ball versus nine square. And let's just imagine that you only have a limited number of budget. And you're making a decision between either Gaga Ball or nine square. What do you choose and why? And I got links listed down below for both of them so that you can make your purchase based on and after this video.

00:00:52:08 - 00:01:22:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's hop in. Gaga ball. What are the pros and the cons of Gaga Ball? I would say Gaga Ball is super fun. It's fast paced, it's upbeat. It's a good time for everyone who's involved. And one of the other pros in that is it's almost an unlimited capacity. I've seen it before in different youth ministry settings of run or like even camps where there's been what seems to be almost 50 kids all kind of flooded into the Gaga ball, center.

00:01:22:19 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're like, you can get so many kids now. The game does kind of take forever, but you can facilitate a game with a high number of students. And so those are just a couple of the pros of Gaga ball. I would say a couple of the cons would be, it does take up quite a bit of like floor space, like the footprint of a Gaga ball pit is pretty massive.

00:01:44:13 - 00:02:06:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to commit a pretty large section of your space, a pretty large section of your floor to gaga ball in unless you get a, portable one. It's pretty permanent, and there's really nothing else you can do in that space. The other thing I'll say about Gaga Ball is, in my experience, it does tend to lean a little bit more middle school.

00:02:06:27 - 00:02:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It can get a little bit rowdy. And if kids aren't taking the game seriously or they're not getting out when they should, it can get a little bit chaotic kicking. It can get a little bit rowdy, and that's just something that you have to be aware of and something that you have to manage. If you look at the link that I posted down below though, however, I actually recommend an inflatable and deflate a bull Gaga ball pit because depending upon your space, especially if you have to tear it down, you can put it up every week with like just a blower.

00:02:36:13 - 00:02:54:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Think like, you know, moon bounce type style blower blows up and then it comes right back down. And what that also does is it gives you the flexibility to have it up when you want it, when you need it. But then you can also take it down when you don't want it or you don't need it there anymore.

00:02:54:13 - 00:03:22:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about nine Square. What are the pros? The pros. Same thing is gaga ball. It's a super fun game. Like, it really is. But the thing that I think, makes nine squares slightly different than Gaga Ball is, there is a little bit more. Not a ton, but a little bit more strategy involved. I think it's, it requires a little bit more, strategy, a little bit more thought, than Gaga ball, which can be a little like once you get down to the end and Gaga ball, there's some strategy.

00:03:22:12 - 00:03:40:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at first it's just kind of like, just get people out. But yeah, nine square, I think does have a little bit more strategy. Not to mention it's not as space consuming on your footprint as Gaga ball. Now it still is. Like, don't get me wrong. Like they both take up a fair bit of space. But they're both great.

00:03:40:14 - 00:04:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like free time. Get to get the games out ahead of time before youth ministry starts. Style of games. The cons to Gaga ball or I'm sorry, the cons to nine square are that you can only play with nine people at a time. Now, you know, in our context right now, like, nine square is more popular than Gaga ball.

00:04:02:02 - 00:04:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, that line into the nine square, like arena, like it's always moving and that that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. And people will wait like several like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people deep, to get in back into the game. But that is a con. Is that an Gaga ball?

00:04:21:04 - 00:04:40:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like up to like, 50 people, depending on the size of your pet. Can start in a game. Nine square. It's only nine at a time. The con, though, on the flip side, is that if you don't have nine to fill it on a regular basis, then it's also not quite the same. You're playing like four, you're playing like six, like, it's just it's not quite the same.

00:04:40:22 - 00:05:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like having the full nine, in my opinion, is really like the best way, to play nine square. And so if you're youth ministry was maybe struggle to fill nine on a regular basis or, you know, like there's just not nine kids on a constant basis on any given, you know, Wednesday night or Sunday that are actually going to happen in play, maybe it's not worth it for you.

00:05:00:10 - 00:05:24:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe guy eyeballs more, you know, the way to go or something like that. Again, link down below for my nine square recommendation. And this is called Castle Squares. And the reason I like castle squares is just like the Gaga ball pit. It is portable and take down a ball as well. In our space we have a castle squares, and we have like a full nine square, like arena and the full nine square arena.

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:49:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's great. But we don't ever take it down. It's just it's too much of a pain to do that. But the castle squares instead of having, like, all the individual poles down, it only has the four on the corners. And then just up at the top, it uses straps to create your nine spaces. And so you know, I used to work at a church that I would set up the Gaga ball pit in the nine square pit every single week, set them up and then tear them down.

00:05:49:21 - 00:06:06:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I would I would set them up like middle of the day. We met on Wednesday nights, on Wednesdays, and then I would have our volunteers tear them down when it was over and put them back for me, at the end of the night. And so if you have the space and you have the budget, I would recommend, getting both of these there.

00:06:06:16 - 00:06:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're both fantastic. And they're also both very, like, nimble and portable. You're not going to be committing this corner of your room for the rest of your life to either be nine square, either be the Gaga ball corner. You can take it, then you can move it. You can share space with the rest of the congregation.

00:06:24:21 - 00:06:42:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if it just comes down to like, you only have budget for one or the other, every context is a little bit different. The current context that I'm in right now, they would vote nine square, but the context that came from, back in Chicago, they would vote Gaga ball. So you kind of got to know your students.

00:06:42:00 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You kind of got to know your audience. I would say if you have maybe more high school audience, or a more strategy based audience nine square. If you have a little bit rowdier audience, a little bit more chaotic of an audience, maybe lean Gaga ball, and just make the decision kind of based on your context and based on your students.

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like I said, links to both of these down below. If you're on the fence, if you're thinking about it, these are both two products that I have used that I recommend, and that really are good for both setting up and being able to tear down and leaving your space flexible for other things throughout the week. Hey man, I hope that this episode was helpful.

00:07:19:10 - 00:07:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give us a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to choose to stay hybrid.

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