Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Josh Boldman”

Episode 181: How I Ran Social Media While at a Conference - - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 3

Nick Clason — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600

A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere!
A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference!

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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181

FREE E-BOOK
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WINTER PACK VLOG
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2x GROWTH EPISODE
https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs

EXCLUSIVE JOSH BOLDMAN INTERVIEW
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SOCIAL TEAM CHECKLIST
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront

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🛠️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.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

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

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

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM 100 & Social Media
00:17 Every Youth Ministry Needs a Strong Digital Presence
01:00 Your 2026 Social Media Framework
02:40 Two Things I've recently learned
04:38 Why Membership is Worth it
05:47 The Winter Pack
06:36 The Patreon Challenge

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our social media did this while I was sitting at the do I am 100 conference. I barely had to work and I want to show you how, which is an incredible gift to give you on this Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Merry Christmas Eve. Pastors. My name is Nicholas. And if you and I have not had a chance to meet,

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:45:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're not listening to this on the day it drops, which is Christmas, I drop every single Thursday. I haven't missed a Thursday in over three years. And it just so happens to be Christmas morning when this one drops, I want to give you one of the best gifts that I think I can give youth pastors. Most youth pastors know and see and understand the need for a strong social media and digital presence.

00:00:45:18 - 00:01:08:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If not, you should check out my completely free e-book, which is link down below and that will hopefully convince you about why you need a strong social media presence. But the gift that I can give you pastors. And then I want to give you pastors, is a plan and a framework for consistency. I was over at the DUI 100 conference and social media basically ran itself.

00:01:08:25 - 00:01:28:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, full disclosure I still grab my phone, I still download it out of our Google Drive, and I still uploaded it to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. However, those things were sitting there for me, ready to post. I didn't need anything new. I didn't need to do any extra work. When I was out there. They got the job done for me.

00:01:28:26 - 00:01:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the baseline and the basis for all of that is my winter seasonal social media pack, which I want you to have now. I'll be honest, it does come with a little bit of a cost because frankly, it's a lot of work to put together. But here's how I've set the pricing structure. The pack costs $17.99, but if you become a $4 per month hybrid Hero Patreon member, you get that pack included.

00:01:56:13 - 00:02:22:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if the pack is meant to last a run of three months, $4 per month for you for three months is $12, and you get a $5 off on that pack as well. As we are trying to hit a goal this month only where we make by next week's episode. As this drops that we make 25 new members in the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier, and if we hit that to everyone involved in the community.

00:02:22:26 - 00:02:44:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you help, or if you know someone and you share a link we will offer, I will offer a free coaching call on social media to everyone who is a part of my Hybrid Heroes paid tier member. I will help map out your strategy for you. But here's the truth I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort.

00:02:44:14 - 00:03:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hybrid heroes. Deep dive kind of on why hybrid ministry, why it's important, how to keep it going. And what I realize is that this is all about behavior modification. It's not about tips and tactics. Like, you guys know what you need to know, right? And there may be some areas and some tools that I can tell you about that will help you.

00:03:05:05 - 00:03:26:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at the end of the day, it comes down to time management and prioritization. And those are boring. Those aren't as sexy as viral reels and viral memes. I mean, the fact is, like one of the girls in our hybrid hero deep dive cohort, she had a real that had 21.2 thousand views not too long ago. Like she clearly knows what she's doing.

00:03:26:29 - 00:03:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She doesn't need me. What we all realize we need is that when life gets busy, when the calendar gets overwhelming, social media is the first thing to drop. And so my pack will help you not drop it. If you have something that is done for you or mapped out for you. And as I displayed in my Winter Seasonal Social Media Pack Vlog Style Challenge eight post challenge video that is linked right here.

00:03:56:15 - 00:04:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Top screen. You can get it done in less than 20 minutes per week if you post all eight types. And I'm only asking you to post 3 to 5 times. So actually you can get it done in anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes per week done for you. It's also custom. It's got everything that you need and it's got a calendar that will last you December, January and February.

00:04:17:20 - 00:04:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if you're a $4 a month member in March, that when that, spring pack will drop and boom, you got three more months of seasonal social media and you're just following my hybrid strategy, which also link down. Below is my episode on how following this strategy helped us to x our growth. In addition to that, you'll get all of the freebies and all the things over on my Patreon and my Patreon store.

00:04:43:09 - 00:05:06:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My exclusive interview where I sat down with Jim, and Collider's Josh Bullman talking about the value of allowing students to disagree. That dropped a couple of weeks ago. So, you know you're going to get access to that, as well as, checklists and parent, communication guides and all sorts of things. Like I went in to doing 100, hoping to just vlog it out and map it out.

00:05:06:03 - 00:05:35:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I realized was I got sucked into the vortex and we all get sucked into where things get busy. And I saw old friends and I didn't have time to create content. But my pack back home from my youth ministry, my pack helped carry through the types of posts and gave me something to continue to post while I was able to soak in all of the info and all of the goodies from the do I am 100 conference, and I also got this shirt out of it.

00:05:35:24 - 00:06:03:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Actually, this one didn't come from the conference. This one came from Gold Member week. Hey, speaking of that, vlog style video, check this out. Here's what I learned. During that week. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a then some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five.

00:06:04:03 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on.

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. So if you want to let your weeks be like that, where when it gets busy, you still have something that's running on autopilot for you.

00:06:45:07 - 00:07:07:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For social media, my winter seasonal social media pack is the key to that, and it's a great gift for you on Christmas morning. And if you consider joining, you can help get us to the finish line. Progress bar is here on screen so that you can see how many paid Hybrid Hero members we've gotten over this last month as we push towards January to that 25 goal.

00:07:07:23 - 00:07:23:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that you can unlock that free coaching opportunity. But hey my friends, hope you've had a great episode. I thank you for being here with us. And until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Merry Christmas and we'll see you in 2026.

Episode 180: Josh Boldman Taught Me THIS About Small Groups… - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 2

Nick Clason — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600

I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did!
And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it!

Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends!

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

❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180

30 CONNECTION IDEAS
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

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

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

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM100 Thing 1
00:28 DYM100 is the Best!
01:42 Programming Shift
05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026
06:35 December Patreon Challenge

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Regardless of where each individual question takes them. It's this bigger picture of having students being able to ask questions is actually really, really, really healthy. That line alone, plus this llama t shirt was worth the cost of the entire trip. Welcome, everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show. What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry shown in this episode, I'm detailing and outlining the three takeaways that I had from the do I am 100 conference in the last episode linked right here, we talked about programing and adding sounds and sound effects and just making our introduction a little bit more lively.

00:00:40:10 - 00:01:07:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I saw and learned and took away from the D and 100 conference. And in this one, I'm gonna talk about a surprise breakout session that I did not expect. Now, here's the thing. Full disclosure, right? Like when I choose breakouts at a conference, more often than not, I'm choosing it based on the person. And so me and my friend Josh Bowman, like, I saw he was on the thing on the docket to lead a breakout.

00:01:07:14 - 00:01:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I just thought to myself, I just like this guy. I know what he's going to do is going to be good. I'm going to go support him. I would not say that the topic listed on the breakout was what interested me. What interested me was the author of the breakout, not the actual content of the breakout. Now, to be clear, I didn't disagree with the content of the breakout.

00:01:30:13 - 00:02:00:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It was essentially like how to make space for students to be able to disagree in your youth ministry. And I was like, okay, great. Like I love that. Like I'm here for that. And I think that that's a great topic. But his breakout was absolutely game changing. And like, I was shocked at not only how much I did agree, but some of the stuff he did that made me really think and wrestle with, oh man, like I'm not doing some of these things.

00:02:00:02 - 00:02:22:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I came back from the conference and I was debriefing, and I was downloading, and I thought to myself, like, that might be my biggest takeaway from the entire conference is how to do a better job of creating space for students to disagree. And now, as this episode drops middle of December, most of us have wrapped up our our fall semester of programing.

00:02:22:23 - 00:02:48:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We got Christmas services on the horizon and, then maybe a week off after Christmas and then we're back for the New year. And this is the perfect time to break something and to add something in. And so I actually got the chance to sit down and have an exclusive conversation with Josh, who, gave the premise for his breakout of why students need to be able to have the space to disagree.

00:02:48:14 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I ask some of the how questions, like, how do you go about instituting this change? How do you handle senior pastors? How do you handle leaders? Go ahead, take a listen in this clip. At first they were really skeptical. And we we, you know, we started like, preparing them like weeks out that this was this was coming.

00:03:07:26 - 00:03:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And always, you know, the small group leader is the one that has the questions. So like, really worst case scenario, they can skip it. It was kind of like, you know, like, so that's always like, how did it go? It was great. How did I because we didn't we didn't but we would always like we we started I mean, even in like some, some leader meetings or stuff, doing some kind of, some role playing type stuff where it was like, okay, hey, last week, you know, you all, we're here for last week's teaching.

00:03:35:02 - 00:04:13:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's imagine this was the question and somebody throw me, you throw out a couple things that maybe you think a student might have said. And it was really funny because, at first, even they were like, skittish with because they were in that moment, they were like, you want you want me to point out something you think a student would disagree with that you said, so we're going to try and figure out how to institute this better in our space to help give leaders, the comfort and the confidence to lean in and start asking some of these questions about what students might disagree with and hopefully stop trying to give students the quote, right

00:04:13:21 - 00:04:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
answer and start giving students the space to genuinely question and think and maybe even in some cases, disagree. You know, a couple weeks before I went to the do I am 100 conference, my church hosted a thing called the Cross Creek Collective, and I was actually on stage for it. And during that week, while I was in the middle of the busiest week of probably my year on staff, I decided I wanted to put my seasonal social media pack to the test.

00:04:44:28 - 00:05:17:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And at the end of the week, this is what I discovered. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social.

00:05:17:18 - 00:05:34:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there.

00:05:34:21 - 00:05:59:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So the entire conversation with Josh Pullman is now over on my Patreon, as well as my winter seasonal social media pack. You can jump in for a week free trial to listen to the Boardman episode and to maybe, explore what the winter seasonal social media pack, how it could serve you in your ministry.

00:05:59:11 - 00:06:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the fact you can't ignore social media any longer, and you need something that you can rely on when you get busy. And that's exactly what my pack is going to do. And we are moving towards trying to add 25 new free hybrid Hero members progress bars right here on the screen as of the editing date. And if we hit 25 members by the end of December, the beginning of January, then every single person who has a $4 per month Hybrid Hero member, they're going to get an exclusive free coaching call from me, included as a part of their $4 per month.

00:06:38:16 - 00:07:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is such a great deal. $4 per month gets you a bonus episode, gets you all the freebies on my store, gives you all the paid things on my store, and now gets you a free coaching call $4 a month. That's all it is. It's less genuinely than a cup of coffee. And next week this episode is going to drop on Christmas Day.

00:07:02:02 - 00:07:13:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're listening live, you'll see it in your feed on Christmas Day. If not, it's going to be linked right here on screen so you can watch that one. But until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

Episode 179: FREE Christmas Party Surprise! - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 1

Nick Clason — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600

SHOCKING!
In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate!

In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables!

Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge!
Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026!

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

❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179

FREE CHRISTMAS PARTY!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-christmas-143594518?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

FREE SOUNDBOARD
https://crowdcontrolgames.com/products/gameshow-soundboard?_pos=1&_psq=sound&_ss=e&_v=1.0

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

//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 DYM100 Thing 1
00:28 DYM100 is the Best!
01:42 Programming Shift
05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026
06:35 December Patreon Challenge

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I went to the DYM 100 round tables with this goal to find three things to work on and fix in my youth ministry. And today I am sharing with you the first one. Spoiler alert is not the one that I expected. Plus, stick around to the end of the episode because I am giving away a free Christmas party run sheet, complete with the resources and everything you need so you can grab that down bel

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:33:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link in the description, which will go into detail and explain at the end of this episode. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:33:19 - 00:00:44:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I went to the do I am 100 conference where I got this notebook and of course this llama t shirt, which, you know what? When else are you going to need to get a llama t shirt?

00:00:44:10 - 00:01:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're wearing it after the Darwin 100 conference, with the goal of coming away with three takeaways, and I was going to vlog it and take videos and explain my process. But man, if you've ever been to one of these events like you know that like you just get sucked into the vortex of friendship and community and conversations. And so I only took like 20 videos and like half of them are like receipt uploads or like videos of the van rental to make sure that they weren't going to scam me afterwards.

00:01:16:26 - 00:01:40:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in these next three episodes, I'm going to talk about not only things that you can use and learn and take away for, like your December Christmas parties, but also things that I and our youth ministry team are going to be thinking about on into the future of 2026 and how we do youth ministry. I also have some freebies and some stuff, going along and that I'm going to be giving away.

00:01:40:18 - 00:02:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So pay attention to the link down in the description for all of these next couple episodes. But in this episode we're going to be looking at, and the thing that I took away was programing. Okay. And like in the room, if you've ever been to a do I am 100 event, it is hosted by Doug Fields and Josh Griffin, who are both the masters at programing.

00:02:02:09 - 00:02:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like to the point that like I think we had we had one session with worship and it was like a special kind of like unplug, more like chapel and like spiritually charged, focused, kind of like session, but otherwise every other kind of like element within the room was done without any sort of worship or without any sort of band.

00:02:21:16 - 00:02:46:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you never felt like something was missing. Like it was an amazingly programed event. And like, I have taken pride in my own programing to the point that I have my own Patreon show every single week detailing our youth ministry programing, detailing the creativity that we're trying to do. And in a lot of ways, my 9 to 10 different damn conferences that I've been to over the years have helped shape this.

00:02:46:06 - 00:03:05:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, I've taken a lot of my programing strategy and like things that matter to me from my experience at and under a do, I am conference. But in this event, I brought the rest of my team and one of my guys, his name is Ben. Ben is in charge of programing at our church and he took things that I have.

00:03:05:06 - 00:03:38:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Seen and noticed at conferences before in the past. But he's like, we need to implement that to the point he's like, we're going to make that happen. And those things were like the sound effects included and the music that were both happening simultaneous while any event was happening. Well, announcements. Well, funny bits. While different games like all these things all happening, all with different sound effects or different, music tracks being done in the background, like the sound effects, the booth and the, the stage, the, the, the energy that was happening between the two.

00:03:38:25 - 00:03:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He was like, we need to find a way to do that. And that's that's the takeaway that surprised me because I've seen this before and I thought, there's no way our booth can pull it off or it's going to be too distracting. Or maybe we're trying too hard, but Ben, Ben's like, no, we can do this and we're going to pull this off.

00:03:55:19 - 00:04:13:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you didn't know, I found a link down below, from Crowd Control Games. They have a free, like, audio interface. So all you got to do is load in sound effects or sound bites. You can get them off of, like, YouTube or like a website, like Motion Array, and you can upload those different sound effects.

00:04:13:13 - 00:04:31:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to try those things. And if you head down below, link down below is a completely free Christmas guide. It's actually from an episode linked right here, the top screen, with my friend Eric with the K, who also fun fact was a roommate and a table member at my table that I was leading the, church foyer.

00:04:31:22 - 00:04:51:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Carpet stains. But we did this episode years ago, and, I, I'm putting a little bit of a 2025 spin and refresh on it. And so there's a brand new, completely new game. That should be on the game either now or in the near future. But that's completely for free for you. Those of you that are either free or paid members over on my Patreon.

00:04:51:25 - 00:05:17:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can, become a free paid member and get that complete Christmas run sheet. If you haven't already had your Christmas party yet, but you can now include. And I'm going to challenge myself in our ministry to include more sound effects and really like part of what made the conference so engaging and so entertaining was the synchronicity between the upfront people, Griffin and Doug Fields, and the booth.

00:05:17:21 - 00:05:38:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so shout out to to them. And so my friend, my coworker Ben was back there and he was asking all the questions and stuff like that. And then sitting in the the Airbnb with my friend Eric later, he's like, look, you can use this thing from crowd control games, with sound effects. And so we're going to download these and we're going to start using them.

00:05:38:08 - 00:06:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it can just bring about another layer of liveliness and fun and creativity, which is already something that we're trying to do over on our Patreon. So that free Christmas party is linked down below in the show. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute.

00:06:05:26 - 00:06:26:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do.

00:06:26:14 - 00:06:44:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. And hey, we're trying to welcome 25

00:06:44:12 - 00:06:49:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
new paid hybrid heroes before January begins.

00:06:49:15 - 00:07:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if we hit that goal, if you help me accomplish that goal. So right now we are, like a handful of of those away, where you want to get 25 by the time January starts. If we hit that, I will offer free 30 minute social media audit and coaching session for every single person who has jumped in at the $4 per month membership tier.

00:07:15:11 - 00:07:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen, if you put that on your church's like professional or continuing development expense account, it's $48 for the year. It will help you with creativity and programing and all the freebies that I offer through my Patreon at any given time. Or if you don't have the church budget for it, it is, less than the cost of a Starbucks latte only one time a month if it comes out of your own personal budget.

00:07:41:10 - 00:08:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way is incredibly accessible. And the good news is my seasonal social media pack, which is available for everybody at the cost of $17.99, is available for those of you who are $4 a month, Hybrid Hero members is available to you included in the cost. And if we hit this 25, member benchmark, by the time January hits, I will extend a free coaching call to every single person who is in the Hybrid Heroes coaching level tier.

00:08:11:17 - 00:08:28:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so hopefully that is something that is, helpful to you. And so we're going to try and infuse some of our programing now with some of these things I learned from from the denim conference, just observing the programing and some of the games that they put together and some of the chaos and some of the fun.

00:08:28:25 - 00:08:52:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But all of it was was changed with the audio and the sound effects and the playlists and the music choices. It was it was amazing. It was crazy. It was fun. And I want to try your hand at it and, hand the keys over to some of our students in the booth doing that. But in the next episode, I'm actually going to talk about a small group shift that I learned that, I'm passionate about.

00:08:52:03 - 00:09:12:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the way that Josh Bulman in a workshop presented it absolutely changed the game. And I am sitting down with him for an exclusive interview that you are not going to want to miss. That episode is linked right here on screen. So my friends, go ahead and check that out. But until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

Episode 145: 10 Simple & Effective Partnering with Parent Tips that REALLY work!

Nick Clason — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0500

In this conversation, Nick Clason (Hybrid Ministry) and Josh Boldman (Download Youth Ministry) discuss the importance of partnering with parents in youth ministry. Josh gives 10 tips from the perspective of a parent NOT working at a church. Several tips are incredibly Hybrid, and best of all, it's not going to add anymore work to your plate!

📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/145

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https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/
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https://x.com/joshboldman

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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Why Partnering with Parents?
02:52 Tip #1
4:34 Tip #2
05:22 Tip #3
06:04 Tip #4
08:55 Tip #5
10:18 Tip #6
13:02 Why does starting on time honor parents?
14:26 Tip #7
15:03 Tip #8
15:47 Tip #9
17:33 Tip #10

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00.93)
Well, so here we are. And Josh, you might be the most frequented guest now on the Hybrid Ministry podcast, which with all I would, I think I sent you one actually. So, so yeah. But today I've been asking people like, what do you feel like you're kind of like an expert on? So we're in this kind of mini series called How I, and so you said, let's talk about partnering with parents. And so.

Josh Boldman (00:06.494)
Yes Do I get a jacket like do I get a like there's like a that's true actually, you know, that's fair

Josh Boldman (00:29.991)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (00:31.124)
over all your different years of experience, what do you feel like uniquely positions you from a mindset or experience-wise or whatever about this idea of partnering with parents?

Josh Boldman (00:38.9)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah, so I mean, over the course of 20 years in youth ministry, I did the traditional route of before I had a kid, feeling like I knew everything more than any of the parents. Like I was way smarter than them. And then I had my own kid, and then I was able to actually have the blessing of having my own kid in my own ministry. And then recently have now,

Nick Clason (00:55.712)
yeah.

Nick Clason (01:03.937)
Mmm.

Josh Boldman (01:08.465)
like a life stage where my kid is a part of a ministry that I do not lead. And so it's like, there, that's what I should have. Okay, those are the questions that I now have that I should have been answering.

Nick Clason (01:13.358)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (01:19.904)
I do actually think that's a really, really fascinating perspective and one worth exploring. So what are a couple of principles or takeaways, especially in the lane of I'm a youth pastor veteran, I work for a youth ministry company, but as a parent, as a customer, so to speak, of this youth group, like what do you wish you were getting back from the youth ministry?

Josh Boldman (01:23.826)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Josh Boldman (01:35.303)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Boldman (01:42.291)
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's something that every youth minister needs to remember is that you are ministering to a family and not just to a student. Hands down, because like a student is a product, I mean, not entirely, but like they're a product of their family, right? Their parents. when you talk, you talk to a kid, half the things they say are things that they have either heard their parents say or they've

Nick Clason (01:53.965)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (02:02.028)
Yeah.

Josh Boldman (02:11.835)
or are in like rebellion against something that their parents have said, right? So like, so like the better that you know the parents, the better you are going to know the student. And whether that that kid has a awesome relationship with their parents or a terrible relationship with their parents or no relationship with their parents, whoever it is at home that takes care of them, that makes them feel safe. You are on the same team with that person, whether you know them or not.

Nick Clason (02:15.598)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (02:22.446)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (02:30.702)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Boldman (02:41.583)
And it, it, it, I will be as blunt as I can be in saying if, you're on the same team as that, of those people and you don't know them, that is dumb. Like it just don't, don't put yourself in a position of being on a team with someone you don't even know.

Nick Clason (02:50.563)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (02:56.28)
So you've worked in some larger contexts, let's say. How would you recommend someone who has a youth group of 50 students with, let's say, 50 unique family units? so probably more than 50 because siblings, whatever. How do they get to know parents? Because I would imagine the pushback from a youth pastor is like, well, I try. have a well, and we have meetings and they never come to the meetings and all this stuff like what. So.

Josh Boldman (03:00.646)
Yep.

Josh Boldman (03:08.23)
Yeah, yeah, Uh-huh.

Josh Boldman (03:17.757)
Yep, I can't know them all yet.

Josh Boldman (03:24.465)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (03:24.812)
We've all been there, we've all experienced it. what, as a parent now on the other side, give us some tips.

Josh Boldman (03:30.418)
Yeah, yeah, I would say one, especially if you're talking about a middle school ministry, do check in at the beginning of the night and be at the check-in station. And I know that seems so like antithetical to like, I should be hanging out with the kids. you know, yes, that's great. Go play nine square, go play gaga ball, whatever, but spend some time at check-in because especially if they're in sixth, seventh, eighth grade, their parents are going to probably walk in with them.

Nick Clason (03:42.775)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (03:51.938)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (03:56.471)
Right.

Josh Boldman (04:00.274)
Like, so that's a great opportunity. but even if it's not then like clock the times that, know, like, Hey, when are my best opportunities to meet this parent? And it's, it's almost always going to be a drop-off pickup. Um, we, know, sometimes we'll do like, uh, you know, depending on like the layout of your building and how close the room is to the actual parking lot. Like, um, we used to do a thing where we'd have somebody inside with a walkie talkie and somebody outside with a walkie talkie. So what a parent would pull up.

they would say, hey, I'm here to pick up Johnny. And so the person on the radio would be like, Johnny. And so then we'd call Johnny's name inside. I was like, why am I not the person outside with the walkie talkie? Like go be that person talking to the parent. you know, that, you know, and, plus one of the best things you can do in that situation is they're like, Hey, I'm here to pick up Johnny. You can be like, dude, Johnny's awesome. Like, let me tell you about Johnny. Johnny is so stinking cool. Yup. Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:30.774)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (04:40.906)
Yeah, that's so smart.

Nick Clason (04:50.902)
Yeah, and what parent doesn't want to hear that about their kid?

Josh Boldman (04:56.562)
Oh yeah, cause think of every time a parent gets called by a teacher, it's to tell them that their kid's not doing great. know, so like if you can be like the one time that you like, or I mean, if you're open enough to literally calling parents, like go call a parent and be like, Hey, I need to tell you something about Johnny. And they're like, what do you do now? They're like, he was amazing. Like, you know, and I mean, don't lie about Johnny. Like if Johnny's a little turd, like, know, you can be honest about it, but like, don't, but don't drag Johnny through.

Nick Clason (05:02.294)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (05:14.924)
Yeah, yeah. That's cool, yeah.

Yeah.

Josh Boldman (05:26.62)
You know, go out of your way to tell them how awesome it is.

Nick Clason (05:26.872)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:30.284)
Yeah, that's so good. It's like the whole idea of positive reinforcement versus negative, so much more powerful. And we can just be strategic and intentional to position ourselves to do that. Even if you're like, I'll give myself 20 minutes on the calendar a week and I'll try to call as many parents and just say something nice about their kids. And if they're quick conversations or even, bro, leave a voicemail. Maybe they don't answer, whatever. It'll still be awesome. can be like, okay, no need to

Josh Boldman (05:33.859)
Mm-hmm. Totally, totally.

Josh Boldman (05:46.779)
Yeah. yeah.

Josh Boldman (05:56.422)
Yeah!

Nick Clason (05:59.67)
No need to call back, just wanted to let you know whatever, that'd be really good.

Josh Boldman (06:01.999)
Yeah. Yeah. And especially if you know, you have a kid who is, you know, mean, gosh, I don't know what it has been about the, you know, the 20 years I spent in ministry, but it was like, it was just like every kid with an attention deficit of something, something, something like they all just showed up at our ministry. Right. It was grabbing it, which is a lot of fun. I'm just like, I'll be the first to say like, it is a party, but yes. man. Until the broken arms, but

Nick Clason (06:16.854)
Mm-hmm

Nick Clason (06:26.348)
You had fun during the games.

haha

Josh Boldman (06:30.781)
you would, but the thing was, is you would see parents drop off their kids and those parents were exhausted, right? And they were just like exasperated. Like they are saying like, Hey, please help. And also please give me a break for a minute. And so like, if you can call and like, if they, you know that they're having trouble with their kid at school and you can then brag about something awesome about that kid, like I cannot tell you how that feels. you know, just to be able to know like, cause

Nick Clason (06:36.013)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (06:44.053)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (06:49.464)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (06:56.216)
Yeah.

Josh Boldman (07:00.066)
And you know, let's call it what it is. Parents need to hear that not everybody hates their kid. Like, I mean, I know that sounds harsh, but like...

Nick Clason (07:05.15)
Mm-hmm. Well, no, you're always questioning, like, are our kids weird? are they? You're always asking that thing.

Josh Boldman (07:10.244)
Right? Yes. It's like, it's like my own kid. Like I love my kid, but I don't know how other people feel about him unless they tell me, you know? So yeah.

Nick Clason (07:17.634)
That's it, yeah, no, you're so right. Yeah, so, so far, you know, it's interesting. Like nothing you've said had anything to do with like the youth pastor's sermon or cue cards or so like, what else, man?

Josh Boldman (07:27.48)
Not even a little. yeah, yeah. It's not, it's not, yeah, it's not the, every year we do a message series where we talk about be nice to your parents. Like, no, that's not, that doesn't help. mean, can't, please do that. yeah, but some things that I have noticed, you know, in times, especially when I started in a ministry where I followed someone who left poorly.

Nick Clason (07:38.958)
Yeah, yeah, it sure can help,

Josh Boldman (07:54.064)
what I almost across the board saw was that that person, especially when it came to parents, was disorganized and did not communicate well. So like, and this may sound so minor, but like send an email every week. Like even if it is literally the same email, like it's the same template, just change two things, whatever. But that way when parents are trying to figure out what's going on, they can always look at the last email and see what it was.

Nick Clason (08:10.382)
It's not that hard.

Nick Clason (08:15.02)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (08:20.92)
Yeah.

Josh Boldman (08:21.668)
Don't expect them to open it and read it right when you send it and be like, this email was great.

Nick Clason (08:26.05)
Well, and that's what I would say with our, even the little bit of hybrid strategies, make sure your website's up to date, because how annoying is it when you have a question about what time does that event start, and you go to the website, and it's not even there. And it's like, I send it in the email. It's like, do you know how many emails I've gotten? And so I recommend a do that, do both. Just keep both things, yeah, keep both things updated.

Josh Boldman (08:30.669)
Yeah! Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yup.

Josh Boldman (08:39.76)
huh. Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Boldman (08:47.184)
All of them.

Yeah, anything you can do. Yup, 100%.

Nick Clason (08:55.308)
because they may not be hanging, like you said, on your every word. like, give me your outline from your last 10 messages so that can go over them with my kid. But no, the parents, they do just want to be able to stay in the loop, and they got a lot going on, just like you do. so help them figure out where they can snag that info, for sure.

Josh Boldman (08:59.021)
Right.

Josh Boldman (09:08.898)
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm, yeah, totally. Another good one that we do, and this is literally every place that I started, this was something I instituted within the first month. And I got most pushback from volunteers, which is interesting, was we start and end on time, every week, period. And my gosh, mean, to tell you that, so I was at a place once where when I came in,

Nick Clason (09:25.441)
Yeah.

Interesting.

Nick Clason (09:32.915)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Josh Boldman (09:40.751)
We started youth group at seven, which really meant it was 7 15. And then youth or the small groups went and they started at like eight 30, which is too late. And that meant that they went until nine on a school night. And then the, the, the overall ministry philosophy was we don't start cleaning up until the last kid leaves because we don't want them to feel like we're like, we're pushing them out. And my thing

Nick Clason (09:44.642)
Right.

Nick Clason (09:51.35)
Yeah, on a school night. Yep.

Nick Clason (10:03.618)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (10:07.19)
Which like I get the sentiment.

Josh Boldman (10:08.846)
I totally get it. and it does, it makes so much sense. But at the end of the day, think, think this through. Like we would have students there till like 10 30 and 11 and then we would clean and I'm there with my own son. So I can't even go home with my own kid and get him to bed. And he's got to go to school the next morning. Right. And so, so now if I'm a parent and I notice a pattern that my kid keeps getting in trouble on Thursdays and

Nick Clason (10:23.806)
Mm-hmm. You're in prison. Yeah, you're locked up like.

Josh Boldman (10:38.221)
then I also piece it together that they're out late every Wednesday, I'm gonna start putting two and two together and I'm gonna start blaming somebody. And so like...

Nick Clason (10:41.762)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:46.2)
Bro, that's, I mean, we don't, we, so we homeschool our kids this year, first year. They couldn't go to like Wednesday night activities at the church, because it was too tough of a turnaround for their like first and second grade bodies. Like the alarm goes off at 6 a.m. after church on Wednesday night. was like, exactly, it was brutal. And so it's like now the nice thing is like, hey, we're homeschooled and you know what's cool? We can take our kids to church.

Josh Boldman (10:50.126)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Boldman (10:53.901)
Yeah!

Josh Boldman (10:57.645)
Yeah, dude!

so hard.

Which is crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And what it let us do is we said 8 45. That's when we start cleaning up whether students are there or not. And any student who's still there gets to help. And, and so one that actually taught the students that, okay, I'm going to go ahead and leave it at 30. But yeah. But, then when parents would show up and they'd see their kid helping, like even that was like, my gosh, this

Nick Clason (11:18.296)
Mm-hmm.

gets to help.

Nick Clason (11:26.734)
Or the good ones will, you know, how can it help?

Nick Clason (11:34.999)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Boldman (11:37.858)
what are you doing here and how is this magic and how can I do this at home? And so suddenly that just creates so many more opportunities for conversations with parents and for us to say, we're doing this and we're keeping a tight schedule so that you know what to expect and what your kid knows what to expect at school the next day.

Nick Clason (11:54.946)
Yeah, so good. When you say start, how would you see it being helpful? Maybe I understand the ending, the beginning. How is it helpful starting on time as opposed to like a delayed 15 minutes? I feel like that's a staple in youth ministry.

Josh Boldman (12:02.541)
Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So like same thing. Like I know it's a hard turnaround. Like if you your kid gets home from school, you get home from work, you're trying to get dinner, all that. You rush, rush, rush, rush, and you rush to get them there at seven. And then you just see everybody just sitting around and you're like, why did I rush so hard to get here? And yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (12:27.906)
So it's like an honoring of the effort that it took to, yeah. So like you actually, yeah, it's good, it's good, I like it.

Josh Boldman (12:35.118)
You know, mean, it's never perfect, right? know, mean, you stuff's always gonna go sideways, but like, if you, if you can give them what to expect, then when it does go a little long or, you know, things don't quite work out the way that then it's like, it's not their, their internal monologue is like, again, you know, it's just like, oh, okay, yeah, get it. happens, you know, yeah.

Nick Clason (12:43.949)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (12:54.678)
Hmm It happened yeah, you have the kind of credibility of like we always end on time Sorry tonight went five minutes late and that's I mean I'm with you like if you're gonna go like late like five minutes is your Absolute max like that's my that's my absolute max. I'm like and I'm sweating bullets in the back like Band we don't need you to play that interlude again. Just pray. Let's go get him out of here. Yeah

Josh Boldman (13:04.119)
Yep. Yep.

Josh Boldman (13:11.958)
Totally. yeah.

Josh Boldman (13:20.652)
Right, please actually don't. Please don't. Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:24.24)
alright, anything else?

Josh Boldman (13:26.413)
I would say, so something we did was we started a text chain where we would send parents discussion questions during the lesson. So that if they were picking their kid up later, they'd be like, instead of saying, how was youth group? They could be like, hey, I heard you were talking about Joshua chapter two. would you have? Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:35.456)
I like it.

Nick Clason (13:41.654)
Yeah, it's good. And it goes right to them. Being on the phone, that, as opposed to a cue card, you know, we posted on a Facebook group and I still don't even think that's the most effective place for it. And even, yeah, exactly, that's really good. That's good.

Josh Boldman (13:54.529)
Right, mm-hmm, yeah. And it lets them opt in. Man, mm-hmm. Two other kind of small things that we used to do is we created an observation deck where it was like a row where parents could come and sit and watch. But it was where, and we always had a volunteer assigned to them, so it was like, you know, we always said, if you're gonna be around kids, you gotta be background checked, yada, yada, and all that. like, but, but.

Nick Clason (14:11.186)
that's cool.

Nick Clason (14:20.63)
Yeah, all the things,

Josh Boldman (14:22.461)
If you're a parent, you're just like genuinely curious about what happens here. You don't have to go through that whole process, but we're going to stick a volunteer with you that has, and they're going to be with you the entire time. and, that at least let, let parents know that, this is not a secret. What we do here. We're not, you know, trying to like turn your kids against you or anything like that. yeah. And then, last bit of advice I would give is just when you are talking to parents,

Nick Clason (14:32.012)
Yeah, come hang out.

Nick Clason (14:36.622)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (14:41.836)
Yeah, that's just like a full transparency moment. So that's cool.

Josh Boldman (14:51.38)
Remember that they are adults and not students. And it's hard to turn that, know, you'd switch that, you know, flip that switch or whatever. Cause you can be really quick going from talking to a bunch of kids to then talking to parents and that same, that same demeanor, that same way, you know, you're addressing, like there's a, the parent that brought the kid and the parent that wants to take that kid home needs, needs respect. And you know, that

and it needs respect shown in a way that's different than the way you show respect to a student. So I say, just remember that, remember you're on the same team. It's not you versus them, it's you and them trying to help the kid.

Nick Clason (15:24.995)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (15:30.732)
Yeah. And I think the, as I listened to every single thing you said, right? I think the encouraging part is nothing really added anything to your workload. You're not creating some crazy parent seminar. You're not adding some big once a year conference. Like you are subtly shifting your positioning at the beginning and end of service. You're subtly shifting your mindset and your organization and

Josh Boldman (15:45.833)
Right, no.

Nick Clason (16:00.214)
you're adding maybe a text thread, right? Which like, it'll take you less than 10 minutes for your entire series to type out two questions per message. You know, like.

Josh Boldman (16:02.9)
Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Josh Boldman (16:10.503)
yeah, well, and what we do, we use questions that were small group questions anyway. Yeah, sure.

Nick Clason (16:15.596)
Yeah, yeah, and you can copy and paste or reframe slightly and you're right there. So that's so good. Josh, anything else that the people need to know about partnering with parents or anything else they need to know in general?

Josh Boldman (16:20.393)
Yeah, uh-huh, Yep. Totally.

It, I will say this, okay, and because this is the mistake I made and I think a mistake so many people make, if you don't have kids, do not assume that you know better than the parent. Assume that you are, you can help the parent, assume that you are, you are still a resource and you know, you know students. But just parenting is hard, dude. Like it's so hard. And by, you don't know what, what that parent,

Nick Clason (16:40.194)
Mm, that's good.

Nick Clason (16:53.32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Josh Boldman (16:58.333)
is walking in with or what they're walking out with. You might think that that kid is just the golden child, but that might not be what is happening at home. Just don't assume. So go into any conversation with parents, I think, with a posture of learning and a posture of, want to support you, I think is good. Yeah.

Nick Clason (17:09.228)
Mm. Yeah.

Nick Clason (17:16.248)
Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that's awesome. Hey, all Josh social media, all his stuff's linked down below. Go check him out. But for Josh, this is Nick. Thanks for being here, guys. We'll talk to you next time.

Josh Boldman (17:29.042)
Later. Bye.

Episode 127: More than a Random Name Generator

Nick Clason — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 04:00:00 -0600

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DESCRIPTION
In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using the Random Name Generator from Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry programming!

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/127

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CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Most Personal Element of Sidekick to Date
01:34 #1 Creative Name Generator Idea
04:27 Operating "Pick Me"
06:04 #2 Creative Name Generator Idea
07:28 #3 Creative Name Generator Idea
08:19 Different Sound Effect Options
10:09 #4 Creative Name Generator Idea
11:26 #5 Creative Name Generator Idea

--------------

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:11:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As we've been exploring more engaging sermons through your presentations and specifically your presentation software, we're talking about sidekick in the play, this link right

00:00:11:26 - 00:00:16:59
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here. And this is the fourth and final video, but this feature is the feature that when I saw this

00:00:16:59 - 00:00:23:59
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
feature rolled out at the Orange Conference and I believe it was 2016 when they

00:00:23:59 - 00:00:28:47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
showed it to me, I instantly said, and then sign me up.

00:00:28:51 - 00:00:50:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What does it take? How much does it cost? Actually, I don't care. It doesn't matter. This is what I want. And this is the feature that sidekick still has rolled out to this day, in my personal opinion. It is my necklaces favorite feature, and it is one that I believe that you can and you should be using in your presentations.

00:00:50:28 - 00:01:07:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Whether you're a youth pastor, whether you're a college minister, whether you're an adult pastor, or whether, frankly, you're a senior pastor, it is the random name picker and random name generator. And in this video and in this episode, I want to share five of my favorite ways

00:01:07:23 - 00:01:11:46
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to creatively use the name picker. I'm going to drill deep down

00:01:11:46 - 00:01:16:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
into all of the features of how you can use it and utilize it, and what it has to offer.

00:01:16:57 - 00:01:24:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're watching here on YouTube, you're going to see a live demo and a live tutorial and a screen share of it. And don't forget, as always, there

00:01:24:01 - 00:01:35:31
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
are chapters down below at the bottom of this video so that you can skip around to the ones that make the most sense to you. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:01:35:36 - 00:01:47:54
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So way. Number one, that I love to use the random name generator because as you know, when you're at church, you don't know which of your youth group kids are going to show up on any given week. And

00:01:47:54 - 00:02:04:52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so one of my favorite ways to use it is in our retreats or in our camps or within things that, that have a registration component to it, because, you know, every kid you're taking to camp, you should and you should definitely know that number because you better return with that many kids.

00:02:04:53 - 00:02:20:39
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like if you've ever worried that you lost a kid, a youth camp, and, either way, one of the things I like to do is when we have a big event and listen, what I'm about to explain is one of the things I'm going to start doing on my Patreon show. By the way, if you didn't know, we're launching a Patreon show.

00:02:20:39 - 00:02:45:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on screen, you can see the slide. We are going to be offering bonus content, and that bonus content is going to drop once per week. And I'm very simply going to talk through all of the different ways that we are using and utilizing hybrid in our ministry, and I hope that as you sit in and as you listen, it helps you to get the creative juices going a little bit in your own brain and in your own ministry.

00:02:45:03 - 00:03:06:34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as you pursue hybrid, not because it's cool and not because digital and all that stuff is important, but really we're taking our in-person and our digital and we're putting it together, intersecting in most cases, at students cell phones, which gives us an opportunity to impact and influence them beyond the one hour of programing that we have scheduled per week.

00:03:06:34 - 00:03:26:52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that is what my Patreon is going to do, this bonus content. But when you have an event, if you have some sort of a check in system, which I know we do, I have our, church community builder, CBM, we have a, report that runs for anyone who's checked in within the last 24 hours.

00:03:26:57 - 00:03:29:54
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so what happens then is, basically

00:03:29:54 - 00:03:53:47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
once an event has started, I can go into that report, I can download into an Excel sheet, so to speak, or like a dot CSV. I can know all the names of the students who are there. I don't have to guess about the kids who I think might be there, who I thought I saw, but I know for a fact they've checked in and then I can put their names into the random name generator, and then I can use that for raffle giveaways, prizes, and all sorts of things.

00:03:53:47 - 00:04:18:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so say that that spits out into an Excel sheet. You're looking here at an Excel sheet, and you can just highlight an entire cell. Copy. Copy that. Go over here to your name picker. Click edit. Click edit. Pick me. Go to your book editor Payson, and boom, just in case you also wanted their numbers as well. And so now we got all of the names in here.

00:04:18:32 - 00:04:42:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And and then when I go ahead and I get ready to roll this thing, you'll notice. Let me get this full screen here. If you're watching, pretend this is your projector, you're going to drag that window over to your projector. And then you are going to click present and you're good to go. And so now here I am, I want to play and I want to run this pick me game.

00:04:42:00 - 00:05:07:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I'm going to turn it on to random. And we're going to get this thing rolling and I'm gonna see who's going to win. And it's Nikola to pitch the earbud. Believer himself. And so when you're running it right, you can do things like hide last item. So if I don't want to pitch to win, I can turn this on ahead of time so that it doesn't stop on him again, even though it did.

00:05:07:27 - 00:05:27:33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But now he's gone and now I'm going to get a new winner. Jacob Jalen Williams himself. Right. Here's the beautiful thing. If you don't trust your tech person, you can do this from your phone. You can do this remotely from an iPad. Or you can do this remotely from even a whole different computer. And you don't even have to be on the same network as that computer.

00:05:27:37 - 00:05:28:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're logged into sidekick

00:05:28:42 - 00:05:44:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on your in your tech booth, and if you're logged in to sidekick from your phone or whatever device, you can run it from both. We are all in on sidekick in fact. Link down below if you want to see our setup of how we do it. To jump back and forth between pro presenter and sidekick, we haven't made the shift to be

00:05:44:50 - 00:05:47:41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all in with worship because that's a whole different department.

00:05:47:46 - 00:06:02:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't call the shots. If I did, we would be all in on sidekick, but since we're not, we have a video switcher. And if you want to be able to bounce back and forth between the two so that you can have the elements of purpose that you like, but all the interactive features of sidekick that you like, check that out down below.

00:06:02:42 - 00:06:29:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, idea number two, one that I really like is rather than names. We've actually done this before in this presentation, and I'm going to show you how to set it up. I did like a series or a message on labels. And so I actually, what I did was, I think I have it in here. I brought in, like, a label, like a hello, my name is type of label, and I just got it loaded.

00:06:29:40 - 00:06:56:34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And very simply, when it was sitting there on screen and I was teaching, I used that teaching moment sort of as an opportunity to, to to cycle through and filter through some of the different types of labels that we face or that we think we face or that we see or that we feel or that we might even struggle with sometimes, as, you know, people, as teenagers, as followers of Jesus.

00:06:56:39 - 00:07:22:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you don't have to just let this be like a random name picker thing. Like you can also use and utilize this as an opportunity, within your teaching, within your teaching components. And so as you see here on screen, I have the hello, my name is name Tag right here. And then they are just simply filtering through, different types of labels that you or that students might struggle with.

00:07:22:56 - 00:07:37:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's an opportunity then to go ahead and and use that as a part of your teaching point. Now my third favorite way to go ahead and use the random name generator is, to use a thing called a Volun told

00:07:37:08 - 00:07:50:43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
generator. And we talked about this a little bit in the, we'll, video in the last video about how you can make a definitive or declarative statement, like the person with the tallest socks, that's only one person.

00:07:50:45 - 00:08:10:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the person with the tallest socks in your room, they come up in place. So if you don't have a set up or if you don't have check in, but you still want to use this kind of Volun told generator sort of thing, you can put generic statements about students, and then you can use that to get people to come on up as contestants for games and stuff like that.

00:08:10:08 - 00:08:29:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And again, it's just a great way to not have to do the who wants to play? And you're like, how did I pick that kid or not? Like the the random name generator is king and the random name generator decides. And what's cool, even in its customization, right, is that you can create different sound effects, right? So like, there is like a thumbs up sound effect.

00:08:29:16 - 00:08:48:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There is a, kind of shrugging like middle of the road sound effect. And then there's like a party horn sound effect. So if you were playing this and you had the sort of like, like maybe a bad prize or something, you weren't so sure about that you didn't want, this is what the thumbs down sound effect sounds like.

00:08:49:02 - 00:09:06:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That. But, yeah, it's a bummer. No, no one wants is smudging. Like, that's how Thunder fans kind of feel right now anyway. But then you go ahead and you're like that. This guy's kind of mid tier. We're not not really sure if we have an, opinion yet of him or not. Really sure if winning this thing in our youth ministry, we really have an opinion of it.

00:09:06:04 - 00:09:27:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yet Dugas. Yeah, okay. Whatever. You know, but then, like, you win something great or like it's a grand prize or something that people really actually want. I mean, he's a front runner for MVP. Let's just be honest. He's outpacing Luke does is the Thunder are the number one seed in the West. And they are the juggernaut that everyone should be afraid of.

00:09:27:42 - 00:09:45:45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's led by this guy. And so you should you should have that sound. Hey give me a like if you're a, Thunder fan and please don't unsubscribe if you, do you happen to be a mavericks fan? Because we are here trying to make this hybrid ministry thing. We're trying to make it helpful to you. In fact, right here on screen.

00:09:45:45 - 00:10:04:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't forget Code Hybrid Ministry ten. If you've never used you. I am. Or if you've never signed up for anything with do I am before for 10% off for a year of premium, Premium or Premium Plus? You can check out the pricing link down below. We also offer custom coaching. It's my free strategy guide. Go ahead and scan that QR code, check out our Patreon.

00:10:04:02 - 00:10:25:49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And hey, while you're here, go ahead and vote on which coffee shop is the best. My fourth idiom that I really like to do is kind of like the kind of like the the name tag one that I showed you a minute ago. So instead of it, I mean, like a teaching point, a lot of times I will create a welcome slide, right?

00:10:25:49 - 00:10:41:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And these slides, just like all the other ones, they're, they're highly adaptable. So you can put any slides you want. You can, add an image, you can make a color, you can add a video background from something from YouTube. Even so like we've used this video before in

00:10:41:58 - 00:10:48:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
previous videos here, even on this playlist. And so if you wanted it to be a video one, you could embed this YouTube video right here.

00:10:48:47 - 00:11:09:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or you could add one of these videos from a bank of other videos that you have used before using the past. But whatever the case might be, I'll do this where like, we have like, a leader lunch. And so people have volun, or have RSVP ahead of time. And so I will, put all of their names into the generator and I will say, leader, lunch welcome.

00:11:09:10 - 00:11:27:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With an arrow pointing to where their name is going to be here on People Picker and all the names are just filtering through. And then we may use that as a giveaway sort of feature in the, in the, you know, in the background or whatever, or not. We'll see. But those are sort of all just kind of different ways and different ideas that I like to use the name picker.

00:11:27:14 - 00:11:47:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then of course, number five, I'm going to share on my Patreon page. And don't forget, this is the last time that I'm going to do this. To those of you listening to the regular podcast or on YouTube, but I just, I, I'm so, so stoked and I'm so pumped about our Patreon because it is a dollar a week, $4 a month.

00:11:47:44 - 00:12:05:54
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's less than the cost of a cup of coffee. But I want to get coffee with you. I want to sit down. I want to chat. Youth ministry. I want to chat. Creativity. I want to chat. How to make your programing more engaging? Because Gen Z and Gen Alpha, they want a more custom and personalized approach.

00:12:05:54 - 00:12:33:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I believe that sidekick not only in this beta version, but also in the future. Rolling out has the tools that it takes to do that. I'm challenging myself to use sidekick every single time we're in the room with our students, and I want to encourage you to try and lean into your creativity and do the same. And so I know when I hear a brainstorm that's helpful for me to just listen to someone else and then beg and borrow and steal and tweak and adapt and use different ideas.

00:12:33:14 - 00:12:56:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's why I want my Patreon to be is just a place for you guys to get that weekly sort of bonus content, along with, as you see here, on screen, exclusive merch and exclusive sticker for everyone who signs up before the month of December. December 2nd, they'll be yours. I'll mail it to you. You can help me choose some show and segment topics, and also some shout outs special for those over there on my Patreon page.

00:12:56:08 - 00:13:18:37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that number five idea that's over there going to be in this week's Patreon will drop on Monday of this week. So once again, my friends so excited that you here. Thank you for diving in deep with sidekick. The next episode we are going to be hopping into all things Christmas, Christmas parties, holiday planning, and everything that you need to know to round out the year.

00:13:18:37 - 00:13:29:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Amazingly, in your ministry. Finish strong. The Lord is equipped you for what he has you doing. But don't forget and as always my friends, to stay hybrid.

Episode 125: Unlock the Customizable Wheel for your Programming

Nick Clason — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 04:00:00 -0600

🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

🖥️ SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup

DESCRIPTION
In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/125

//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup

//COLEADER PRICING
CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10
https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing

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

//CUSTOM HYBRID COACHING
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

//ERIK W/A 'K'
https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

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

//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Random Spinning Wheel
01:39 Co-Leader Discount Code!
03:05 The Power of Creativity
5:00 Wheel Idea #1
08:15 Wheel Idea #2
09:22 Wheel Tech Booth Point of View
11:38 Wheel Idea #3
12:14 Customize your slide background
15:10 Wheel Idea #4

--------------

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;27;13
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
What if I told you that you could have access to a customizable spinning wheel that is actually woven in and built into the fabric of your presentation software? Not just like from free wheel spinner.com, because, you know, if you're presenting or preaching in church that you want that wheel to come in and you want it to be seamless, you don't want to drag an ugly browser window in across your screen.

00;00;27;16 - 00;00;48;16
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And so what if that presentation ability was available in your PowerPoint, in your profit center, on your church projector screens? Well, what if I told you that it was, you know, download and Youth Ministry has had the customizable spinning wheel available to youth pastors, but it is now available to all

00;00;48;16 - 00;00;53;01
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
people. It is woven into the new beta version of

00;00;53;01 - 00;00;54;03
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
sidekick.

00;00;54;03 - 00;01;10;25
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And in this episode, not only are we going to explore how it's a little bit different than the legacy version of the sidekick, but we're going to look at all of the features. And so if you are watching here on YouTube, first of all, go ahead and give me a like because if you don't know, that incredibly helps us out.

00;01;10;28 - 00;01;30;13
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
But second, I would love it if you, are listening to Hop Over and you can watch a live demo as I not only build the wheel, but I show you all the different features and I want to talk through in this episode for of my most favorite ways to use and integrate the wheel into our programing, into

00;01;30;13 - 00;01;32;25
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
my lessons, into my messages.

00;01;33;02 - 00;01;42;09
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And so much more. Hey everyone! Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid

00;01;42;09 - 00;02;10;01
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Ministry show. My name is Nicholas and I am a 14 year Youth ministry veteran. And welcome to our playlist where we explore the best features of sidekick. And as you see here on screen, rotating through on my pre-roll announcements for the Hybrid Ministry show, which you can replicate this by simply clicking the link right here at the top of the video to go back and watch some of the more miscellaneous features available here in this playlist.

00;02;10;03 - 00;02;43;04
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
But we are talking about sidekick, and in this particular episode, we're talking about the ways that you can use the wheel. But here's what you might not know is that if you've never jumped into anything dim or Co-Leader, which is our, curriculum software that does unlock access to sidekick, my listeners get an exclusive offer if you use the code hybrid Ministry ten, you'll get 10% off Premium or Premium plus of co-leader curriculum, which, like I said, is how you gain access to sidekick.

00;02;43;11 - 00;03;04;09
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
There is a way to get sidekick ala carte as well. But if you are in youth ministry and you're looking for curriculum, I'm just telling you, Collider is the way to go. You get so much I don't even know how to download. Youth ministry is making money. But again, in addition to that, you get 10% off, if you use my code hybrid ministry ten.

00;03;04;09 - 00;03;25;22
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
So, we're going to get out of these looping announcements, and I want to show you what it looks like to have the customizable spinning wheel. Now here is the preview in the window over here. This little window down here, we're going to pretend, like I said, in the first, video in this playlist, this, sidekick is browser based.

00;03;25;24 - 00;03;42;25
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
So it's going to create a new window. You're going to drag that ugly window onto your projector screen, but then from there you're going to click full screen. It's going to be seamless. Now, if you are still using both sidekick and also pro presenter, go ahead and check the link down below in the show notes for how we have set up.

00;03;42;25 - 00;03;47;04
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Because we are, we're all in on sidekick. And the reason that

00;03;47;04 - 00;04;10;02
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
I'm all in on sidekick is it forces me to be more creative in my programing, and I find that when I'm more creative, our students are more engaged and better engaged. And, I personally feel like that I'm doing a better job communicating and being a youth pastor and leaning in and showing up where students are, which that's one of the whole goals, is one viewer students are.

00;04;10;02 - 00;04;31;16
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And that's what hybrid really affords us. The opportunity to do is to be where our people are. And so, if you didn't know this, we're actually starting a brand new Patreon page here on the Hybrid Ministry show, where I'm going to just rattle off what we did in youth group this week. And as I do, I'll explain all the ways we're using sidekick along with all the other things that we're doing in our youth ministry.

00;04;31;16 - 00;04;50;06
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And so I want you to go ahead and check that out. If you haven't, you can click right here. The, the QR code that you see here on screen. I'll, I'll make that a little bit bigger for you. You can click that or you can simply head to a patreon.com/hybrid ministry and join for only $4 a month.

00;04;50;13 - 00;05;26;20
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
The bonus podcast I'm gonna release is a weekly podcast. So when you do $4 a month, that essentially nets out to $1 per week, which is crazy town. So I would love to invite you into that. But here's one of my favorite ways to use and utilize the wheel the random wheel. So in our student ministry not too long ago, we, used one of my friend Eric with a case games, and I'm not sure I don't think he got this game on to download youth ministry before the Halloween, but man, I loved the concept.

00;05;26;20 - 00;05;47;12
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
It was like a digital, like, sort of escape room sort of thing. And what Eric did, which was just like, so incredible, was like, it was like you work through rooms in your space and you had different contestants kind of do that, right now getting contestants, man, that is one of the most difficult things in youth ministry, right?

00;05;47;12 - 00;06;07;11
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Because you've been a real like, who wants to who wants to be a volunteer, who wants to be a volunteer? And so what we did was we created a wheel that would, basically volunteer certain people. So we had our, groups broken down by grade. And so we had like sixth grade, we had seventh and eighth grade, we had ninth and 10th grade, and then we had 11th and 12th grade.

00;06;07;11 - 00;06;33;02
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
So for total, sixth year, I was the only one that was standalone. And the other, you know, six remaining grades are grouped together seventh and eighth, ninth and 10th, 11th, 12th. You get the idea. But then we said we need the whatever the wheel says person from each of these grades. So again, this is something I would go over on my Patreon page and hopefully it might help you out helping me more creative and thus ultimately more engaging.

00;06;33;06 - 00;06;53;23
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
But what we did was we just added a wheel and we said, all right, I need the sixth grader who's the tallest, I need the seventh grader who's the shortest? I need the ninth 10th grader who has the tallest socks I need the 11th 12th grader has the lowest phone battery percentage. And so if you're watching here on screen, what you do is you simply click edit Slide and right at the top all you got to do is click wheel.

00;06;53;25 - 00;07;15;02
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
You want to add the wheel. And so in pops the wheel settings right here. And so this is where you can adjust the individual items in the wheel. So if you don't want cheese because it's not relevant to what you're doing you can say tallest. And if you want highest battery percentage you say highest battery percentage where's a percent.

00;07;15;02 - 00;07;37;26
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
So there it is. If you want to add another one, you simply click Add Item. Or better yet, you can do bulk add and you can just type them all in. And so you go, tallest socks, reddest hair, biggest mustache, or whatever your criteria are. There they are. You click add three items and boom, they are off and rolling.

00;07;37;26 - 00;07;56;10
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Now once your wheel is on the screen, you notice it's kind of covering my face here if you don't want that. So you can go up to this little corner and just simply shrink it and put it right where you want it, maybe right underneath that finger where I'm pointing. Maybe you want it huge, right? So you can make it even bigger.

00;07;56;14 - 00;08;24;23
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
You can make it even smaller. And, there's all sorts of different ways that you can kind of mess around with and use the wheel, but that's way number one. We kind of like to use the wheel as a, contestant sort of generator. All right. The other thing that I love about the wheel is, or another way, way number two that we use the wheel is we will use it sometimes as a prize wheel.

00;08;24;23 - 00;08;43;29
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
So we have a winner of a game, a standalone winner or a group of winners. And then we let that winner go ahead and, spin the wheel for an opportunity to win. So let's just say that they won pizza. And so here, I've already input my different types of pizza that I want to let them win.

00;08;44;03 - 00;09;07;00
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And so when you go ahead and, get this thing launched, you will see that you can you have a lot of different access, right? You have a lot of different access once you get this thing up and rolling. So we're going to pretend this is our projector screen and your person, oh, your person back in your booth is going to be the one that sees this.

00;09;07;00 - 00;09;30;04
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Or again, don't forget that. Now they have phone integration so you can run it like a remote phone, which is a pretty cool feature. So here we are. We are on our wheel right here. And this is what it looks like for the person in the booth. They'll have this start spin option. And they'll be able to see down here that the next winner is cheese.

00;09;30;11 - 00;09;51;01
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
But if I don't want it to be cheese, it can reroll and it can reroll it randomly. Or you can choose a pre-selected option so you can see all of your options here. And you can say, I don't have Hawaiian pizza, I don't have deep dish, I only have sausage. And so we're going to make them think that they have the opportunity to get sausage.

00;09;51;02 - 00;10;13;06
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
But really they don't. And so we're not doing random. We're going to do pre-selected. The pre-selected winner here is sausage. And now when we spin the wheel you're seeing it. You're hearing it. The winner is sausage right. Like I said I can now clear that. Now let's say I gave away sausage and so I don't want that anymore.

00;10;13;09 - 00;10;33;01
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
This is where I can turn on this hide. Last item. And so now sausage, which was what I give away. Now I don't have it because I gave it to this group. And I need a new prize to give away to the next group. I can't give away sausage twice. It only had it once. If I click hide last item, it will go away and it won't be an option on the wheel anymore.

00;10;33;01 - 00;10;57;16
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
So now let's just simulate that again. So I did in fact go ahead. Giveaway sausage I'm hiding the last item. Consider the last item hidden. And then we're going to clear that it's gone. And now we're like oh it needs to be pepperoni. So here we go. Give a pepperoni to the winning group. Group number two. Congratulations you one pepperoni.

00;10;57;16 - 00;11;17;12
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Now if you're listening here on screen or you it was able to be picked up through my microphone, you will notice that they have different sound effects. So when you do the little, cheery sound effect, that's the one that pepperoni just made you. Little shrug sound effect. That's just a little kind of simple, like click sound, like, and so you can change that.

00;11;17;12 - 00;11;45;19
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Or if it's a negative consequence, you can also do the lose sound. And so cheese now has the lose sound. And so that sounds something like this. Now that no one wants cheese. All right. This is this is the bottom line. Okay. Here is another idea that I have is, we might, in our space, do something where, we have, like, rows.

00;11;45;23 - 00;12;03;14
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
We have 16 tables. So there's four, 4x4, four tables across, four tables down 16 total. So we might do something when we have a passage of Scripture, you know, that we want people to look up. And so then we might use the wheel and say, all right, row one. You're going to look up this. Row two, you're going to look up that.

00;12;03;16 - 00;12;22;06
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And here's what's cool is you saw my picture here. So you can also make your background custom. So right here let's say I want this slide right here to be where I put my wheel. First I got to give it a background right. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to make it an image background.

00;12;22;09 - 00;12;48;13
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to upload a file. And I'm going to go navigate to these different verses of this slide that I have already made. And so boom, there's my verse slides. And so now I don't want that. I want the wheel now. And so I can say row one, row two, row three and row four. We're going to add those.

00;12;48;16 - 00;13;13;19
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
We're going to remove these. And now I can put this right here. Again don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten gets you 10% off of Premium or Premium Plus of Collider. But now I can put that right here. And I can say all right row one. You're going to go first. And then very simply right. Like as I am presenting this sucker, got to get down to it so I can show it to you.

00;13;13;19 - 00;13;42;15
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
But as I'm presenting it, I'll say, all right, row one. Here you go. Or not? Row one. Luke one goes to row one, in fact. Right. And once again, I should have selected hide winner because I can't actually have row one. That's a bummer, I missed out. What am I supposed to do? Well, your purpose in in person can actually hop back over here to edit and just very simply, either hide them and now they're going to be off my wheel or delete them and they're off my wheel either way.

00;13;42;18 - 00;14;01;14
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Now if I hide them right, I can add them back on very simply. If, I delete them, I do have to go back in here and I have to type it all back out and do all that stuff, which as you see, is not that difficult. But it it does take a little bit more of an additional step.

00;14;01;14 - 00;14;21;22
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Now here's the other cool thing. You might be thinking like, I don't I don't want like that background. I want like I want a video background. Great. Check this out. I don't want this background anymore. I go back in here to edit slide. I don't want it going to go over here to my slide settings. And instead of it being an image background, I can do a color background.

00;14;21;22 - 00;14;43;08
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
He's my color options right? Those are all the preloaded ones. Or I can say I want a video background. So I'm going to select video and I want it to be a YouTube embedded video, and I want it to be my video. So we're going to copy and paste that link here, paste embed that YouTube video and boom.

00;14;43;10 - 00;15;00;25
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
And I can put the wheel anywhere that I want. Now keep in mind that when it's a background, you saw it right here. Background videos will loop automatically and they do not play sounds. And so you can pull these directly off of the internet. And this is why I believe every single youth ministry should have a strong digital presence also.

00;15;00;25 - 00;15;21;25
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Hey, why you're here, why don't you go ahead and grab my hybrid strategy guide with a little bit of a different name from this episode that I dropped a little bit over a year ago. So that was idea number three. You can give out passages for the we'll idea number four, I'm actually going to share with those of you that are on my Patreon page.

00;15;21;25 - 00;15;44;13
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Now listen, don't forget that it's only about a dollar a week. And anyone who signs up before December 2nd, 2024 will get an exclusive free piece of merch. So you're going to get a piece of merch that's probably worth like $20. That's gonna like, pay for itself in the first five months. And I'm going to share my fourth favorite way that I

00;15;44;13 - 00;15;49;02
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
customize and use the wheel in my different teachings and in my different presentations.

00;15;49;09 - 00;16;06;08
Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry
Hey, my friends, as always, don't forget if you want to know how to use the name picker that is going to be here in the next episode, if you're watching on YouTube, that'll be right here on screen. Go hop over to Patreon page. But until next time, and as always, my friends stay hybrid.

Episode 124: Truly Interactive Sermons | How I use Sidekick

Nick Clason — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0600

🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
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🖥️ SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
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DESCRIPTION
In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/124

//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
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//COLEADER PRICING
CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10
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//CUSTOM HYBRID COACHING
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//CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU!
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//FINISH THE DRAWING - HELP DERRY BUY PRESENTS!
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Phone Voting in Sidekick
01:53 The Creativity Challenge
02:36 BIG Announcement!!
04:06 Voting During Pre-Roll
07:13 #1 Game Style
09:39 #2 Game Style
12:10 #3 Game Style
15:56 Voting During Sermons
17:29 The Wheel

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Pastor. We all know the struggle that all of us in ministry face with online church and streaming and the tension between will people come and be a part of our church? Or will they just simply listen to us online? I mean, hey, listen, give me a like if anytime in the last week you have listened to another pastor sermon or any podcast of any sort, religion or otherwise, or if you've listened to a worship song on Spotify, Apple Music or on YouTube.

00:00:29:00 - 00:00:51:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, the fact is we live now in a digital world where, content and sermons and music and worship music and all those things are available for our consumption at the touch and at the click of a finger. So how can we utilize technology in your ministry to make your programing in your service a little bit more hybrid?

00:00:51:19 - 00:01:11:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, hybrid I talked about this. It's the intersection of your in-person and your digital right. It's not forsaking one for the other, but it's simply finding a way to intersect them and to meld them together in the two. And we're going to look at my favorite feature in sidekick, which I believe makes you as hybrid as it can get in today's world.

00:01:11:13 - 00:01:31:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you are new to this playlist, we have been simply talking in the playlist linked up right here about different features of sidekick, and in the last video I kind of introduced sidekick and I showed some of the miscellaneous features, but there are three kind of core pillars and core, feature principles about sidekick that are just simply fantastic.

00:01:31:15 - 00:01:51:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the first one is the feature of vote. And you can pull your phone out and you can vote via QR codes. So that is what we're going to talk about today and in this video. But don't forget, if you're over here on YouTube that we do have chapters down at the bottom so that you can skip around, jump around to different sections and elements that pertain the most to you.

00:01:51:13 - 00:02:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I was talking to a friend of mine at a conference of several years back, and who's leading a workshop, and it was so well done and it was so creative. And frankly, it was pre-COVID, but it was before, and I was thinking like, man, this is more than just him getting up and talking. This is him actually engaging and interacting with his audience and drawing them in.

00:02:10:25 - 00:02:31:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I asked him, like, how do you do it? And he said, honestly, I challenged myself to try and use at least once per message, a feature from sidekick that I couldn't use with something simple like a PowerPoint or Pro presenter presentation software. And in our student ministry we have gone all in on sidekick. And so I want to share that with you in this playlist.

00:02:31:05 - 00:02:52:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I also want to let you know that launching on December 2nd, I am going to be launching a bonus weekly podcast simply called like what have I Done this week? And talking about all the ways that our youth ministry is trying to go hybrid, utilize digital, utilize YouTube, utilize sidekick. And so that is linked down below. Or you can scan the QR code that you see here on screen.

00:02:52:27 - 00:03:16:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That is going to give you that bonus weekly podcast. But there's also going to be other perks for Patreon members. And the cost, my friends, it's only a dollar per episode per week. And so jump in on that if you find that helpful. If you're looking to, turn the dial up on your creativity, on your hybrid, on your digital, I just want to simply walk you through what we are doing on a week by week basis.

00:03:16:19 - 00:03:39:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as you hear what I'm doing, hopefully that just gives you other creative ideas and listen. I would love if you then would also shoot back what you're doing, because anytime I hear what someone else is doing, it causes my brain and my juices to get going and get creative. But anyone who signs up before December 2nd, which is the official launch of the Patreon show, will get an exclusive free piece of merch.

00:03:39:04 - 00:03:58:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I will mail it to you and so that will be just my token of appreciation. So literally, that piece of merch will pay for itself for like six months worth of you being signed up for the, hybrid, Patreon experience. And so jump on and honestly, take my money. Can't wait to get you guys going on that.

00:03:58:16 - 00:04:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video, I want to talk about the different areas that you can use the voting in side. So you can include the voting slides in your pre-roll. So for example here on screen you'll see I'm going to click present. And we got a full screen window. And boom we're in our pre-roll slides. And these will rotate if you are not with us.

00:04:18:25 - 00:04:35:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Last video is a rotate every few seconds. We set that up ahead of time. You can go check out how to do that there. Rotating here pretty quickly. You can slow those down, but if you wanted to add here, to that, first of all, you got to get out of your presentation window and you got to end your presentation to make your edit.

00:04:35:09 - 00:04:54:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then right here, if I just wanted to be like, all right, let's include a voting thing here. All you got to do is just click this voting option. Boom. And it kind of overtakes the design of the screen. And while you're here, you could use this example. Which super power would you choose? Or you could say, which kind of coffee shop is best?

00:04:54:20 - 00:05:23:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can get people debating on the old Dunkin versus Starbucks versus, main, what else is out there? Whatever, whatever it is, like your local home town hipster coffee vibe. And then over here, it's, the checkmarks on the side. These are indicating correct answers. So if you don't want there to be a correct answer, even though Dunkin in this particular, case is probably the correct answer, there is no correct answer.

00:05:23:27 - 00:05:42:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then over here you can, you can offer this like, hey, do you want to show the QR code? So sometimes people can, scan it ahead of time and just have it on their phone, and their phone becomes like a game remote, or you can leave it being shown here on screen. You can indicate and show the live results.

00:05:42:04 - 00:05:59:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can also reorder the, the votes like, the as the votes are coming in, whichever one's highest, we'll, we'll kind of jump to the top. You can either leave that or not. And then down here in the advanced settings, if you do have a correct answer, this this text here will be displayed on screen about whether it was correct or whether it wasn't.

00:05:59:18 - 00:06:18:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so now if we look back over here at our pre-roll slides, if we get this presentation up and going, we're going to make it a little smaller. So you just pretend that this little, window here is like your, it's your it's your your your screen. Right. It's your, projector screen. You drag this over or whatever.

00:06:18:21 - 00:06:38:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So now it's rotating through. Rotating through. Boom. Here's a poll question. You can engage and hybridize and interact with your audience during your pre-roll session there. So that's one of my favorite ways to use it. I have a poll question of every single week during our pre-roll. The the hack to that is you do got to keep the slides.

00:06:38:11 - 00:06:44:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They can't be going this fast. I make mine a 14 second rotation that gives people enough

00:06:44:07 - 00:06:59:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
time to read the question, realize it, go scan it and vote and maybe get it in. Because once this q QR code is off the screen, voting is closed. And so once it goes to the next slide, they can't vote anymore. So they kind of got to wait for it to rotate back around.

00:06:59:15 - 00:07:22:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Sometimes if I noticed people trying to do it though, what I will do is I will pull my phone up and I will just go back using the the phone remote kind of feature. Right. So that's one way that you can utilize and use it in your ministry. The pre-roll, voting option. You can also use it probably most commonly, probably the ways that we think about the most is with your games.

00:07:22:29 - 00:07:38:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so, I told you in the last video of our playlist linked right up here, if I haven't already done that. I have already done that. If you're watching here on YouTube, when you buy a game, you can, bring it in. And so we bought this game, finished the drawing in our youth ministry by my friend Derek.

00:07:38:26 - 00:07:55:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Print it. I'll drop the link to that game down below in the show notes. Go buy it, hook his family up, give him some royalties. He needs Christmas presents. But, this is what it looks like when I import it in. And so in this particular game, what you would do is I'll go ahead and show it to you here on screen.

00:07:55:26 - 00:08:17:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What you would do is you would, put one of these slides up. And a student would then have to finish the the drawing of this bus. Okay. So the way that we utilize this in our ministry was we actually probably use random name generator, which is going to be coming up here in one of these future videos.

00:08:17:11 - 00:08:38:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Put some students up on stage. We got four different students. And so then, we gave them this picture. We gave them a minute countdown timer on the screen, and then they drew they finished the drawing. Now, then we used a camera. We just plugged it in via our stage, portal. We use our video switcher and we switch to the camera view.

00:08:38:09 - 00:08:58:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that up on the screen, everyone could see the finished drawing. So all four contestants were holding their drawing up. And then we said, scan this QR code. And so students would scan the QR code. Once they scanned it, once it was on their phone for good and they could vote. Whoo hoo! One person, one person, two person to person four.

00:08:58:27 - 00:09:28:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Based on that, that was a winner. You can utilize this for anything that has a subjective winner, right? Like, who do you think won this person? This person. You draw something, you build a sculpture you like, who was the loudest. You can vote it right. And once you get that QR code shown on screen and there's another thing you know, it's showing right here, or you click this little button down here in the sidekick window, show QR code and look, it makes it full and big and so everyone can gain access to it, no matter how big or how far away they are from the screen.

00:09:28:15 - 00:09:53:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Sometimes you kind of got to zoom in with your phone and stuff like that. So we use that to then kind of declare a winner. All right. Another game option. I want to show you this one that is, sitting in here if you already, a member or a subscriber of sidekick, which if you're not, let me remind you that for my podcast listeners only, you can try out co-leader, which will be what gives you access to sidekick is a presentation software.

00:09:53:29 - 00:10:19:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you have never signed up for anything on game before by using the code Hybrid Ministry ten, and you can get an access to Premium or Premium Plus of Collider. I will put the link down below at sidekick.tv/pricing for you to compare the differences, but they'll give you either 260 Collider credits versus 520 Collider credits, along with either 25 or 75 sidekick phone voting connections.

00:10:19:13 - 00:10:36:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go check that out if that's something that you want to do, that's something that you want to learn. But if you sign up and you are a member, then in your completely free section here, I'm going to end this thing so that I can edit again. Right? So you'll notice controls change a little bit, but it's free thing.

00:10:36:18 - 00:10:56:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's a game, that Josh Griffin did over at Mariner's called Zombie Apocalypse. So I hit that and, I imported it. And so here's what it is. So this is the instructions given to us by the sidekick team. It says, hey, watch Josh play this game and how he use it. Here's the instructions. Here's his supply list here to do all this thing.

00:10:56:26 - 00:11:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But so if we just ran this, this is another way to utilize the voting and play game. Make this small so that we can we can see everything. But. So here we are. We're playing this zombie apocalypse apocalypse game. And, you got the the plot and all these things, and this is like super next level, right?

00:11:16:25 - 00:11:37:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this question here is which weapon will you choose? You let the students decide if they want a hammer, a lightsaber, a rubber chicken or the impossible shot bow. Okay. And then here it is. Boom. Zombie approach is good news. Live separation and anxiety and will only go to one area at a time. And one big group of survivors should split up to have a better chance of survival.

00:11:37:14 - 00:11:59:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Each one has an either A, the baptismal, the tech booth, the playground, or the welcome booth. And then you let them vote, okay, crowd votes. And then, on one area, it kills the contestants who are there in that area. Then here's some more instructions. And they even incorporated the wheel. And so as you go through this is a a choose your own kind of adventure of a game.

00:11:59:02 - 00:12:17:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's another really fun, really creative way to use and utilize sidekick to your advantage. And then there's one last way that I want to show you. And I'll go ahead I'll get it presented once again. And this is with, another game that's free in the free section, if you sign up again, don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten.

00:12:17:05 - 00:12:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's called Where's the ball. And so in this particular game, this is the example of what I was kind of saying earlier about you can use your phone as a remote. And so this game is it got a right and wrong answer to it. Right. So like the the other ones were like more subjective. What do you think.

00:12:32:21 - 00:12:52:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What do you think this one is like? Here's a question. Here's the right answer. And so in this one your question that you must decide is is it a or is it be all right. And like I said in this particular case, you got to get that QR code live so that everyone can scan it on their phones, scans, skin scan, and then their phone becomes a remote.

00:12:52:18 - 00:13:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so now the question on their phone, A or B, their phone as they're holding it, it says is it A or is it B they vote I in the booth or your booth person clicks right here, this end voting thing. And then when you click reveal correct answer, it shows the slide with the correct answer. And then it also reveals it on everyone's phones at the same time.

00:13:12:19 - 00:13:28:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. It's pretty cool. Here we go to the next one. This is which of these pickleball, balls is the correct answer? They would vote A, B, C, or D, you'd end the voting, you'd reveal the correct answer. And of course, the answer is a the phone would say correct. If they got it wrong, it would say incorrect or whatever.

00:13:28:26 - 00:13:46:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You said the advanced settings to be ahead of time. And I can show you how that works, because this one is a little bit more tricky to actually set up. You don't just simply click right like in this one right here. If I added a new slide and I wanted them to vote on who's the drawing, I simply click voting and then boom, I right I right to answer like who won?

00:13:46:27 - 00:14:02:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I go down here and I do, you know, one, two three, four I unchecked the winner and we're off to the races and where's the ball. Like I said it's a little bit more intricate. So let me show you how it works. So you click edit Slide and this is voting right. So I clicked on that, I clicked Edit voting.

00:14:02:19 - 00:14:24:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if it weren't there I would turn into voting. And right here at the top you got this little toggle switch that says, is this an image based question when it's not now it went away. When I turn it back on, it's this image based question. So like I said, question side answer slide. And so if I remove this you'll see that I can upload the question slide.

00:14:24:05 - 00:14:42:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I can upload the answer slide. Now if you're just getting this free where's the ball. It's already included in sidekick. Go get it. Go play it. It's super fun. But if you're creating it yourself, you'll have to upload this from somewhere just on your computer, right? And you also upload the answer and then you're going to correct or select which answer is truly correct.

00:14:43:03 - 00:14:58:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then down here in the advanced settings you can either say correct or you can say sorry, or you can flame them like you're an idiot. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that if you want to keep your job, but hey, go for it. It's up to you, right? You can also add right? So here's where you would add or subtract answers.

00:14:58:01 - 00:15:13:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if there's three multiple choice or four multiple choice, or if you need to take one away and make it three again, that's where you do that. And then you just simply click which of the answers is correct. This is one of my favorite ways. We did this one time and again. This is the type of stuff you get on the Patreon.

00:15:14:00 - 00:15:28:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'll share this idea and maybe you can use it. We did like a pet day. We were celebrating National Kitten Day, and we had people texting via our text groups to this picture of your pet, and then we put pictures of pets on screens. Then we said, who do you think? Whose pet do you think this is?

00:15:28:17 - 00:15:46:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is it you know Jake's? Is it Brie's? Is it Adam's or is it, Gracie's? And then they would just vote, like, it was a fun way to use our students and to get them and let them be kind of the heroes and the superstars of our day and of our our game. And so that was a fun way.

00:15:46:09 - 00:16:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we used this image based question kind of voting option here on sidekick. The last way, of course, that you can use it is very obviously in your messages. And so once again, this is an example of what I'll be going on going on over in our Patreon. But in this particular week, actually tonight I'm preaching on, masks, and I got just a couple of different questions, on that, I'm talking about being judgmental.

00:16:15:22 - 00:16:33:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, in that I'm asking questions like, you know, are you ever judgmental? Yes or no? Scan it and let me know. Another one I'm using, like, hey, so, finish the phrase sticks and stones. What? And then I put a bunch of different ridiculous answers. And of course, the answer's six. And stones may break my bones.

00:16:33:04 - 00:16:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But words will never hurt. Give me a like if you knew that. Because, that means you're old, like me, and you're, in your 30s as a youth pastor. Give me a sub. If not, because that means that you're younger and that means that you're actually on YouTube. And so give me subs so that you will see some of these future videos.

00:16:48:02 - 00:17:08:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the point is, previously before sidekick, I would just say raise your hand if you know what this phrase means. Sticks and stones may break my bones, and that's an engagement. But now, in a way, to go hybrid, taking my in-person and my digital and putting at the intersection of my students phones, I say, hey, scan this QR code and finish this phrase.

00:17:08:09 - 00:17:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And again, like my friend Anthony said back at that conference, I challenged myself to try and use sidekick in my message as I create at least one time per week. And so voting is a fantastic way to to utilize that and to use that. Now the another really fun custom way that sidekick, has to offer this was just voting.

00:17:30:13 - 00:17:48:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The last video was just some of its miscellaneous features. The next video, which is going to be linked right here on screen. You can see it if you're watching on YouTube. Go ahead and tap that and go check that out. Is the random wheel and how you can customize it and generate it with customized, sounds and punishments and all sorts of different things.

00:17:48:09 - 00:18:06:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I want to chat through different creative ways. You can use that, perhaps in pre-roll and games, in messages and announcements, all sorts of different ways. I can't wait for you to see that. I hope that this helps you and your youth. Minutes to become more engaging, more interactive. Don't forget that's all at the Patreon is going to be about.

00:18:06:17 - 00:18:10:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But as always, don't forget my friends to stay hybrid.

Episode 110: Distractions During Youth Group: The Solution

Nick Clason — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0500

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

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💥[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching💥

https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

======================================
DESCRIPTION
What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?!
It seems like it's getting worse and worse!

Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it!

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110

//CO-LEADER CURRICULUM
https://www.coleader.co/

//SIDEKICK
https://sidekick.tv/

//JOSH ON DYM
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/

//SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST
https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests

//JOSH ON SOCIAL
https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman
https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/
https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman
https://x.com/joshboldman

👉 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

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!
🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
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

AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now
04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry
09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features
13:50 What's next for Sidekick?
17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are
19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are
30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry
--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04
Nick Clason
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro?

00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07
Josh Boldman
I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on

Nick Clason
the long awaited Josh Boldman interview.

Josh Boldman
Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear.

Nick Clason
Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something.

Josh Boldman
So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting.

00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12
Nick Clason
Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today?

Josh Boldman
Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family.

00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17
Josh Boldman
I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it.

00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18
Josh Boldman
but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place.

00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24
Josh Boldman
Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM.

00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11
Josh Boldman
And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward.

00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12
Nick Clason
And it it worked nice.

Josh Boldman
Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either?

00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27
Josh Boldman
No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app.

00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26
Josh Boldman
Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this.

00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28
Nick Clason
Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so.

00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10
Nick Clason
Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter.

00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19
Nick Clason
Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid.

Josh Boldman
So they don't practice is what you're telling me.

Nick Clason
Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher.

00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04
Josh Boldman
And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either.

00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06
Nick Clason
Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of.

00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background.

00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know?

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24
Josh Boldman
You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry.

00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13
Josh Boldman
The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible.

00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17
Josh Boldman
And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time.

00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23
Josh Boldman
I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14
Josh Boldman
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible?

00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01
Josh Boldman
So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both.

00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11
Josh Boldman
Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right.

00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11
Josh Boldman
Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas.

00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11
Josh Boldman
And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there.

00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18
Josh Boldman
It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote.

00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19
Josh Boldman
That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen.

00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09
Josh Boldman
you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do.

00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24
Josh Boldman
You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while.

00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12
Josh Boldman
I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time.

00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01
Josh Boldman
And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important.

00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25
Josh Boldman
However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad.

00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09
Nick Clason
And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15
Josh Boldman
and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art.

00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09
Josh Boldman
And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel.

00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24
Josh Boldman
Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it.

00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03
Josh Boldman
And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels.

00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10
Josh Boldman
We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better.

00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21
Josh Boldman
And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming.

00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27
Josh Boldman
It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next.

00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15
Josh Boldman
yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry.

00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05
Josh Boldman
If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game.

00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05
Josh Boldman
And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will.

00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28
Josh Boldman
I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something.

00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23
Josh Boldman
Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff.

00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07
Nick Clason
Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture.

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28
Nick Clason
Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen.

00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26
Nick Clason
We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money.

00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09
Nick Clason
As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes.

00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04
Nick Clason
Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things.

Josh Boldman
I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right?

00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07
Josh Boldman
Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball.

00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28
Josh Boldman
We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone.

00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09
Josh Boldman
I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it.

00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16
Josh Boldman
so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp?

00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04
Nick Clason
I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them.

00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10
Josh Boldman
Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone.

00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02
Josh Boldman
What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is

00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24
Josh Boldman
mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything.

00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12
Nick Clason
Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool?

00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12
Josh Boldman
It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care.

00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02
Nick Clason
You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right?

00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11
Josh Boldman
Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one.

00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15
Josh Boldman
Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat.

00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17
Josh Boldman
Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it.

00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22
Josh Boldman
Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard?

00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26
Josh Boldman
can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great.

00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20
Josh Boldman
Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there.

00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11
Josh Boldman
yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now.

00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09
Josh Boldman
But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in.

00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03
Josh Boldman
we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that.

00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01
Nick Clason
But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas.

00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00
Nick Clason
And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic.

00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08
Nick Clason
And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off.

00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12
Josh Boldman
That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes.

00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00
Josh Boldman
There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers.

00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20
Nick Clason
Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be.

00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17
Nick Clason
It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts.

00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09
Nick Clason
Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there?

Josh Boldman
Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion.

00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22
Josh Boldman
And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight.

00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12
Josh Boldman
And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else.

00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02
Josh Boldman
because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes.

00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01
Josh Boldman
I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing.

00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22
Josh Boldman
Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question.

00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01
Josh Boldman
Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful.

00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19
Josh Boldman
but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future.

00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17
Josh Boldman
So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like.

00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20
Nick Clason
Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know?

00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15
Josh Boldman
And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends.