web02.fireside.fm Fri, 01 May 2026 22:48:19 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with โ€œPastoral Careโ€ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/pastoral%20care Thu, 10 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick en-us episodic Digital Discipleship made easy Nick Clason Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick no Digital, Online Church, Hybrid Ministry, Church, Meta, Gen Z, Millennials, Digital Marketing, Church Marketing, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Nick Clason, Digital Ministry, Church Social Media, Youth Ministry Social Media, YouTube for Church, YouTube for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Churches, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Instagram for Churches, Instagram for Youth Ministry, Facebook for Church, Facebook for Youth Ministry, Cell Phone Usage at Church Nick Clason nickclason@hybridministry.xyz Episode 144: How I Recruit Awesome Youth Volunteers that Stick https://www.hybridministry.xyz/144 374542ec-2ab7-46f0-b63a-8655f78e99ad Thu, 10 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 144 How I Recruit Awesome Youth Volunteers that Stick full Nick Clason In this episode, Nick sits down with one of his best friends, and also, boss, and they discuss volunteer, not only recruiting, but also how to create such a strong volunteer team that volunteers would never choose to leave your team. Be sure to stick around for the surprising strategy that actually keeps volunteers on the team longer! 36:30 no In this episode, Nick sits down with one of his best friends, and also, boss, and they discuss volunteer, not only recruiting, but also how to create such a strong volunteer team that volunteers would never choose to leave your team. Be sure to stick around for the surprising strategy that actually keeps volunteers on the team longer! ๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book โœ… CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/144 LINKS EVERYONEโ€™S CALLED TO YOUTH MINISTRY, THEY JUST DONโ€™T KNOW IT YET https://www.leadertreks.org/product/everyones-called-to-youth-ministry/?srsltid=AfmBOopjL0EcxJ7aqwuXWiyd0z77tkUIsMPqfIA4dgVOHCPIIdNg32GE //CONNECT WITH DARREN https://www.facebook.com/darrensutton.mi https://www.instagram.com/veteranyp/ ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Meet My Boss & Friend, Darren Sutton 01:02 35 Years in 35 Seconds 04:10 Shocking Bar Raising Leader Strategy 05:33 What if Leaders Donโ€™t Respond? 07:56 Start Recruiting Leaders from Scratch 19:33 How do you keep good leaders? 21:57 Conducting Leader Debriefs 25:45 A Complete List of Roles 31:20 Final Encouragement -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:01.036) We've recorded so many podcasts together. I don't even know how I feel like we're supposed to Well, everyone here we are. I am with my boss, Darren Sutton, who has his youth ministry till I die shirt on, which I was wearing yesterday. So I'm glad that we coordinated this. But I wanted to get on here and I've been working for Darren now for five years, two different places. Darren Sutton (00:04.982) Welcome back. Darren Sutton (00:20.691) Thank you. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.72) And aside from having written a book, I would also say practically speaking, Darren has a lot to say about volunteers. But Darren, first, tell us a brief overview. Distill your 35-year youth ministry journey down to 35 seconds. But why in that did volunteers become such a thing for you? Darren Sutton (00:53.484) Yeah, I don't know if I can say that in 35 seconds, but I will say this. I was pretty much the Lone Ranger youth pastor who would just grab chaperones when I was absolutely desperate for adults to be in the room or whatever. I would have adults lead Bible study classes and go to summer camp with me and the stuff where you know you can't do everything, so you have them there. But I didn't realize the... extent of needing people to carry the mission forward and to lean into their own calling until I was about maybe 10 years in and we were having our yeah we were having our third baby and my lead volunteer was like I can't do this and you need you need more people you're not doing this right so my wife basically was like listen you're you are Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:32.354) Did something happen? Darren Sutton (01:48.29) fantastic and you have lots of adult leaders, but you're not equipping them for ministry. You're just having them hold down the pieces that you can't hold down and they have more to offer than that. And you're not, you're not giving them, you know, the runway to do that. And that changed everything. It totally transformed my whole philosophy about why we use volunteers and how we keep them and why that matters. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:57.676) Mmm. Mmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:03.98) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:16.982) Okay, so yeah, so like I would imagine that, you know, average youth pastor listening is like, you know, they have that mentality, right? The volunteers are a necessary like evil, I don't wanna say, you know, but like they just, know they have to have them. There you go. They're a necessary component, but maybe like, maybe they don't even know what to do with them. Darren Sutton (02:36.088) Component. Let's go with component. They're necessary component. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:46.028) You know what mean? like that, would imagine maybe some of that was your story too. Like maybe control a little bit, but also like, what do I even do with these guys? So yeah, so how did you, before we dive into kind of the recruiting conversation, how did you mentally release yourself and be able to trust that you could actually hand off like meaningful things to said volunteer? Darren Sutton (02:53.294) You worked for me, you know part of it was control. Darren Sutton (03:13.89) Yeah, great question. This, I mean, you know, this is gonna sound like a no brainer, but 25 years ago it wasn't. I started writing job descriptions and I just sat down and said, okay, if I was handing off deeper parts of this, or if the people who were already serving were gonna own it the way I wanted them to. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:23.96) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:35.0) Yeah. Darren Sutton (03:37.58) What did I want that to look like? Like, what did I want them to do? Part of the struggle is that I wasn't recruiting them to anything other than filling the spot and hanging out with kids. And so if I wanted them to be at football games and, you know, choir performances, and if I wanted them to be writing cards to kids who weren't there, and if I wanted them to be reaching out to parents on the regular and all that, I needed to spell that out, and I hadn't done that. And so I was doing all that part, and they were just showing up. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:46.978) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:01.261) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:05.622) Yeah. Darren Sutton (04:05.866) And as soon as I kind of raised the bar and said, here's what I really need you to be doing in this role. If you love Jesus and love students and you want to make an eternal impact, it looks like this. It changed everything. So job descriptions were my number one thing. And again, that sounds a little bit like a no brainer now, I think for a lot of people, but we weren't doing that back then. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:25.962) Yeah. So and then they did they did race to the challenge, right? Were you nervous that they wouldn't or couldn't or didn't have the time to or was there any of that? Darren Sutton (04:31.902) yeah. Yeah. Darren Sutton (04:37.71) You know, I don't remember being nervous about it as much as I was just, was at a point in my ministry and in my family life where I was like, they have to do this. You know, so it never dawned on me, I think, and also young and arrogant. Like it never dawned on me that anybody would say, I don't want to do that. And to their credit, nobody did. Like everybody rose to the challenge. And I really think that Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:56.802) Sure. Darren Sutton (05:07.32) we sell the body of Christ, not volunteers, they're the body. We sell the body short when we assume that they won't invest more. Give them a chance to show you that, right? And if they do, then you know, like they might be better suited for a different role in your ministry, but this role with the job description as it's written, they're just not good for that. And it also gives you a great entry point for a conversation when you do need a leader to level up. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:18.348) Hmm. Yeah, that's good. Darren Sutton (05:37.078) to say like, listen, here's what we signed on for. Help me understand what's a struggle for you in this. Because it seems like these components aren't happening. And I'm just wondering, is that because you're unsure of what to do? Is that because you don't want to do that? You've had bad success with it? Like, help, teach me. Teach me what this, you know, where the holes are here. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:41.944) Hmm Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:56.672) Mm, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:00.844) But then you have, like you said, have teeth, right, a little bit to go back if volunteer's not performing and there's nothing more awkward than trying to fire someone who's not getting paid. So. Darren Sutton (06:04.152) Yeah. Darren Sutton (06:10.798) I'm sure. Helping them find their fit in the body of Christ. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:17.46) Yep. So, okay, so aside from, you know, someone just buying your book, which is linked down below in the description, obviously. Darren Sutton (06:25.514) hey, thanks. I don't even know if I have a link to my book. Yeah, probably. Maybe the three people who bought it are done with it. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:27.956) Yeah, well, we'll scrounge it up. It's on eBay or something. What? So if you're if someone's just, know, regular old youth pastor and they're like, just like, OK, I hear you. Yeah, I'm doing too much. I'm spinning my wheels. Job description, maybe step one. Step two. Let's talk recruiting like because you. you may not even have any leaders to write a job description for. So help someone start. Just rattle off the best recruiting strategies, methods, ideas, and I'll take notes for our own ministry as we're trying to also recruit some people. Darren Sutton (07:00.908) Yeah. Darren Sutton (07:08.172) Yeah. because there are always holes. Well, where I started was I'm not a big fan of cattle calls from the pulpit or anything like that. Yeah, that's a struggle. Yeah, or you don't get anybody because nobody listens during announcements. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:21.686) Yeah, the youth need volunteers. You're gonna get weirdos. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:29.047) Yeah. Well, it's a plural you, right? So it's like, you all interested? And so the individual you assumes one of the other ones is gonna take it and they're off the hook. Darren Sutton (07:36.118) Yes, exactly. So let me tell you guys, so here's what I did, Nick. Like I, you're right. The individual ask is everything. And I don't mean a fly by, you know, I don't mean a fly by conversation in the hallway on your way to the bathroom. I mean a sit down, real talk. but it takes a minute to get to that, right? Especially if you don't know everybody in our current context, the student ministry is literally a across a creek from the rest of the building and so. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:07.372) Yeah. It's one of the most distant locations I've ever served and I would imagine the same for you. So us being a part of the rest of the life of the church, we have to be incredibly intentional to overcome that for sure. Darren Sutton (08:16.588) Yeah, for sure. Darren Sutton (08:22.27) Exactly. And that's true everywhere, especially if your facility or the space that you occupy is siloed from the rest of the church. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:31.372) Yeah, because it's great to have the youth space, but that their inherent challenge of that is you're in the youth space and not, yeah. Darren Sutton (08:37.132) Yeah, it's a youth space. Yeah, it's a youth space. So if you're not a youth, you're not in it. So, yeah, the first thing I did was I went to my senior pastor and said, our students need more visibility. And, you know, in in that church, like where this whole philosophy of how I handle volunteers was born, my space was was attached, but it was up and to the back on a second floor in the far corner of the property. Right. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:50.253) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:06.06) Yeah, so was separated. Darren Sutton (09:07.362) Yeah, exactly. Like you would see kids coming down from the upstairs and be like, my gosh, I'm glad I'm not serving up there. And that was it. So we started using students to take the offering, serve communion, do greeting. And I just, you know, kind of poached a dozen of my highest capacity students and said, let's help the church understand why youth ministry matters. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.334) Right? Yeah, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:31.405) Mm. Darren Sutton (09:31.854) And that didn't require them to be on the platform. We did have some on the platform. We had some students doing worship. We would occasionally do a youth night or youth day at church where students would speak and, or I would speak and all of that. starting there was actually the most critical, I think, the most critical component because people started seeing teenagers. And it's a little bit like, you know, trying to acclimate people to wild animals. Like you got to get them a little bit close while they're in a cage and then you stick a little, you stick your hand in the cage and then you're in the cage, you know? And so that was the start of it. Also helping my senior pastor catch the vision that student ministry is not babysitting. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:07.682) Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:18.04) Yeah, how do, can you talk about that for just a quick second? how do, I would imagine, you someone might be listening and they're like, oh yeah, I love that, but I'm either A, getting or I'm anticipating that I would get pushback. How do you lead up in that? Darren Sutton (10:32.994) Well, if you're anticipating, stop doing that. Like give them a chance to say, you're a babysitter. But also I think storytelling is the most critical component. We had this kid come in, let me tell you this story about this student who shared their faith at school and not necessarily about what student ministry is doing in the building, but what student ministry is doing outside of the building. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:35.992) That's good, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:41.105) Heh. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:51.405) Hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:59.608) That's good. Darren Sutton (11:00.908) you know, was super helpful. It also helped that I had a very open senior pastor. You know what? I didn't turn my phone off. Sorry, Nick. You probably couldn't hear that, but I could. Okay, sorry. Are you editing this? I'm assuming you edit. All right, I'm gonna go back then. It didn't hurt that I had just a really open senior pastor. I think he hired me with the babysitting mindset, but it didn't take him long to see that student mystery could be way more than that. So I was fortunate in that way. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:11.224) That's good. No, I heard it. It was great. It was a great sound. I mean, I will, yeah. Yeah, okay. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:34.548) Mm. Yeah, that's good. Darren Sutton (11:36.3) So once we had students kind of operating around the building, it made it way easier for me to go up to randos and say, hey, so and so told me you'd be great. Or I'm gonna out myself with some really shallow things. I'm just gonna say. So if we were in worship and I saw folks who I felt like were truly connecting with worship. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:52.856) lol Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:04.663) Yeah. Darren Sutton (12:05.132) That mattered to me, not because we had a worship ministry, but because I felt like those people were intentionally trying to connect with the heart of God when we were doing, you know, church. And so I just started introducing myself and doing a slow kind of a slow ask. Some might call it chess, where I would, I know you would, you know, where I would just go introduce myself. I'm a student pastor. Hey, just, you know, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:07.703) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:12.354) Hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:24.472) I would call it chest. Darren Sutton (12:32.429) appreciated your investment in church today or whatever. And then a of weeks later, I asked them how they were doing. Like I would start trying to build a relationship knowing that my end game, which didn't always work out, but my end game was to get them involved in students. The Lord might've had a different end game and sometimes he did, but I did that. I made sure that this was easier. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:57.282) So this is everyone's permission to keep your eyes open during worship. Darren Sutton (13:01.228) Yeah, 100 % 100%. And you know, not to say that hands raised means anything because it doesn't, but I looked at people and went, look, their hands up. They're volunteering. Another thing that was again, a little easier in the context I was in, I got involved in a in a connect group and a life group Sunday school class, whatever your know, whatever your church calls it. And while Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:07.884) Yeah, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:11.584) you Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:22.614) Yeah, A D group. I wanted to keep rattling them off but my brain went completely dead. Darren Sutton (13:31.534) While that didn't, I wasn't necessarily pulling people from that group. That group of all kind of young parents, it was early in our ministry, like they were the movers and shakers in our church. And so they were talking up the student ministry. I was able to talk it up in my small group. And then the last thing I did was done a little bit because I... Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:47.949) Yeah. Darren Sutton (13:59.936) you know, because I just felt stubborn about it. We had a set of senior adults in our church who were fantastic. I mean, you know, they did everything. They did all the serving. We had a Wednesday night meal. This is a long time ago. We a Wednesday night meal and they cooked the meal and they ran the kitchen and they just did everything. And I intentionally started developing relationships with those ladies. and started trying to get them involved in doing some things. And I have always kind of felt like senior adults make some really great student ministers. And so I was intentionally going after them and there was a lady, her name was Belle. Belle was a little bit of your typical cranky church lady. And I said something about, you know, being involved in student ministry or whatever. And she was like, I'll never work with students. And I just went. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:35.028) Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Darren Sutton (14:55.148) before I die, you will, whatever it takes. And so a little bit, I would target people, I think that way. don't, target's probably not the right word, but I would just, I would set my sight on somebody that I really wanted and I just kind of wouldn't let it go. Didn't harass. Sometimes that took a long time. It took me maybe like three-ish or four years before I finally got Bell to start something in students. And by the time we were, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:04.152) lol Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:09.089) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:22.861) Yeah. Darren Sutton (15:24.84) She was all in like she was hosting D nows at her house and you know all kinds of stuff. So I just think that it is not being afraid to ask, making sure that your students are visible so that people know that teenagers don't bite. They're not scary and then not counting anybody out. I mean from from 21 we are our age range started at 21. We wanted to give kids some separation from student ministry, but from 21 to death. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:28.258) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:36.482) Mm-hmm. Darren Sutton (15:54.208) It didn't matter who you were, parent, not a parent, old lady, college student. Like we would go after everybody and did. just never, I never met a person that I didn't think was called. And you know, my dad, yeah, I think there was a book title and a full philosophy. And I just wouldn't, I mean, I took no for an answer. I didn't try to get people to serve who didn't really didn't want to. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:54.242) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:02.476) Yeah, that's good. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:08.29) Some might say there's a book title in that. Darren Sutton (16:23.148) but I wouldn't take no as the first answer. So Belle said no and I was like, well, will you make sandwiches for Wednesday night? We didn't need sandwiches for Wednesday night. We already have Wednesday night supper, but she did it. You know what I'm saying? She started there. And then I would get some of those key students and say, hey, you guys make sure and thank Ms. Belle for these sandwiches. so, you know. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:33.431) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:43.032) Well, and I think there's a, probably a principle in there of like, if you only ever like recruit to the need, then when the need is great, then your anxiety is high because you have like a lot of, a lot of need and a lot of holes to fill. But if you're always have your eye on this sort of like recruiting or onboarding mindset, even if you are onboarding them and there's nowhere to put them, like it's better. Darren Sutton (17:10.733) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:12.044) to have an overabundance, a wealth of riches, than to just be like, well, I'm fully staffed, quote unquote, right now. But in a few months you might not be, and then again, you're like, man, I'm failing again. So I think the good principle is for anyone in youth ministry who feels like they're struggling with volunteers, just start asking people and keep asking them. Darren Sutton (17:14.091) percent. Darren Sutton (17:35.852) never, it didn't matter how full I was, I never told somebody no. And in that church specifically, and in several of my churches, like I would have every spot full and I would be creating roles because I just wanted to make sure that people who wanted to be involved in the next generation could be. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:40.087) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:47.928) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:54.7) Yeah. Darren Sutton (17:54.894) And I tried really hard to not enlist them to a position, but to enlist them to a vision, to a purpose and what their life could mean, even if all they were doing is making sandwiches. And sometimes that's what it was, right? I don't have a spot for this person, but hey, could you go shopping for me on Tuesday? I would find things for them to do so I didn't have to tell them no. Because you might be fully staffed today and tomorrow, you know, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:02.102) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:10.828) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:20.342) Yeah. Darren Sutton (18:24.848) your leader has a parent who has to move in with them and their whole life changes and they need to step out. So I never counted on being fully staffed. And when I was fully staffed, I felt like I was always kind of back filling with the people who were the next to step in. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:41.58) Yeah. So that's a flex, being fully staffed or being so staffed that you have volunteers that you're just like making stuff up. So that leads to like, in my opinion, the next sort of like big bucket of this conversation is like, how do you, how do you keep good leaders so that they don't dip out on you? Darren Sutton (18:51.255) Yeah. Darren Sutton (19:03.405) Yeah. Yeah, 100%. You know, I think this just happened because a little bit it's my personality bit. I wasn't being intentional about this. I just felt like, you know, as I knew that volunteers were important and that part of my job was shepherding them and it wasn't just about hanging out with the kids and you know, all of that. So I was very... Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:15.512) You Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:26.306) Right. Darren Sutton (19:32.066) what's the right word? Pastoral is the only word I can think of. I knew my job was to shepherd them. It wasn't just to enlist them and get them sitting in front of teenagers, it was to help them along. So, you know, I... Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:39.159) Yeah. Darren Sutton (19:48.148) I'm pretty good at sending notes of appreciation and not generic notes. Hey, I saw you talking to this kid. Hey, I heard a parent say this about you. Hey, you know, so that they would know that what they were doing was being seen. And I think that's a piece of it. know, gift cards go a long way, even if it's five bucks to Starbucks, because we all know five bucks isn't going to buy anything at Starbucks. But it's not that it's not that it is. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:01.826) yeah Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:15.625) Mm-hmm. Darren Sutton (20:15.936) it is noticing them that matters, right? I was a little bit of a bulldog, absolutely insistent on leader training. Not necessarily to make them better, but to make them better, but more to build community among our leaders so that they didn't want to leave. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:24.971) Hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:33.048) Mm. Darren Sutton (20:36.91) Often volunteers who serve in students sacrifice a community group of some sort in order to serve so they don't have that. And a lot of times when they don't have that or they don't sense the feel of community, they'll dip so they can go be in their own Sunday school class or, you know, life group or whatever it is. And so I even though we weren't that we weren't doing Bible studies together every week, I wanted them to feel like, man, if something happens, my student Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:43.052) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:55.607) Yeah. Darren Sutton (21:07.044) team has my back and so and you know this because you work with me I'm pretty intentional still to this day about making sure that those leader training times are as much about building community and connection as they are about becoming a better you know volunteer. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:08.152) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:19.544) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:23.041) Yeah, for sure. Darren Sutton (21:24.416) And then I'm a big fan of not recruiting people until death. So we actually recruit to a cycle. So we're gonna ask you to step in here and we're gonna ask you to go until this point. And then if you wanna step out, we'll embrace you and be sad when you go, most of you. You you occasionally have that one leader where that ending date really helps you. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:37.536) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:43.606) Yeah. Darren Sutton (21:49.966) what you said earlier, like kind of helps you fire somebody. Like, hey, it's coming to the end of your term, thanks so much. Like, here's a Sunday school class for you to go to, you know, whatever. But largely, it was an opportunity for me to be more mindful and intentional about recruiting division. So if they didn't hear it any other time, once a year in the kind of re-recruiting phase, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:53.431) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:56.856) Yeah Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:07.233) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:16.823) Yeah. Darren Sutton (22:17.33) They were going to be reminded of what they were doing. It was an opportunity for me to say, tell me, tell me what to struggle. What? How can I help you? Do you still love this role? Is there another role that you've seen other people performing in that you would like to try out? Would you so they don't feel like, hey man, if I say yes to leading this, you know, home group, I'm going to be leading it until I die. Yeah, exactly. You know. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:26.295) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:31.894) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:38.018) I'm stuck for life, yeah. But I think that might give some youth pastors listening hives, because they're already feeling strapped with leaders, and then they get good ones and they're like, wait, you give them an end date? And the irony in that is that doing that, again, I won't put words in your mouth, but doing that helps them feel like seen and appreciated and that you value them. so rather than them leaving at the end of the term, Darren Sutton (22:55.148) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:11.562) they like immediately re-up and come back. Darren Sutton (23:13.612) Yeah, yeah. And the truth is when you're when you have equipped them well, they know what their mission is. They feel supported by their community. They don't want to leave. We we in all kinds of different ways for the last 25 years, I've tried to give my volunteers breaks, whether that was a bucket of time like, hey, everybody's off in the summer and we'll take care of it. Or, know, what we currently do is Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:32.311) Mm. Darren Sutton (23:40.672) a day off about every six-ish weeks where we just say to our volunteers, don't come, the student ministry's got it, students got it, you know, whatever. Giving them those moments basically to come up for air helps them stay in the water a lot longer. So yeah, we do give an end date, but I have only had a few people take advantage of that. And when they have, it's never been because they didn't want to do student ministry anymore. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:44.343) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:54.413) Yeah. Hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:09.89) Right. Darren Sutton (24:10.228) It's always been because my life circumstances have changed and I need a break. And, you know, the other piece of that that is helpful is when life circumstances do change, most of them won't dip until they get to that end date. And so even though their trauma, you know, whatever it was, their job change, their, you know, sickness, their parents or kids or whatever happened in November. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:15.074) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:34.367) Mm. Yeah. Darren Sutton (24:39.63) They know they committed until June 1st and they're going to say occasionally, occasionally, you know, to be a good pastor, you're going to say, listen, I know your life is upside down right now. Uh, just go ahead and step out. Like let's take a break. And then you're going to bring in, you know, somebody who's on the bench, who's been begging to be involved, who you've got in a, you know, maybe a less influential position, but who's ready to step up. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:41.666) and they'll still ride it out. Yeah, that's good. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:49.409) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:52.78) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (25:03.35) Yeah, so real quick before we leave, let's just make a big list of volunteer roles that are a little bit, because I think, again, Average Joe, Normal Youth Pastor, Normal Youth Ministry in America, every volunteer that they have is to lead discussion, small group, school, whatever you want to call it with students. Darren Sutton (25:29.134) Yeah, for sure. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (25:31.064) But there's a million other things and some people don't want to do that. Like we have a guy on our team right now who's awesome. He's like, I don't want to lead a Bible study, but he loves teenagers. He's like fun at heart. You know, like he's, he's the type of guy you'd want on your team, but he, he felt disqualified because he's like, I'm not equipped for that slash don't want to do it. And so like, to your point, there's a million things you can do. can make sandwiches. So what are some over the years, you're 35. Darren Sutton (25:53.112) Right. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:00.28) plus years of experience. What are some of the different roles that you've had created, invented? Like give us some of the funniest best ones you got. Darren Sutton (26:09.102) Oh, I don't know. I have some that you couldn't do anymore. You know, I mean, I love that the, you're just going to show up at their like, you don't, you don't have to lead a Bible study, but I want you to show up at every single basketball game this kid has, you know, as just kind of a, you know, a big brother figure. You know, we had a lot of over the years had different Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:12.024) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Share those two from the the crypt. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:29.464) Mm. Darren Sutton (26:39.53) spots had a lot of rec space. and so, you know, listen, I don't want you to do anything except play basketball. That's all you have to do. Play basketball and talk to students. you know, we also had the proverbial like set up chairs and, you know, come in and create, you know, new student, new student guest kits and, know, that kind of stuff. Probably the funniest one that we had was, in one church that I was in. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:41.816) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:48.534) I love that job. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:00.684) Yeah. Yeah. Darren Sutton (27:09.224) our student center was a kind of refabbed pavilion on the back of an acre and a half plot. So the church was at the front right and the student ministry area was at the back left and no lights, barely electricity. We threw up fake walls. We had window units kind of shoved in the corner and you know, as janky as it could be. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:16.578) Okay. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:23.755) Yeah. Darren Sutton (27:38.478) and so every week we would have fire ants that were building in the building, right? Like building these nests in the building. So we had our, our guy who would come in and kill the fire ants every week, and sweep it all out. That was his only job. Like he didn't want to hang out with students and all that, but he felt like that was a contribution he can make. had people in that same church, like one of the ways that we Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:53.046) You Darren Sutton (28:05.814) kind of lighted the path in the middle of the night to that back area where with tiki torches. And so we had folks who would come in and, you know, light the tiki torches and sweep the pathway off and, you know, that kind of thing. So those were kind of unique. We had for a time, folks who would be, you know, kind of the bus run, except in their vehicles, we, don't do that anymore. Just generally for ministry safe purposes, but Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:10.359) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:28.941) Right. Darren Sutton (28:31.822) Their only job was to pick kids up and drive them back and forth to church. They didn't stay in the youth ministry. didn't, but we gave them like in that job description, here are some questions you can be asking when kids get in your car to get the conversation going and you know, make sure you meet the parents and you know, things like that to help them be a little bit more invested in real life with kids. Had some volunteers whose main job was to reach out to parents. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:37.016) Yeah. Darren Sutton (28:59.886) and make sure that, you know, hey, we know parenting teenagers is tough. Is there anything the student ministry can do for you? That was their only job to just keep a list of parents would love this. Parents would need that. And they pass that over to me and I'd figure out what we could do and you know, what was a really stupid idea we had to throw away. So some stuff like that. Once, you know, this one is selfish, but was important. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:07.672) Hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:18.136) Yeah, nice. keep going. Darren Sutton (29:27.694) uh, more important than I realized, I think at the time, uh, I enlisted somebody to pay attention to my kids. Uh, your job is and not just mine, but in that, in that church, just mine. But if we were in our context, we're having multiple staff members, it would be staff kids. Uh, but I, I was like, you know, my kids sacrifice a lot for me to be in student ministry and they were not teenagers yet. They were, you know, I don't know, 11, nine and seven, they were young. I just said, can you Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:35.063) Uh-huh. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:42.646) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:53.708) Yeah. Yeah. Darren Sutton (29:56.792) Can you just notice my kids? Like they're here a lot. They sacrifice a lot for ministry. Their dad's a pastor and so I'm sure that they're they need adults who are not their pastor. You know as well and your your jobs to just notice my kids and they crushed that like our kids to this day feel like those people are their grandparents even more than their actual grandparents. So that's another one. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:02.263) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:10.028) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:21.4) It's cool. Yeah, that's cool. Darren Sutton (30:25.21) You can come up with everything. Host homes and sandwich makers and so many ways to get people close enough to see what Jesus is doing without them having to lead a Bible study ever. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:27.832) . Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:37.335) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:43.512) Yeah, that's good. So, okay, last thing. Talk to the youth pastor who's struggling, floundering, drowning. Find a word of encouragement about the importance of leaders and maybe just a basic for them next step. Hey, if you're gonna do anything, first thing to do is just do this. Don't feel overwhelmed by all of this. Maybe you don't have the... Capacity to get a fire ant guy yet. Okay, that's fine But speak speak to that speak to the guy who's just like man. don't leaders are killing like it's just the hardest, you know part of my job, whatever like Encourage them for a second Darren Sutton (31:22.712) Yeah. Well, let me just say first, it's not your job. That's not your job. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. And he's very clear in scripture that we all have a part to play. and that our job as pastors is to equip the saints for the work of service. Our job is not to make sure we have plenty of volunteers, not to make sure every hole gets filled. Our job is just to equip the people that the Holy Spirit brings. We can be more proactive in bringing them, but the Holy Spirit is the one who quickens their heart to be involved. So that's not your job. Your job isn't to convince them. Your job is to shepherd them and to give them an opportunity to step into what God is calling them to do. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (31:39.352) Mm-hmm. Darren Sutton (32:04.718) Don't take the whole burden on yourself. And I mean that in two ways. It's the Holy Spirit's job and also you have some people, you definitely have some people who care about student ministry who will help recruit for you. You utilize that, whether that's other staff members, folks that are currently on your volunteer team, a parent who just happens to take a particular interest in what's going on in student ministry. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:20.792) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:31.224) Teenagers. Darren Sutton (32:32.364) Yeah, for sure. 100 % ask a kid who they think would make a great youth leader. They'll have a list guaranteed. So. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:34.519) you Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:38.742) Yeah, yeah. I had a teenager one time go and list the head usher on his own. Yeah, I was like, well, I'll talk to him too. But it was great. Darren Sutton (32:44.891) Poach them from other ministries? I love it. That's fantastic. But just don't feel the burden that it's all on you and don't feel the burden that it all has to happen right now. For me, it was a slow, kind of a slow burn into that whole idea that volunteers could be more and I needed to ask them to do more and be more. That took time. And it's not a foolproof, like, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:16.502) Yeah. Darren Sutton (33:21.322) I mean, we serving in church right now and across from this podcast, there's a big sheet on my door that lists every volunteer hole we have right now. And we have a lot. There's probably 20 people on there that we need to fill. So, you know, you're always going to have the need. You can't let the holes be what drives you. You've got to let the people who are in the room, you know, a little bit. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:31.384) Yeah. Yeah. Darren Sutton (33:47.384) be what drives you. So, and it's totally doable because Jesus wants those kids even more than you do. And he's gonna raise up the people that are needed to help get them where he needs them to be. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:48.984) That's good. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:01.304) Nice, that's good. All right, anything else? Did we get it all? Darren Sutton (34:05.312) Yeah, think we, I mean, I'm sure we didn't get it all, but we got, you got all I got. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:08.28) Well, that's a lot it's helpful so where do people find you Darren? Darren Sutton (34:18.03) listen, I'm everywhere. I'm, I'm almost like the Holy Spirit everywhere you are. am, I'm on all, I'm on all social stuff. if you're, yes. Well, actually I can't, you can't say that anymore. I deleted my account after it banned. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:22.039) Woo! That's scary. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:29.738) including band TikTok. If you'd like to send... It's back, it's back now. Darren Sutton (34:38.464) I know I'm trying to decide like, listen, I had so this whole podcast, I had so much time open up in my life that I'm like, maybe I don't want to, I'm not sure if I want to, if I want to take it back. But yeah, I mean, you know, Insta and Facebook and Twitter and you know, all that, I have a blog. everyone's called the youth ministry.com and, I'm not, you know, I have, I'm just like you. I'm an in the trenches youth pastor. So if you're looking for a regular, like, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:42.712) You Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:56.856) Nice. We'll link it down below. Darren Sutton (35:08.184) podcast and a blog post. I don't do that. But I've been in this thing for a few minutes and I'm not planning on going anywhere. And so I love talking to you pastors. And if you ever need a guy who has made as many mistakes as you feel like you're making, you can reach out. Cause I got a whole list. Lots of stories. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (35:24.856) You There you go. That's big right there. All right. Well, hey, for Darren, this is Nick signing off. See you guys. Darren Sutton (35:33.944) Bye guys. youth ministry, volunteers, recruiting, engagement, church community, leadership, retention, job descriptions, ministry philosophy, volunteer management, youth ministry, volunteer management, community building, pastoral care, leadership training, youth pastor encouragement, diverse roles, volunteer appreciation, recruitment strategies, supporting volunteers In this episode, Nick sits down with one of his best friends, and also, boss, and they discuss volunteer, not only recruiting, but also how to create such a strong volunteer team that volunteers would never choose to leave your team. Be sure to stick around for the surprising strategy that actually keeps volunteers on the team longer!

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Meet My Boss & Friend, Darren Sutton
01:02 35 Years in 35 Seconds
04:10 Shocking Bar Raising Leader Strategy
05:33 What if Leaders Donโ€™t Respond?
07:56 Start Recruiting Leaders from Scratch
19:33 How do you keep good leaders?
21:57 Conducting Leader Debriefs
25:45 A Complete List of Roles
31:20 Final Encouragement

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:01.036)
We've recorded so many podcasts together. I don't even know how I feel like we're supposed to Well, everyone here we are. I am with my boss, Darren Sutton, who has his youth ministry till I die shirt on, which I was wearing yesterday. So I'm glad that we coordinated this. But I wanted to get on here and I've been working for Darren now for five years, two different places.

Darren Sutton (00:04.982)
Welcome back.

Darren Sutton (00:20.691)
Thank you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.72)
And aside from having written a book, I would also say practically speaking, Darren has a lot to say about volunteers. But Darren, first, tell us a brief overview. Distill your 35-year youth ministry journey down to 35 seconds. But why in that did volunteers become such a thing for you?

Darren Sutton (00:53.484)
Yeah, I don't know if I can say that in 35 seconds, but I will say this. I was pretty much the Lone Ranger youth pastor who would just grab chaperones when I was absolutely desperate for adults to be in the room or whatever. I would have adults lead Bible study classes and go to summer camp with me and the stuff where you know you can't do everything, so you have them there. But I didn't realize the...

extent of needing people to carry the mission forward and to lean into their own calling until I was about maybe 10 years in and we were having our yeah we were having our third baby and my lead volunteer was like I can't do this and you need you need more people you're not doing this right so my wife basically was like listen you're you are

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:32.354)
Did something happen?

Darren Sutton (01:48.29)
fantastic and you have lots of adult leaders, but you're not equipping them for ministry. You're just having them hold down the pieces that you can't hold down and they have more to offer than that. And you're not, you're not giving them, you know, the runway to do that. And that changed everything. It totally transformed my whole philosophy about why we use volunteers and how we keep them and why that matters.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:57.676)
Mmm. Mmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:03.98)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:16.982)
Okay, so yeah, so like I would imagine that, you know, average youth pastor listening is like, you know, they have that mentality, right? The volunteers are a necessary like evil, I don't wanna say, you know, but like they just, know they have to have them. There you go. They're a necessary component, but maybe like, maybe they don't even know what to do with them.

Darren Sutton (02:36.088)
Component. Let's go with component. They're necessary component.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:46.028)
You know what mean? like that, would imagine maybe some of that was your story too. Like maybe control a little bit, but also like, what do I even do with these guys? So yeah, so how did you, before we dive into kind of the recruiting conversation, how did you mentally release yourself and be able to trust that you could actually hand off like meaningful things to said volunteer?

Darren Sutton (02:53.294)
You worked for me, you know part of it was control.

Darren Sutton (03:13.89)
Yeah, great question. This, I mean, you know, this is gonna sound like a no brainer, but 25 years ago it wasn't. I started writing job descriptions and I just sat down and said, okay, if I was handing off deeper parts of this, or if the people who were already serving were gonna own it the way I wanted them to.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:23.96)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:35.0)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (03:37.58)
What did I want that to look like? Like, what did I want them to do? Part of the struggle is that I wasn't recruiting them to anything other than filling the spot and hanging out with kids. And so if I wanted them to be at football games and, you know, choir performances, and if I wanted them to be writing cards to kids who weren't there, and if I wanted them to be reaching out to parents on the regular and all that, I needed to spell that out, and I hadn't done that. And so I was doing all that part, and they were just showing up.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:46.978)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:01.261)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:05.622)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (04:05.866)
And as soon as I kind of raised the bar and said, here's what I really need you to be doing in this role. If you love Jesus and love students and you want to make an eternal impact, it looks like this. It changed everything. So job descriptions were my number one thing. And again, that sounds a little bit like a no brainer now, I think for a lot of people, but we weren't doing that back then.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:25.962)
Yeah. So and then they did they did race to the challenge, right? Were you nervous that they wouldn't or couldn't or didn't have the time to or was there any of that?

Darren Sutton (04:31.902)
yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (04:37.71)
You know, I don't remember being nervous about it as much as I was just, was at a point in my ministry and in my family life where I was like, they have to do this. You know, so it never dawned on me, I think, and also young and arrogant. Like it never dawned on me that anybody would say, I don't want to do that. And to their credit, nobody did. Like everybody rose to the challenge. And I really think that

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:56.802)
Sure.

Darren Sutton (05:07.32)
we sell the body of Christ, not volunteers, they're the body. We sell the body short when we assume that they won't invest more. Give them a chance to show you that, right? And if they do, then you know, like they might be better suited for a different role in your ministry, but this role with the job description as it's written, they're just not good for that. And it also gives you a great entry point for a conversation when you do need a leader to level up.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:18.348)
Hmm. Yeah, that's good.

Darren Sutton (05:37.078)
to say like, listen, here's what we signed on for. Help me understand what's a struggle for you in this. Because it seems like these components aren't happening. And I'm just wondering, is that because you're unsure of what to do? Is that because you don't want to do that? You've had bad success with it? Like, help, teach me. Teach me what this, you know, where the holes are here.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:41.944)
Hmm

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:56.672)
Mm, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:00.844)
But then you have, like you said, have teeth, right, a little bit to go back if volunteer's not performing and there's nothing more awkward than trying to fire someone who's not getting paid. So.

Darren Sutton (06:04.152)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (06:10.798)
I'm sure. Helping them find their fit in the body of Christ.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:17.46)
Yep. So, okay, so aside from, you know, someone just buying your book, which is linked down below in the description, obviously.

Darren Sutton (06:25.514)
hey, thanks. I don't even know if I have a link to my book. Yeah, probably. Maybe the three people who bought it are done with it.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:27.956)
Yeah, well, we'll scrounge it up. It's on eBay or something. What? So if you're if someone's just, know, regular old youth pastor and they're like, just like, OK, I hear you. Yeah, I'm doing too much. I'm spinning my wheels. Job description, maybe step one. Step two. Let's talk recruiting like because you.

you may not even have any leaders to write a job description for. So help someone start. Just rattle off the best recruiting strategies, methods, ideas, and I'll take notes for our own ministry as we're trying to also recruit some people.

Darren Sutton (07:00.908)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (07:08.172)
Yeah.

because there are always holes. Well, where I started was I'm not a big fan of cattle calls from the pulpit or anything like that. Yeah, that's a struggle. Yeah, or you don't get anybody because nobody listens during announcements.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:21.686)
Yeah, the youth need volunteers. You're gonna get weirdos.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:29.047)
Yeah.

Well, it's a plural you, right? So it's like, you all interested? And so the individual you assumes one of the other ones is gonna take it and they're off the hook.

Darren Sutton (07:36.118)
Yes, exactly. So let me tell you guys, so here's what I did, Nick. Like I, you're right. The individual ask is everything. And I don't mean a fly by, you know, I don't mean a fly by conversation in the hallway on your way to the bathroom. I mean a sit down, real talk. but it takes a minute to get to that, right? Especially if you don't know everybody in our current context, the student ministry is literally a

across a creek from the rest of the building and so.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:07.372)
Yeah. It's one of the most distant locations I've ever served and I would imagine the same for you. So us being a part of the rest of the life of the church, we have to be incredibly intentional to overcome that for sure.

Darren Sutton (08:16.588)
Yeah, for sure.

Darren Sutton (08:22.27)
Exactly. And that's true everywhere, especially if your facility or the space that you occupy is siloed from the rest of the church.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:31.372)
Yeah, because it's great to have the youth space, but that their inherent challenge of that is you're in the youth space and not, yeah.

Darren Sutton (08:37.132)
Yeah, it's a youth space. Yeah, it's a youth space. So if you're not a youth, you're not in it. So, yeah, the first thing I did was I went to my senior pastor and said, our students need more visibility. And, you know, in in that church, like where this whole philosophy of how I handle volunteers was born, my space was was attached, but it was up and to the back on a second floor in the far corner of the property. Right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:50.253)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:06.06)
Yeah, so was separated.

Darren Sutton (09:07.362)
Yeah, exactly. Like you would see kids coming down from the upstairs and be like, my gosh, I'm glad I'm not serving up there. And that was it. So we started using students to take the offering, serve communion, do greeting. And I just, you know, kind of poached a dozen of my highest capacity students and said, let's help the church understand why youth ministry matters.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.334)
Right? Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:31.405)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (09:31.854)
And that didn't require them to be on the platform. We did have some on the platform. We had some students doing worship. We would occasionally do a youth night or youth day at church where students would speak and, or I would speak and all of that. starting there was actually the most critical, I think, the most critical component because people started seeing teenagers.

And it's a little bit like, you know, trying to acclimate people to wild animals. Like you got to get them a little bit close while they're in a cage and then you stick a little, you stick your hand in the cage and then you're in the cage, you know? And so that was the start of it. Also helping my senior pastor catch the vision that student ministry is not babysitting.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:07.682)
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:18.04)
Yeah, how do, can you talk about that for just a quick second? how do, I would imagine, you someone might be listening and they're like, oh yeah, I love that, but I'm either A, getting or I'm anticipating that I would get pushback. How do you lead up in that?

Darren Sutton (10:32.994)
Well, if you're anticipating, stop doing that. Like give them a chance to say, you're a babysitter. But also I think storytelling is the most critical component. We had this kid come in, let me tell you this story about this student who shared their faith at school and not necessarily about what student ministry is doing in the building, but what student ministry is doing outside of the building.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:35.992)
That's good, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:41.105)
Heh.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:51.405)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:59.608)
That's good.

Darren Sutton (11:00.908)
you know, was super helpful. It also helped that I had a very open senior pastor. You know what? I didn't turn my phone off.

Sorry, Nick. You probably couldn't hear that, but I could. Okay, sorry. Are you editing this? I'm assuming you edit. All right, I'm gonna go back then. It didn't hurt that I had just a really open senior pastor. I think he hired me with the babysitting mindset, but it didn't take him long to see that student mystery could be way more than that. So I was fortunate in that way.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:11.224)
That's good.

No, I heard it. It was great. It was a great sound.

I mean, I will, yeah. Yeah, okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:34.548)
Mm. Yeah, that's good.

Darren Sutton (11:36.3)
So once we had students kind of operating around the building, it made it way easier for me to go up to randos and say, hey, so and so told me you'd be great. Or I'm gonna out myself with some really shallow things. I'm just gonna say. So if we were in worship and I saw folks who I felt like were truly connecting with worship.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:52.856)
lol

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:04.663)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (12:05.132)
That mattered to me, not because we had a worship ministry, but because I felt like those people were intentionally trying to connect with the heart of God when we were doing, you know, church. And so I just started introducing myself and doing a slow kind of a slow ask. Some might call it chess, where I would, I know you would, you know, where I would just go introduce myself. I'm a student pastor. Hey, just, you know,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:07.703)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:12.354)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:24.472)
I would call it chest.

Darren Sutton (12:32.429)
appreciated your investment in church today or whatever. And then a of weeks later, I asked them how they were doing. Like I would start trying to build a relationship knowing that my end game, which didn't always work out, but my end game was to get them involved in students. The Lord might've had a different end game and sometimes he did, but I did that. I made sure that this was easier.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:57.282)
So this is everyone's permission to keep your eyes open during worship.

Darren Sutton (13:01.228)
Yeah, 100 % 100%. And you know, not to say that hands raised means anything because it doesn't, but I looked at people and went, look, their hands up. They're volunteering. Another thing that was again, a little easier in the context I was in, I got involved in a in a connect group and a life group Sunday school class, whatever your know, whatever your church calls it. And while

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:07.884)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:11.584)
you

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:22.614)
Yeah, A D group.

I wanted to keep rattling them off but my brain went completely dead.

Darren Sutton (13:31.534)
While that didn't, I wasn't necessarily pulling people from that group. That group of all kind of young parents, it was early in our ministry, like they were the movers and shakers in our church. And so they were talking up the student ministry. I was able to talk it up in my small group. And then the last thing I did was done a little bit because I...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:47.949)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (13:59.936)
you know, because I just felt stubborn about it. We had a set of senior adults in our church who were fantastic. I mean, you know, they did everything. They did all the serving. We had a Wednesday night meal. This is a long time ago. We a Wednesday night meal and they cooked the meal and they ran the kitchen and they just did everything. And I intentionally started developing relationships with those ladies.

and started trying to get them involved in doing some things. And I have always kind of felt like senior adults make some really great student ministers. And so I was intentionally going after them and there was a lady, her name was Belle. Belle was a little bit of your typical cranky church lady. And I said something about, you know, being involved in student ministry or whatever. And she was like, I'll never work with students. And I just went.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:35.028)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Darren Sutton (14:55.148)
before I die, you will, whatever it takes. And so a little bit, I would target people, I think that way. don't, target's probably not the right word, but I would just, I would set my sight on somebody that I really wanted and I just kind of wouldn't let it go. Didn't harass. Sometimes that took a long time. It took me maybe like three-ish or four years before I finally got Bell to start something in students. And by the time we were,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:04.152)
lol

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:09.089)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:22.861)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (15:24.84)
She was all in like she was hosting D nows at her house and you know all kinds of stuff. So I just think that it is not being afraid to ask, making sure that your students are visible so that people know that teenagers don't bite. They're not scary and then not counting anybody out. I mean from from 21 we are our age range started at 21. We wanted to give kids some separation from student ministry, but from 21 to death.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:28.258)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:36.482)
Mm-hmm.

Darren Sutton (15:54.208)
It didn't matter who you were, parent, not a parent, old lady, college student. Like we would go after everybody and did. just never, I never met a person that I didn't think was called. And you know, my dad, yeah, I think there was a book title and a full philosophy. And I just wouldn't, I mean, I took no for an answer. I didn't try to get people to serve who didn't really didn't want to.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:54.242)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:02.476)
Yeah, that's good.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:08.29)
Some might say there's a book title in that.

Darren Sutton (16:23.148)
but I wouldn't take no as the first answer. So Belle said no and I was like, well, will you make sandwiches for Wednesday night? We didn't need sandwiches for Wednesday night. We already have Wednesday night supper, but she did it. You know what I'm saying? She started there. And then I would get some of those key students and say, hey, you guys make sure and thank Ms. Belle for these sandwiches. so, you know.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:33.431)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:43.032)
Well, and I think there's a, probably a principle in there of like, if you only ever like recruit to the need, then when the need is great, then your anxiety is high because you have like a lot of, a lot of need and a lot of holes to fill. But if you're always have your eye on this sort of like recruiting or onboarding mindset, even if you are onboarding them and there's nowhere to put them, like it's better.

Darren Sutton (17:10.733)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:12.044)
to have an overabundance, a wealth of riches, than to just be like, well, I'm fully staffed, quote unquote, right now. But in a few months you might not be, and then again, you're like, man, I'm failing again. So I think the good principle is for anyone in youth ministry who feels like they're struggling with volunteers, just start asking people and keep asking them.

Darren Sutton (17:14.091)
percent.

Darren Sutton (17:35.852)
never, it didn't matter how full I was, I never told somebody no. And in that church specifically, and in several of my churches, like I would have every spot full and I would be creating roles because I just wanted to make sure that people who wanted to be involved in the next generation could be.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:40.087)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:47.928)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:54.7)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (17:54.894)
And I tried really hard to not enlist them to a position, but to enlist them to a vision, to a purpose and what their life could mean, even if all they were doing is making sandwiches. And sometimes that's what it was, right? I don't have a spot for this person, but hey, could you go shopping for me on Tuesday? I would find things for them to do so I didn't have to tell them no. Because you might be fully staffed today and tomorrow, you know,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:02.102)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:10.828)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:20.342)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (18:24.848)
your leader has a parent who has to move in with them and their whole life changes and they need to step out. So I never counted on being fully staffed. And when I was fully staffed, I felt like I was always kind of back filling with the people who were the next to step in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:41.58)
Yeah. So that's a flex, being fully staffed or being so staffed that you have volunteers that you're just like making stuff up. So that leads to like, in my opinion, the next sort of like big bucket of this conversation is like, how do you, how do you keep good leaders so that they don't dip out on you?

Darren Sutton (18:51.255)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (19:03.405)
Yeah. Yeah, 100%. You know, I think this just happened because a little bit it's my personality bit. I wasn't being intentional about this. I just felt like, you know, as I knew that volunteers were important and that part of my job was shepherding them and it wasn't just about hanging out with the kids and you know, all of that. So I was very...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:15.512)
You

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:26.306)
Right.

Darren Sutton (19:32.066)
what's the right word? Pastoral is the only word I can think of. I knew my job was to shepherd them. It wasn't just to enlist them and get them sitting in front of teenagers, it was to help them along. So, you know, I...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:39.159)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (19:48.148)
I'm pretty good at sending notes of appreciation and not generic notes. Hey, I saw you talking to this kid. Hey, I heard a parent say this about you. Hey, you know, so that they would know that what they were doing was being seen. And I think that's a piece of it. know, gift cards go a long way, even if it's five bucks to Starbucks, because we all know five bucks isn't going to buy anything at Starbucks. But it's not that it's not that it is.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:01.826)
yeah

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:15.625)
Mm-hmm.

Darren Sutton (20:15.936)
it is noticing them that matters, right? I was a little bit of a bulldog, absolutely insistent on leader training. Not necessarily to make them better, but to make them better, but more to build community among our leaders so that they didn't want to leave.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:24.971)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:33.048)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (20:36.91)
Often volunteers who serve in students sacrifice a community group of some sort in order to serve so they don't have that. And a lot of times when they don't have that or they don't sense the feel of community, they'll dip so they can go be in their own Sunday school class or, you know, life group or whatever it is. And so I even though we weren't that we weren't doing Bible studies together every week, I wanted them to feel like, man, if something happens, my student

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:43.052)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:55.607)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (21:07.044)
team has my back and so and you know this because you work with me I'm pretty intentional still to this day about making sure that those leader training times are as much about building community and connection as they are about becoming a better you know volunteer.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:08.152)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:19.544)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:23.041)
Yeah, for sure.

Darren Sutton (21:24.416)
And then I'm a big fan of not recruiting people until death. So we actually recruit to a cycle. So we're gonna ask you to step in here and we're gonna ask you to go until this point. And then if you wanna step out, we'll embrace you and be sad when you go, most of you. You you occasionally have that one leader where that ending date really helps you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:37.536)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:43.606)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (21:49.966)
what you said earlier, like kind of helps you fire somebody. Like, hey, it's coming to the end of your term, thanks so much. Like, here's a Sunday school class for you to go to, you know, whatever. But largely, it was an opportunity for me to be more mindful and intentional about recruiting division. So if they didn't hear it any other time, once a year in the kind of re-recruiting phase,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:53.431)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:56.856)
Yeah

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:07.233)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:16.823)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (22:17.33)
They were going to be reminded of what they were doing. It was an opportunity for me to say, tell me, tell me what to struggle. What? How can I help you? Do you still love this role? Is there another role that you've seen other people performing in that you would like to try out? Would you so they don't feel like, hey man, if I say yes to leading this, you know, home group, I'm going to be leading it until I die. Yeah, exactly. You know.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:26.295)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:31.894)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:38.018)
I'm stuck for life, yeah.

But I think that might give some youth pastors listening hives, because they're already feeling strapped with leaders, and then they get good ones and they're like, wait, you give them an end date? And the irony in that is that doing that, again, I won't put words in your mouth, but doing that helps them feel like seen and appreciated and that you value them. so rather than them leaving at the end of the term,

Darren Sutton (22:55.148)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:11.562)
they like immediately re-up and come back.

Darren Sutton (23:13.612)
Yeah, yeah. And the truth is when you're when you have equipped them well, they know what their mission is. They feel supported by their community. They don't want to leave. We we in all kinds of different ways for the last 25 years, I've tried to give my volunteers breaks, whether that was a bucket of time like, hey, everybody's off in the summer and we'll take care of it. Or, know, what we currently do is

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:32.311)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (23:40.672)
a day off about every six-ish weeks where we just say to our volunteers, don't come, the student ministry's got it, students got it, you know, whatever. Giving them those moments basically to come up for air helps them stay in the water a lot longer. So yeah, we do give an end date, but I have only had a few people take advantage of that. And when they have, it's never been because they didn't want to do student ministry anymore.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:44.343)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:54.413)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:09.89)
Right.

Darren Sutton (24:10.228)
It's always been because my life circumstances have changed and I need a break. And, you know, the other piece of that that is helpful is when life circumstances do change, most of them won't dip until they get to that end date. And so even though their trauma, you know, whatever it was, their job change, their, you know, sickness, their parents or kids or whatever happened in November.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:15.074)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:34.367)
Mm. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (24:39.63)
They know they committed until June 1st and they're going to say occasionally, occasionally, you know, to be a good pastor, you're going to say, listen, I know your life is upside down right now. Uh, just go ahead and step out. Like let's take a break. And then you're going to bring in, you know, somebody who's on the bench, who's been begging to be involved, who you've got in a, you know, maybe a less influential position, but who's ready to step up. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:41.666)
and they'll still ride it out. Yeah, that's good.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:49.409)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:52.78)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (25:03.35)
Yeah, so real quick before we leave, let's just make a big list of volunteer roles that are a little bit, because I think, again, Average Joe, Normal Youth Pastor, Normal Youth Ministry in America, every volunteer that they have is to lead discussion, small group, school, whatever you want to call it with students.

Darren Sutton (25:29.134)
Yeah, for sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (25:31.064)
But there's a million other things and some people don't want to do that. Like we have a guy on our team right now who's awesome. He's like, I don't want to lead a Bible study, but he loves teenagers. He's like fun at heart. You know, like he's, he's the type of guy you'd want on your team, but he, he felt disqualified because he's like, I'm not equipped for that slash don't want to do it. And so like, to your point, there's a million things you can do. can make sandwiches. So what are some over the years, you're 35.

Darren Sutton (25:53.112)
Right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:00.28)
plus years of experience. What are some of the different roles that you've had created, invented? Like give us some of the funniest best ones you got.

Darren Sutton (26:09.102)
Oh, I don't know. I have some that you couldn't do anymore. You know, I mean, I love that the, you're just going to show up at their like, you don't, you don't have to lead a Bible study, but I want you to show up at every single basketball game this kid has, you know, as just kind of a, you know, a big brother figure. You know, we had a lot of over the years had different

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:12.024)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Share those two from the the crypt.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:29.464)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (26:39.53)
spots had a lot of rec space. and so, you know, listen, I don't want you to do anything except play basketball. That's all you have to do. Play basketball and talk to students. you know, we also had the proverbial like set up chairs and, you know, come in and create, you know, new student, new student guest kits and, know, that kind of stuff. Probably the funniest one that we had was, in one church that I was in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:41.816)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:48.534)
I love that job.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:00.684)
Yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (27:09.224)
our student center was a kind of refabbed pavilion on the back of an acre and a half plot. So the church was at the front right and the student ministry area was at the back left and no lights, barely electricity. We threw up fake walls. We had window units kind of shoved in the corner and you know, as janky as it could be.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:16.578)
Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:23.755)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (27:38.478)
and so every week we would have fire ants that were building in the building, right? Like building these nests in the building. So we had our, our guy who would come in and kill the fire ants every week, and sweep it all out. That was his only job. Like he didn't want to hang out with students and all that, but he felt like that was a contribution he can make. had people in that same church, like one of the ways that we

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:53.046)
You

Darren Sutton (28:05.814)
kind of lighted the path in the middle of the night to that back area where with tiki torches. And so we had folks who would come in and, you know, light the tiki torches and sweep the pathway off and, you know, that kind of thing. So those were kind of unique. We had for a time, folks who would be, you know, kind of the bus run, except in their vehicles, we, don't do that anymore. Just generally for ministry safe purposes, but

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:10.359)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:28.941)
Right.

Darren Sutton (28:31.822)
Their only job was to pick kids up and drive them back and forth to church. They didn't stay in the youth ministry. didn't, but we gave them like in that job description, here are some questions you can be asking when kids get in your car to get the conversation going and you know, make sure you meet the parents and you know, things like that to help them be a little bit more invested in real life with kids. Had some volunteers whose main job was to reach out to parents.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:37.016)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (28:59.886)
and make sure that, you know, hey, we know parenting teenagers is tough. Is there anything the student ministry can do for you? That was their only job to just keep a list of parents would love this. Parents would need that. And they pass that over to me and I'd figure out what we could do and you know, what was a really stupid idea we had to throw away. So some stuff like that. Once, you know, this one is selfish, but was important.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:07.672)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:18.136)
Yeah, nice. keep going.

Darren Sutton (29:27.694)
uh, more important than I realized, I think at the time, uh, I enlisted somebody to pay attention to my kids. Uh, your job is and not just mine, but in that, in that church, just mine. But if we were in our context, we're having multiple staff members, it would be staff kids. Uh, but I, I was like, you know, my kids sacrifice a lot for me to be in student ministry and they were not teenagers yet. They were, you know, I don't know, 11, nine and seven, they were young. I just said, can you

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:35.063)
Uh-huh.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:42.646)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:53.708)
Yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (29:56.792)
Can you just notice my kids? Like they're here a lot. They sacrifice a lot for ministry. Their dad's a pastor and so I'm sure that they're they need adults who are not their pastor. You know as well and your your jobs to just notice my kids and they crushed that like our kids to this day feel like those people are their grandparents even more than their actual grandparents. So that's another one.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:02.263)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:10.028)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:21.4)
It's cool.

Yeah, that's cool.

Darren Sutton (30:25.21)
You can come up with everything. Host homes and sandwich makers and so many ways to get people close enough to see what Jesus is doing without them having to lead a Bible study ever.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:27.832)
.

Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:37.335)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:43.512)
Yeah, that's good. So, okay, last thing. Talk to the youth pastor who's struggling, floundering, drowning. Find a word of encouragement about the importance of leaders and maybe just a basic for them next step. Hey, if you're gonna do anything, first thing to do is just do this. Don't feel overwhelmed by all of this. Maybe you don't have the...

Capacity to get a fire ant guy yet. Okay, that's fine But speak speak to that speak to the guy who's just like man. don't leaders are killing like it's just the hardest, you know part of my job, whatever like Encourage them for a second

Darren Sutton (31:22.712)
Yeah. Well, let me just say first, it's not your job. That's not your job. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. And he's very clear in scripture that we all have a part to play.

and that our job as pastors is to equip the saints for the work of service. Our job is not to make sure we have plenty of volunteers, not to make sure every hole gets filled. Our job is just to equip the people that the Holy Spirit brings. We can be more proactive in bringing them, but the Holy Spirit is the one who quickens their heart to be involved. So that's not your job. Your job isn't to convince them. Your job is to shepherd them and to give them an opportunity to step into what God is calling them to do.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (31:39.352)
Mm-hmm.

Darren Sutton (32:04.718)
Don't take the whole burden on yourself. And I mean that in two ways. It's the Holy Spirit's job and also you have some people, you definitely have some people who care about student ministry who will help recruit for you. You utilize that, whether that's other staff members, folks that are currently on your volunteer team, a parent who just happens to take a particular interest in what's going on in student ministry.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:20.792)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:31.224)
Teenagers.

Darren Sutton (32:32.364)
Yeah, for sure. 100 % ask a kid who they think would make a great youth leader. They'll have a list guaranteed. So.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:34.519)
you

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:38.742)
Yeah, yeah. I had a teenager one time go and list the head usher on his own. Yeah, I was like, well, I'll talk to him too. But it was great.

Darren Sutton (32:44.891)
Poach them from other ministries? I love it.

That's fantastic. But just don't feel the burden that it's all on you and don't feel the burden that it all has to happen right now. For me, it was a slow, kind of a slow burn into that whole idea that volunteers could be more and I needed to ask them to do more and be more. That took time. And it's not a foolproof, like,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:16.502)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (33:21.322)
I mean, we serving in church right now and across from this podcast, there's a big sheet on my door that lists every volunteer hole we have right now. And we have a lot. There's probably 20 people on there that we need to fill. So, you know, you're always going to have the need. You can't let the holes be what drives you. You've got to let the people who are in the room, you know, a little bit.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:31.384)
Yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (33:47.384)
be what drives you. So, and it's totally doable because Jesus wants those kids even more than you do. And he's gonna raise up the people that are needed to help get them where he needs them to be.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:48.984)
That's good.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:01.304)
Nice, that's good. All right, anything else? Did we get it all?

Darren Sutton (34:05.312)
Yeah, think we, I mean, I'm sure we didn't get it all, but we got, you got all I got.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:08.28)
Well, that's a lot it's helpful so where do people find you Darren?

Darren Sutton (34:18.03)
listen, I'm everywhere. I'm, I'm almost like the Holy Spirit everywhere you are. am, I'm on all, I'm on all social stuff. if you're, yes. Well, actually I can't, you can't say that anymore. I deleted my account after it banned.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:22.039)
Woo!

That's scary.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:29.738)
including band TikTok. If you'd like to send...

It's back, it's back now.

Darren Sutton (34:38.464)
I know I'm trying to decide like, listen, I had so this whole podcast, I had so much time open up in my life that I'm like, maybe I don't want to, I'm not sure if I want to, if I want to take it back. But yeah, I mean, you know, Insta and Facebook and Twitter and you know, all that, I have a blog. everyone's called the youth ministry.com and, I'm not, you know, I have, I'm just like you. I'm an in the trenches youth pastor. So if you're looking for a regular, like,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:42.712)
You

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:56.856)
Nice. We'll link it down below.

Darren Sutton (35:08.184)
podcast and a blog post. I don't do that. But I've been in this thing for a few minutes and I'm not planning on going anywhere. And so I love talking to you pastors. And if you ever need a guy who has made as many mistakes as you feel like you're making, you can reach out. Cause I got a whole list. Lots of stories. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (35:24.856)
You

There you go. That's big right there. All right. Well, hey, for Darren, this is Nick signing off. See you guys.

Darren Sutton (35:33.944)
Bye guys.

]]> In this episode, Nick sits down with one of his best friends, and also, boss, and they discuss volunteer, not only recruiting, but also how to create such a strong volunteer team that volunteers would never choose to leave your team. Be sure to stick around for the surprising strategy that actually keeps volunteers on the team longer!

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SHOW NOTES
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LINKS
EVERYONEโ€™S CALLED TO YOUTH MINISTRY, THEY JUST DONโ€™T KNOW IT YET
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https://www.instagram.com/veteranyp/

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Meet My Boss & Friend, Darren Sutton
01:02 35 Years in 35 Seconds
04:10 Shocking Bar Raising Leader Strategy
05:33 What if Leaders Donโ€™t Respond?
07:56 Start Recruiting Leaders from Scratch
19:33 How do you keep good leaders?
21:57 Conducting Leader Debriefs
25:45 A Complete List of Roles
31:20 Final Encouragement

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:01.036)
We've recorded so many podcasts together. I don't even know how I feel like we're supposed to Well, everyone here we are. I am with my boss, Darren Sutton, who has his youth ministry till I die shirt on, which I was wearing yesterday. So I'm glad that we coordinated this. But I wanted to get on here and I've been working for Darren now for five years, two different places.

Darren Sutton (00:04.982)
Welcome back.

Darren Sutton (00:20.691)
Thank you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.72)
And aside from having written a book, I would also say practically speaking, Darren has a lot to say about volunteers. But Darren, first, tell us a brief overview. Distill your 35-year youth ministry journey down to 35 seconds. But why in that did volunteers become such a thing for you?

Darren Sutton (00:53.484)
Yeah, I don't know if I can say that in 35 seconds, but I will say this. I was pretty much the Lone Ranger youth pastor who would just grab chaperones when I was absolutely desperate for adults to be in the room or whatever. I would have adults lead Bible study classes and go to summer camp with me and the stuff where you know you can't do everything, so you have them there. But I didn't realize the...

extent of needing people to carry the mission forward and to lean into their own calling until I was about maybe 10 years in and we were having our yeah we were having our third baby and my lead volunteer was like I can't do this and you need you need more people you're not doing this right so my wife basically was like listen you're you are

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:32.354)
Did something happen?

Darren Sutton (01:48.29)
fantastic and you have lots of adult leaders, but you're not equipping them for ministry. You're just having them hold down the pieces that you can't hold down and they have more to offer than that. And you're not, you're not giving them, you know, the runway to do that. And that changed everything. It totally transformed my whole philosophy about why we use volunteers and how we keep them and why that matters.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:57.676)
Mmm. Mmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:03.98)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:16.982)
Okay, so yeah, so like I would imagine that, you know, average youth pastor listening is like, you know, they have that mentality, right? The volunteers are a necessary like evil, I don't wanna say, you know, but like they just, know they have to have them. There you go. They're a necessary component, but maybe like, maybe they don't even know what to do with them.

Darren Sutton (02:36.088)
Component. Let's go with component. They're necessary component.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:46.028)
You know what mean? like that, would imagine maybe some of that was your story too. Like maybe control a little bit, but also like, what do I even do with these guys? So yeah, so how did you, before we dive into kind of the recruiting conversation, how did you mentally release yourself and be able to trust that you could actually hand off like meaningful things to said volunteer?

Darren Sutton (02:53.294)
You worked for me, you know part of it was control.

Darren Sutton (03:13.89)
Yeah, great question. This, I mean, you know, this is gonna sound like a no brainer, but 25 years ago it wasn't. I started writing job descriptions and I just sat down and said, okay, if I was handing off deeper parts of this, or if the people who were already serving were gonna own it the way I wanted them to.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:23.96)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:35.0)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (03:37.58)
What did I want that to look like? Like, what did I want them to do? Part of the struggle is that I wasn't recruiting them to anything other than filling the spot and hanging out with kids. And so if I wanted them to be at football games and, you know, choir performances, and if I wanted them to be writing cards to kids who weren't there, and if I wanted them to be reaching out to parents on the regular and all that, I needed to spell that out, and I hadn't done that. And so I was doing all that part, and they were just showing up.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:46.978)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:01.261)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:05.622)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (04:05.866)
And as soon as I kind of raised the bar and said, here's what I really need you to be doing in this role. If you love Jesus and love students and you want to make an eternal impact, it looks like this. It changed everything. So job descriptions were my number one thing. And again, that sounds a little bit like a no brainer now, I think for a lot of people, but we weren't doing that back then.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:25.962)
Yeah. So and then they did they did race to the challenge, right? Were you nervous that they wouldn't or couldn't or didn't have the time to or was there any of that?

Darren Sutton (04:31.902)
yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (04:37.71)
You know, I don't remember being nervous about it as much as I was just, was at a point in my ministry and in my family life where I was like, they have to do this. You know, so it never dawned on me, I think, and also young and arrogant. Like it never dawned on me that anybody would say, I don't want to do that. And to their credit, nobody did. Like everybody rose to the challenge. And I really think that

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:56.802)
Sure.

Darren Sutton (05:07.32)
we sell the body of Christ, not volunteers, they're the body. We sell the body short when we assume that they won't invest more. Give them a chance to show you that, right? And if they do, then you know, like they might be better suited for a different role in your ministry, but this role with the job description as it's written, they're just not good for that. And it also gives you a great entry point for a conversation when you do need a leader to level up.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:18.348)
Hmm. Yeah, that's good.

Darren Sutton (05:37.078)
to say like, listen, here's what we signed on for. Help me understand what's a struggle for you in this. Because it seems like these components aren't happening. And I'm just wondering, is that because you're unsure of what to do? Is that because you don't want to do that? You've had bad success with it? Like, help, teach me. Teach me what this, you know, where the holes are here.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:41.944)
Hmm

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:56.672)
Mm, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:00.844)
But then you have, like you said, have teeth, right, a little bit to go back if volunteer's not performing and there's nothing more awkward than trying to fire someone who's not getting paid. So.

Darren Sutton (06:04.152)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (06:10.798)
I'm sure. Helping them find their fit in the body of Christ.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:17.46)
Yep. So, okay, so aside from, you know, someone just buying your book, which is linked down below in the description, obviously.

Darren Sutton (06:25.514)
hey, thanks. I don't even know if I have a link to my book. Yeah, probably. Maybe the three people who bought it are done with it.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:27.956)
Yeah, well, we'll scrounge it up. It's on eBay or something. What? So if you're if someone's just, know, regular old youth pastor and they're like, just like, OK, I hear you. Yeah, I'm doing too much. I'm spinning my wheels. Job description, maybe step one. Step two. Let's talk recruiting like because you.

you may not even have any leaders to write a job description for. So help someone start. Just rattle off the best recruiting strategies, methods, ideas, and I'll take notes for our own ministry as we're trying to also recruit some people.

Darren Sutton (07:00.908)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (07:08.172)
Yeah.

because there are always holes. Well, where I started was I'm not a big fan of cattle calls from the pulpit or anything like that. Yeah, that's a struggle. Yeah, or you don't get anybody because nobody listens during announcements.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:21.686)
Yeah, the youth need volunteers. You're gonna get weirdos.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:29.047)
Yeah.

Well, it's a plural you, right? So it's like, you all interested? And so the individual you assumes one of the other ones is gonna take it and they're off the hook.

Darren Sutton (07:36.118)
Yes, exactly. So let me tell you guys, so here's what I did, Nick. Like I, you're right. The individual ask is everything. And I don't mean a fly by, you know, I don't mean a fly by conversation in the hallway on your way to the bathroom. I mean a sit down, real talk. but it takes a minute to get to that, right? Especially if you don't know everybody in our current context, the student ministry is literally a

across a creek from the rest of the building and so.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:07.372)
Yeah. It's one of the most distant locations I've ever served and I would imagine the same for you. So us being a part of the rest of the life of the church, we have to be incredibly intentional to overcome that for sure.

Darren Sutton (08:16.588)
Yeah, for sure.

Darren Sutton (08:22.27)
Exactly. And that's true everywhere, especially if your facility or the space that you occupy is siloed from the rest of the church.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:31.372)
Yeah, because it's great to have the youth space, but that their inherent challenge of that is you're in the youth space and not, yeah.

Darren Sutton (08:37.132)
Yeah, it's a youth space. Yeah, it's a youth space. So if you're not a youth, you're not in it. So, yeah, the first thing I did was I went to my senior pastor and said, our students need more visibility. And, you know, in in that church, like where this whole philosophy of how I handle volunteers was born, my space was was attached, but it was up and to the back on a second floor in the far corner of the property. Right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (08:50.253)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:06.06)
Yeah, so was separated.

Darren Sutton (09:07.362)
Yeah, exactly. Like you would see kids coming down from the upstairs and be like, my gosh, I'm glad I'm not serving up there. And that was it. So we started using students to take the offering, serve communion, do greeting. And I just, you know, kind of poached a dozen of my highest capacity students and said, let's help the church understand why youth ministry matters.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.334)
Right? Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:31.405)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (09:31.854)
And that didn't require them to be on the platform. We did have some on the platform. We had some students doing worship. We would occasionally do a youth night or youth day at church where students would speak and, or I would speak and all of that. starting there was actually the most critical, I think, the most critical component because people started seeing teenagers.

And it's a little bit like, you know, trying to acclimate people to wild animals. Like you got to get them a little bit close while they're in a cage and then you stick a little, you stick your hand in the cage and then you're in the cage, you know? And so that was the start of it. Also helping my senior pastor catch the vision that student ministry is not babysitting.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:07.682)
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:18.04)
Yeah, how do, can you talk about that for just a quick second? how do, I would imagine, you someone might be listening and they're like, oh yeah, I love that, but I'm either A, getting or I'm anticipating that I would get pushback. How do you lead up in that?

Darren Sutton (10:32.994)
Well, if you're anticipating, stop doing that. Like give them a chance to say, you're a babysitter. But also I think storytelling is the most critical component. We had this kid come in, let me tell you this story about this student who shared their faith at school and not necessarily about what student ministry is doing in the building, but what student ministry is doing outside of the building.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:35.992)
That's good, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:41.105)
Heh.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:51.405)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:59.608)
That's good.

Darren Sutton (11:00.908)
you know, was super helpful. It also helped that I had a very open senior pastor. You know what? I didn't turn my phone off.

Sorry, Nick. You probably couldn't hear that, but I could. Okay, sorry. Are you editing this? I'm assuming you edit. All right, I'm gonna go back then. It didn't hurt that I had just a really open senior pastor. I think he hired me with the babysitting mindset, but it didn't take him long to see that student mystery could be way more than that. So I was fortunate in that way.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:11.224)
That's good.

No, I heard it. It was great. It was a great sound.

I mean, I will, yeah. Yeah, okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:34.548)
Mm. Yeah, that's good.

Darren Sutton (11:36.3)
So once we had students kind of operating around the building, it made it way easier for me to go up to randos and say, hey, so and so told me you'd be great. Or I'm gonna out myself with some really shallow things. I'm just gonna say. So if we were in worship and I saw folks who I felt like were truly connecting with worship.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:52.856)
lol

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:04.663)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (12:05.132)
That mattered to me, not because we had a worship ministry, but because I felt like those people were intentionally trying to connect with the heart of God when we were doing, you know, church. And so I just started introducing myself and doing a slow kind of a slow ask. Some might call it chess, where I would, I know you would, you know, where I would just go introduce myself. I'm a student pastor. Hey, just, you know,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:07.703)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:12.354)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:24.472)
I would call it chest.

Darren Sutton (12:32.429)
appreciated your investment in church today or whatever. And then a of weeks later, I asked them how they were doing. Like I would start trying to build a relationship knowing that my end game, which didn't always work out, but my end game was to get them involved in students. The Lord might've had a different end game and sometimes he did, but I did that. I made sure that this was easier.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:57.282)
So this is everyone's permission to keep your eyes open during worship.

Darren Sutton (13:01.228)
Yeah, 100 % 100%. And you know, not to say that hands raised means anything because it doesn't, but I looked at people and went, look, their hands up. They're volunteering. Another thing that was again, a little easier in the context I was in, I got involved in a in a connect group and a life group Sunday school class, whatever your know, whatever your church calls it. And while

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:07.884)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:11.584)
you

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:22.614)
Yeah, A D group.

I wanted to keep rattling them off but my brain went completely dead.

Darren Sutton (13:31.534)
While that didn't, I wasn't necessarily pulling people from that group. That group of all kind of young parents, it was early in our ministry, like they were the movers and shakers in our church. And so they were talking up the student ministry. I was able to talk it up in my small group. And then the last thing I did was done a little bit because I...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:47.949)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (13:59.936)
you know, because I just felt stubborn about it. We had a set of senior adults in our church who were fantastic. I mean, you know, they did everything. They did all the serving. We had a Wednesday night meal. This is a long time ago. We a Wednesday night meal and they cooked the meal and they ran the kitchen and they just did everything. And I intentionally started developing relationships with those ladies.

and started trying to get them involved in doing some things. And I have always kind of felt like senior adults make some really great student ministers. And so I was intentionally going after them and there was a lady, her name was Belle. Belle was a little bit of your typical cranky church lady. And I said something about, you know, being involved in student ministry or whatever. And she was like, I'll never work with students. And I just went.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:35.028)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Darren Sutton (14:55.148)
before I die, you will, whatever it takes. And so a little bit, I would target people, I think that way. don't, target's probably not the right word, but I would just, I would set my sight on somebody that I really wanted and I just kind of wouldn't let it go. Didn't harass. Sometimes that took a long time. It took me maybe like three-ish or four years before I finally got Bell to start something in students. And by the time we were,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:04.152)
lol

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:09.089)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:22.861)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (15:24.84)
She was all in like she was hosting D nows at her house and you know all kinds of stuff. So I just think that it is not being afraid to ask, making sure that your students are visible so that people know that teenagers don't bite. They're not scary and then not counting anybody out. I mean from from 21 we are our age range started at 21. We wanted to give kids some separation from student ministry, but from 21 to death.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:28.258)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:36.482)
Mm-hmm.

Darren Sutton (15:54.208)
It didn't matter who you were, parent, not a parent, old lady, college student. Like we would go after everybody and did. just never, I never met a person that I didn't think was called. And you know, my dad, yeah, I think there was a book title and a full philosophy. And I just wouldn't, I mean, I took no for an answer. I didn't try to get people to serve who didn't really didn't want to.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:54.242)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:02.476)
Yeah, that's good.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:08.29)
Some might say there's a book title in that.

Darren Sutton (16:23.148)
but I wouldn't take no as the first answer. So Belle said no and I was like, well, will you make sandwiches for Wednesday night? We didn't need sandwiches for Wednesday night. We already have Wednesday night supper, but she did it. You know what I'm saying? She started there. And then I would get some of those key students and say, hey, you guys make sure and thank Ms. Belle for these sandwiches. so, you know.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:33.431)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:43.032)
Well, and I think there's a, probably a principle in there of like, if you only ever like recruit to the need, then when the need is great, then your anxiety is high because you have like a lot of, a lot of need and a lot of holes to fill. But if you're always have your eye on this sort of like recruiting or onboarding mindset, even if you are onboarding them and there's nowhere to put them, like it's better.

Darren Sutton (17:10.733)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:12.044)
to have an overabundance, a wealth of riches, than to just be like, well, I'm fully staffed, quote unquote, right now. But in a few months you might not be, and then again, you're like, man, I'm failing again. So I think the good principle is for anyone in youth ministry who feels like they're struggling with volunteers, just start asking people and keep asking them.

Darren Sutton (17:14.091)
percent.

Darren Sutton (17:35.852)
never, it didn't matter how full I was, I never told somebody no. And in that church specifically, and in several of my churches, like I would have every spot full and I would be creating roles because I just wanted to make sure that people who wanted to be involved in the next generation could be.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:40.087)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:47.928)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:54.7)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (17:54.894)
And I tried really hard to not enlist them to a position, but to enlist them to a vision, to a purpose and what their life could mean, even if all they were doing is making sandwiches. And sometimes that's what it was, right? I don't have a spot for this person, but hey, could you go shopping for me on Tuesday? I would find things for them to do so I didn't have to tell them no. Because you might be fully staffed today and tomorrow, you know,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:02.102)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:10.828)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:20.342)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (18:24.848)
your leader has a parent who has to move in with them and their whole life changes and they need to step out. So I never counted on being fully staffed. And when I was fully staffed, I felt like I was always kind of back filling with the people who were the next to step in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:41.58)
Yeah. So that's a flex, being fully staffed or being so staffed that you have volunteers that you're just like making stuff up. So that leads to like, in my opinion, the next sort of like big bucket of this conversation is like, how do you, how do you keep good leaders so that they don't dip out on you?

Darren Sutton (18:51.255)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (19:03.405)
Yeah. Yeah, 100%. You know, I think this just happened because a little bit it's my personality bit. I wasn't being intentional about this. I just felt like, you know, as I knew that volunteers were important and that part of my job was shepherding them and it wasn't just about hanging out with the kids and you know, all of that. So I was very...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:15.512)
You

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:26.306)
Right.

Darren Sutton (19:32.066)
what's the right word? Pastoral is the only word I can think of. I knew my job was to shepherd them. It wasn't just to enlist them and get them sitting in front of teenagers, it was to help them along. So, you know, I...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (19:39.159)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (19:48.148)
I'm pretty good at sending notes of appreciation and not generic notes. Hey, I saw you talking to this kid. Hey, I heard a parent say this about you. Hey, you know, so that they would know that what they were doing was being seen. And I think that's a piece of it. know, gift cards go a long way, even if it's five bucks to Starbucks, because we all know five bucks isn't going to buy anything at Starbucks. But it's not that it's not that it is.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:01.826)
yeah

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:15.625)
Mm-hmm.

Darren Sutton (20:15.936)
it is noticing them that matters, right? I was a little bit of a bulldog, absolutely insistent on leader training. Not necessarily to make them better, but to make them better, but more to build community among our leaders so that they didn't want to leave.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:24.971)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:33.048)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (20:36.91)
Often volunteers who serve in students sacrifice a community group of some sort in order to serve so they don't have that. And a lot of times when they don't have that or they don't sense the feel of community, they'll dip so they can go be in their own Sunday school class or, you know, life group or whatever it is. And so I even though we weren't that we weren't doing Bible studies together every week, I wanted them to feel like, man, if something happens, my student

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:43.052)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:55.607)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (21:07.044)
team has my back and so and you know this because you work with me I'm pretty intentional still to this day about making sure that those leader training times are as much about building community and connection as they are about becoming a better you know volunteer.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:08.152)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:19.544)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:23.041)
Yeah, for sure.

Darren Sutton (21:24.416)
And then I'm a big fan of not recruiting people until death. So we actually recruit to a cycle. So we're gonna ask you to step in here and we're gonna ask you to go until this point. And then if you wanna step out, we'll embrace you and be sad when you go, most of you. You you occasionally have that one leader where that ending date really helps you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:37.536)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:43.606)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (21:49.966)
what you said earlier, like kind of helps you fire somebody. Like, hey, it's coming to the end of your term, thanks so much. Like, here's a Sunday school class for you to go to, you know, whatever. But largely, it was an opportunity for me to be more mindful and intentional about recruiting division. So if they didn't hear it any other time, once a year in the kind of re-recruiting phase,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:53.431)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:56.856)
Yeah

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:07.233)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:16.823)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (22:17.33)
They were going to be reminded of what they were doing. It was an opportunity for me to say, tell me, tell me what to struggle. What? How can I help you? Do you still love this role? Is there another role that you've seen other people performing in that you would like to try out? Would you so they don't feel like, hey man, if I say yes to leading this, you know, home group, I'm going to be leading it until I die. Yeah, exactly. You know.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:26.295)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:31.894)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (22:38.018)
I'm stuck for life, yeah.

But I think that might give some youth pastors listening hives, because they're already feeling strapped with leaders, and then they get good ones and they're like, wait, you give them an end date? And the irony in that is that doing that, again, I won't put words in your mouth, but doing that helps them feel like seen and appreciated and that you value them. so rather than them leaving at the end of the term,

Darren Sutton (22:55.148)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:11.562)
they like immediately re-up and come back.

Darren Sutton (23:13.612)
Yeah, yeah. And the truth is when you're when you have equipped them well, they know what their mission is. They feel supported by their community. They don't want to leave. We we in all kinds of different ways for the last 25 years, I've tried to give my volunteers breaks, whether that was a bucket of time like, hey, everybody's off in the summer and we'll take care of it. Or, know, what we currently do is

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:32.311)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (23:40.672)
a day off about every six-ish weeks where we just say to our volunteers, don't come, the student ministry's got it, students got it, you know, whatever. Giving them those moments basically to come up for air helps them stay in the water a lot longer. So yeah, we do give an end date, but I have only had a few people take advantage of that. And when they have, it's never been because they didn't want to do student ministry anymore.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:44.343)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (23:54.413)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:09.89)
Right.

Darren Sutton (24:10.228)
It's always been because my life circumstances have changed and I need a break. And, you know, the other piece of that that is helpful is when life circumstances do change, most of them won't dip until they get to that end date. And so even though their trauma, you know, whatever it was, their job change, their, you know, sickness, their parents or kids or whatever happened in November.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:15.074)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:34.367)
Mm. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (24:39.63)
They know they committed until June 1st and they're going to say occasionally, occasionally, you know, to be a good pastor, you're going to say, listen, I know your life is upside down right now. Uh, just go ahead and step out. Like let's take a break. And then you're going to bring in, you know, somebody who's on the bench, who's been begging to be involved, who you've got in a, you know, maybe a less influential position, but who's ready to step up. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:41.666)
and they'll still ride it out. Yeah, that's good.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:49.409)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (24:52.78)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (25:03.35)
Yeah, so real quick before we leave, let's just make a big list of volunteer roles that are a little bit, because I think, again, Average Joe, Normal Youth Pastor, Normal Youth Ministry in America, every volunteer that they have is to lead discussion, small group, school, whatever you want to call it with students.

Darren Sutton (25:29.134)
Yeah, for sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (25:31.064)
But there's a million other things and some people don't want to do that. Like we have a guy on our team right now who's awesome. He's like, I don't want to lead a Bible study, but he loves teenagers. He's like fun at heart. You know, like he's, he's the type of guy you'd want on your team, but he, he felt disqualified because he's like, I'm not equipped for that slash don't want to do it. And so like, to your point, there's a million things you can do. can make sandwiches. So what are some over the years, you're 35.

Darren Sutton (25:53.112)
Right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:00.28)
plus years of experience. What are some of the different roles that you've had created, invented? Like give us some of the funniest best ones you got.

Darren Sutton (26:09.102)
Oh, I don't know. I have some that you couldn't do anymore. You know, I mean, I love that the, you're just going to show up at their like, you don't, you don't have to lead a Bible study, but I want you to show up at every single basketball game this kid has, you know, as just kind of a, you know, a big brother figure. You know, we had a lot of over the years had different

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:12.024)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Share those two from the the crypt.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:29.464)
Mm.

Darren Sutton (26:39.53)
spots had a lot of rec space. and so, you know, listen, I don't want you to do anything except play basketball. That's all you have to do. Play basketball and talk to students. you know, we also had the proverbial like set up chairs and, you know, come in and create, you know, new student, new student guest kits and, know, that kind of stuff. Probably the funniest one that we had was, in one church that I was in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:41.816)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (26:48.534)
I love that job.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:00.684)
Yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (27:09.224)
our student center was a kind of refabbed pavilion on the back of an acre and a half plot. So the church was at the front right and the student ministry area was at the back left and no lights, barely electricity. We threw up fake walls. We had window units kind of shoved in the corner and you know, as janky as it could be.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:16.578)
Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:23.755)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (27:38.478)
and so every week we would have fire ants that were building in the building, right? Like building these nests in the building. So we had our, our guy who would come in and kill the fire ants every week, and sweep it all out. That was his only job. Like he didn't want to hang out with students and all that, but he felt like that was a contribution he can make. had people in that same church, like one of the ways that we

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (27:53.046)
You

Darren Sutton (28:05.814)
kind of lighted the path in the middle of the night to that back area where with tiki torches. And so we had folks who would come in and, you know, light the tiki torches and sweep the pathway off and, you know, that kind of thing. So those were kind of unique. We had for a time, folks who would be, you know, kind of the bus run, except in their vehicles, we, don't do that anymore. Just generally for ministry safe purposes, but

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:10.359)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:28.941)
Right.

Darren Sutton (28:31.822)
Their only job was to pick kids up and drive them back and forth to church. They didn't stay in the youth ministry. didn't, but we gave them like in that job description, here are some questions you can be asking when kids get in your car to get the conversation going and you know, make sure you meet the parents and you know, things like that to help them be a little bit more invested in real life with kids. Had some volunteers whose main job was to reach out to parents.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (28:37.016)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (28:59.886)
and make sure that, you know, hey, we know parenting teenagers is tough. Is there anything the student ministry can do for you? That was their only job to just keep a list of parents would love this. Parents would need that. And they pass that over to me and I'd figure out what we could do and you know, what was a really stupid idea we had to throw away. So some stuff like that. Once, you know, this one is selfish, but was important.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:07.672)
Hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:18.136)
Yeah, nice. keep going.

Darren Sutton (29:27.694)
uh, more important than I realized, I think at the time, uh, I enlisted somebody to pay attention to my kids. Uh, your job is and not just mine, but in that, in that church, just mine. But if we were in our context, we're having multiple staff members, it would be staff kids. Uh, but I, I was like, you know, my kids sacrifice a lot for me to be in student ministry and they were not teenagers yet. They were, you know, I don't know, 11, nine and seven, they were young. I just said, can you

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:35.063)
Uh-huh.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:42.646)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (29:53.708)
Yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (29:56.792)
Can you just notice my kids? Like they're here a lot. They sacrifice a lot for ministry. Their dad's a pastor and so I'm sure that they're they need adults who are not their pastor. You know as well and your your jobs to just notice my kids and they crushed that like our kids to this day feel like those people are their grandparents even more than their actual grandparents. So that's another one.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:02.263)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:10.028)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:21.4)
It's cool.

Yeah, that's cool.

Darren Sutton (30:25.21)
You can come up with everything. Host homes and sandwich makers and so many ways to get people close enough to see what Jesus is doing without them having to lead a Bible study ever.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:27.832)
.

Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:37.335)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (30:43.512)
Yeah, that's good. So, okay, last thing. Talk to the youth pastor who's struggling, floundering, drowning. Find a word of encouragement about the importance of leaders and maybe just a basic for them next step. Hey, if you're gonna do anything, first thing to do is just do this. Don't feel overwhelmed by all of this. Maybe you don't have the...

Capacity to get a fire ant guy yet. Okay, that's fine But speak speak to that speak to the guy who's just like man. don't leaders are killing like it's just the hardest, you know part of my job, whatever like Encourage them for a second

Darren Sutton (31:22.712)
Yeah. Well, let me just say first, it's not your job. That's not your job. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. And he's very clear in scripture that we all have a part to play.

and that our job as pastors is to equip the saints for the work of service. Our job is not to make sure we have plenty of volunteers, not to make sure every hole gets filled. Our job is just to equip the people that the Holy Spirit brings. We can be more proactive in bringing them, but the Holy Spirit is the one who quickens their heart to be involved. So that's not your job. Your job isn't to convince them. Your job is to shepherd them and to give them an opportunity to step into what God is calling them to do.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (31:39.352)
Mm-hmm.

Darren Sutton (32:04.718)
Don't take the whole burden on yourself. And I mean that in two ways. It's the Holy Spirit's job and also you have some people, you definitely have some people who care about student ministry who will help recruit for you. You utilize that, whether that's other staff members, folks that are currently on your volunteer team, a parent who just happens to take a particular interest in what's going on in student ministry.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:20.792)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:31.224)
Teenagers.

Darren Sutton (32:32.364)
Yeah, for sure. 100 % ask a kid who they think would make a great youth leader. They'll have a list guaranteed. So.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:34.519)
you

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (32:38.742)
Yeah, yeah. I had a teenager one time go and list the head usher on his own. Yeah, I was like, well, I'll talk to him too. But it was great.

Darren Sutton (32:44.891)
Poach them from other ministries? I love it.

That's fantastic. But just don't feel the burden that it's all on you and don't feel the burden that it all has to happen right now. For me, it was a slow, kind of a slow burn into that whole idea that volunteers could be more and I needed to ask them to do more and be more. That took time. And it's not a foolproof, like,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:16.502)
Yeah.

Darren Sutton (33:21.322)
I mean, we serving in church right now and across from this podcast, there's a big sheet on my door that lists every volunteer hole we have right now. And we have a lot. There's probably 20 people on there that we need to fill. So, you know, you're always going to have the need. You can't let the holes be what drives you. You've got to let the people who are in the room, you know, a little bit.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:31.384)
Yeah. Yeah.

Darren Sutton (33:47.384)
be what drives you. So, and it's totally doable because Jesus wants those kids even more than you do. And he's gonna raise up the people that are needed to help get them where he needs them to be.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (33:48.984)
That's good.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:01.304)
Nice, that's good. All right, anything else? Did we get it all?

Darren Sutton (34:05.312)
Yeah, think we, I mean, I'm sure we didn't get it all, but we got, you got all I got.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:08.28)
Well, that's a lot it's helpful so where do people find you Darren?

Darren Sutton (34:18.03)
listen, I'm everywhere. I'm, I'm almost like the Holy Spirit everywhere you are. am, I'm on all, I'm on all social stuff. if you're, yes. Well, actually I can't, you can't say that anymore. I deleted my account after it banned.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:22.039)
Woo!

That's scary.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:29.738)
including band TikTok. If you'd like to send...

It's back, it's back now.

Darren Sutton (34:38.464)
I know I'm trying to decide like, listen, I had so this whole podcast, I had so much time open up in my life that I'm like, maybe I don't want to, I'm not sure if I want to, if I want to take it back. But yeah, I mean, you know, Insta and Facebook and Twitter and you know, all that, I have a blog. everyone's called the youth ministry.com and, I'm not, you know, I have, I'm just like you. I'm an in the trenches youth pastor. So if you're looking for a regular, like,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:42.712)
You

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (34:56.856)
Nice. We'll link it down below.

Darren Sutton (35:08.184)
podcast and a blog post. I don't do that. But I've been in this thing for a few minutes and I'm not planning on going anywhere. And so I love talking to you pastors. And if you ever need a guy who has made as many mistakes as you feel like you're making, you can reach out. Cause I got a whole list. Lots of stories. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (35:24.856)
You

There you go. That's big right there. All right. Well, hey, for Darren, this is Nick signing off. See you guys.

Darren Sutton (35:33.944)
Bye guys.

]]> Episode 073: ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Shepherding ๐Ÿ‘ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/073 ba14a6da-17c7-475e-a57f-ec5fa8359e16 Thu, 30 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 073 ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Shepherding ๐Ÿ‘ full Nick Clason ๐Ÿ‘ In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, churches nationwide are embracing innovative strategies to guide and nurture their congregations. Join us as we embark on a journey to explore the new frontiers of digital discipleship, specifically focusing on the role of shepherding. 16:40 no <h3>๐Ÿ”ฅSURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME ๐Ÿ”ฅ</h3> <p>๐Ÿ“… <strong>"1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"</strong><br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>โ˜๏ธ<strong>ONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS &amp; SHORTS</strong><br> <em>OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS</em><br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ <strong>EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST</strong><br> <em>Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist</em><br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ</a></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong></p> <p><strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> ๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome to our YouTube channel &amp; podcast! </p> <p>๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.</p> <p>๐Ÿ‘ Shepherding<br> It's not as sleek and sexy as Games and Message Enhancement, but it might ultimately be the key to unlocking true pastoral leadership and care.<br> And how do we do so in a new digital frontier and digital landscape?</p> <p>We'll talk about it!</p> <p>Be sure to go back and check out the last two videos where we discussed...</p> <p>๐ŸŽฎGames<br> ๐Ÿ’ฌ Message Enhancement<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ</a></p> <p>So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing!</p> Shepherding #PastoralCare #DigitalFrontier <p><strong>========================================</strong></p> <p><strong>๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“</strong><br> ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>๐Ÿฉ <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"<br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong><br> ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS</p> <h2><a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></h2> <p>๐Ÿ‘‰ <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a></p> <h2>Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a> </h2> <p>๐Ÿ““<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/073" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/073</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/yFa8UjlDigs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/yFa8UjlDigs</a></p> <p>//YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS<br> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity</a><br> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204527836" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204527836</a></p> <p>//PLANNING CENTER PEOPLE<br> <a href="https://www.planningcenter.com/people" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.planningcenter.com/people</a></p> <p>//GROW NUMBERS<br> <a href="https://growcurriculum.org/numbers/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://growcurriculum.org/numbers/</a></p> <p>//FLASHCARDS APP<br> <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flash-cards-go-flashcards/id1257862568" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flash-cards-go-flashcards/id1257862568</a></p> <hr> <p>๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00-01:28 Shepherding and Pastoral Care is the secret sauce to communicating God's love<br> 01:28-04:18 Why Hybrid and Shepherding are surprising linked<br> 04:18-09:19 Digital Shepherding Hack #1<br> 09:19-12:00 Digital Shepherding Hack #2<br> 12:00-13:53 Digital Shepherding Hack #3<br> 13:53-16:40 Digital Shepherding Bonus Hack #1 &amp; #2</p> <hr> <p>โœ๏ธ<strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com<br> rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</p> <p>Nick Clason (00:00):<br> Pastoring, shepherding, caring for people. It's hard work. Let's just be honest. And in this third episode of this playlist, exploring New Digital Frontiers. In the last episode, we looked at games and then we looked at message enhancement. And now in this episode, the final installment of the playlist, we're going to be looking at pastoral care. I get it, it's not the fun, it's not the sexy, it's not the social media, but pastoral care is really the secret sauce. It is the warmth that what brings people back to your church. So how do you as a pastor, church leader, ministry leader, or maybe even just a small group leader, care for your people? But how do you use technology and hybrid ministry to make it easier, more efficient, and create a more inviting and warm atmosphere around you and your group and your church? In this episode, we're going to look at three ideas that you can start using immediately in your ministry to care for people well. </p> <p>Nick Clason (01:11):<br> And beyond that, I have a tool that I think every church needs to use. And finally, make sure you stick around to the end of the video because we are going to give you two bonus tips, and I think the bonus tips might be worth the price of admission. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. My name is Nick Clayson. I am a youth pastor, currently situated and located in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth, area Y hybrid ministry. What I mean by hybrid is not just physical, not just digital, but a melding of the two, a hybrid experience between your physical and your digital. It's using technology to lean into the already in-person moment that is existing. And you and I know that pastoral care happens best, need a knee, eye to eye, maybe over a cup of coffee, but sometimes you're not physically with the person that you need to be with. </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:06):<br> And so how do we meld the physical and the digital and bring it together to make it hybrid? And the reason I think this is important is because Gen Z and Gen Alpha are using their cell phone screen-based device more than any other screen-based device combined. And so the reality is cell phones aren't going anywhere, which is why I created this completely free ebook from scratch. It's going to give you 40 ideas a month's worth of social media that you can bring into your ministry and use in your social media. But here's why this plan is different than all the other plans. First of all, it's free, and second of all, it's recyclable and reproducible. And third, it is you and your students and your leaders on camera. It's not just a bunch of static roped, stoic graphics. And here's the thing, I think in this playlist, the shepherding idea, this might be the easiest of all the other ideas to understand more than games, maybe even more than teaching enhancement. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:07):<br> But some of the ideas I'm going to give you, you're going to be like, yeah, that's obvious. That's dumb, and I get it. But I do have two bonus ideas that I think are pretty next level that you're probably not thinking of. They're not revolutionary, they're not some super secret face scanning app that's going to help you be more caring of the people in your space. But they are just a little bit more outside of the box because I think that the ideas I have for you, you maybe haven't heard of or even haven't tried. But hey, before we dive in, I would love to encourage you for a like and a subscribe. Those two things are completely free for you, and they would mean the world to us because really, I do want you to be the best pastor possible to your students, to your church, to the people that God's entrusted to you. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:51):<br> And if you like, you subscribe, you're going to help get this message out to other people as well as not miss other ideas that we have coming your way that's really just going to help come alongside and help you be the best pastor, ministry leader or small group leader possible for you, for your students and for the people that God has entrusted into your care. So without any further fanfare, let's dive into three hybrid ministry ideas for shepherding and four K. So as we explore new digital frontiers and games, as we explore new digital frontiers and message enhancement, those things are a little bit more outside the box, a little bit more revolutionary, a little bit more, you got to kind of think and maybe squint your eyes and tilt your head and be like, okay, I see how you could incorporate that. But what I'm about to share with you are things that I think are pretty standard in most churches. </p> <p>Nick Clason (04:43):<br> And so the first hybrid idea, the first hybrid tool, the first digital tool, and again, you might even as I say this, you can be like, well, yeah, okay, it is a church management software. And listen, I get it right. It is about the most basic thing. Most churches in America have One, you got Church Community Builder, you got Planning Center, you got the Rock, you got ACS through rum, through ACS. There are a lot of different options. Comment below what your church is using as a church management software, but here's what I want to let you know is if you're in a church like me, when I first started, we didn't do church management softwares. Our church management software was this small little tool called Excel. And if you're in a church that doesn't do church management softwares, and I get it, the median sized church in America is 75 people. </p> <p>Nick Clason (05:39):<br> And so that's what the majority of churches around America, that's the size that most of them are. And so there may be a world where a church management software is not a defacto element to what you're doing. There are a couple of tools out there I want to share with you, links down below in the description that are actually free. So if your student ministry is 25 and under, there's a grow resource curriculum company by Kenny and l. Theirs is completely free. If you have under 25 people in your ministry, free forever under 25. And so what it does is it helps you with check-ins, sign in, and just keeping track of who's been there in the weeks to come. And that's part of pastoral care, right? Knowing who's been there so that you can reach out to those who haven't been there. Another option that's completely free, and it's free no matter the size is Planning Center people. </p> <p>Nick Clason (06:40):<br> Now Planning Center is made famous through their services app, which is what musicians and bands would send their other band members, music song, song charts, lyrics, things for people to practice. They could assign you different positions like you're on drums this week, you're on bass this week. And then Planning Center started to dabble in other areas and other elements. And so Planning Center people is amazing and it links really well with services, planning Center Services, the module, but also events and registration and a calendaring and giving. I was in a church that didn't have a church management software. And then we finally did come around to a church management software and we went in on Planning Center. The downside of Planning Center is this, it's expensive. The upside of Planning Center is frankly, I've used all the ones I mentioned earlier, the Rock, ACS Realm, CCB Church, community Builder and Planning Center. </p> <p>Nick Clason (07:39):<br> And Planning Center was my favorite by far. Hands down is also the most expensive, and so you just need to know that. But planning Center people is not expensive. It's all the other elements to make it kind of work together so that giving works together and that registration works together and that services works together, all linking in with people. But Planning Center People is completely free. If you want to do Check-in, it's another module that costs more money, but both of those are free Grow numbers under 25 and Planning Center people Free Forever links below in the description to check those out. But what they do is they just help you keep track of your people, their information addresses, emails, phone numbers. And as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader, one of the things I think that Covid did was it brought back some of the more old school ways to do pastoral care. </p> <p>Nick Clason (08:31):<br> Right now, as a youth pastor send so many handwritten notes, and the way that I use that and the way that I use my church management software is I look the person up, I get their address, I write them a note and I mail it to 'em. The reality is I couldn't do that without that tool. And so again, it might seem basic, but the first idea I have for you is use and utilize your church management software. Now, if you already have one, you don't have to get it set up. You have maybe an admin who's keeping track of those things. That's great. That just gives you more access and more ability to help care for the people that God has entrusted to. So get creative, think outside the box. How else can you lean in and utilize your church management software to your advantage? </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:21):<br> Hybrid idea number two that I have for you is text messaging. And again, I get it, you're like, dude, are you serious? That's so basic. But I just want to let you know when we had a death in the family last year, about a year ago at this point, and I was on my way driving a thousand miles from here back to our hometown, I got countless amounts of text messaging, countless amounts of phone calls from people who wanted to just offer care and support and love and text messaging is a really simple way that, think about it. Before the advent and invention of the cell phone, you had to be physically in a room with someone to offer care, and you should still do that, right? This is hybrid. That's not throwing out the in-person, but that's saying, Hey, I know this thing about you because of our in-person relationship. </p> <p>Nick Clason (10:18):<br> I know this thing about you because of our in-person relationship. However, what I also know about you is that you're going through something difficult. And while I can't be with you right now, I can lean into the digital expression of our relationship, a cell phone, and I can text you and say, Hey, man, praying for you. It's so simple and I don't know about you, but for me, that means just as much as getting flowers or getting a meal sent to my home or even getting a handwritten note, frankly, I don't need some grand expression of shepherding or pastoral care. I just need to know that someone is there for me. Like I've told you, and in the intro, I'm in Texas, but I've been a youth pastor in Chicago. I've been a youth pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio. I've been a youth pastor in Dayton, Ohio, and still to this day, I keep up with students of mine. </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:09):<br> We have the world's longest Snapchat streak, and I definitely don't recommend that you Snapchat your students. But what I have done is some of my students who've graduated and have volunteered for me at camps and retreats in the past as graduated seniors and students now, I keep up with them and we talk and it's an everyday thing on the Snapchat streak. So sometimes we don't talk about anything, but I know when they're getting new jobs, we talk about the Bengals because that's their favorite team. We talk about their dad who's having procedures and surgeries. That is one way that I just keep up in the lives of students that are no longer in youth ministry. They're in their twenties now, but I still have a relationship with them because of what my cell phone. So don't overlook the power of what your cell phone can do for you and how it can help you care for the people that God has entrusted to. </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:59):<br> You have idea number three, and I'll say this, this may not be the best youth ministry friendly idea, but Facebook groups, it isn't. If it isn't helpful for you and your youth ministry and your students, it can still be helpful for you and your youth ministry and your students' parents. And so create community, create a place where conversation can happen. I think sometimes it's a little difficult to do. I think sometimes it feels more like an announcement billboard thing, but some of the best groups, some of my best experiences on Facebook are in a group dynamic and in a group setting. For example, the Download Youth Ministry community Facebook group, the Youth Pastors Only Facebook group by Ymm 360. I'll link both of those down below in the description. If you're not, are any in them, check it out because honestly, it's people who are like, Hey, what do you guys do for Halloween? </p> <p>Nick Clason (12:52):<br> What do you guys do for a harvest party? What do you guys do for a Christmas party? What are your Christmas leader idea gifts? How are you guys using chat GPT in your ministry to help you out? It's just a open source area for youth pastors to have a conversation. I wish that our Facebook groups could be an open source place for our parents to have a conversation about raising teenagers, because raising teenagers is hard, and there should be a place where the church is both the safest place to do it and where other parents can come alongside and give helpful tips, tricks, and hacks. And so I think that that can be a great place to not only help people just with tips, tricks and hacks, but also provide pastoral care because you can reach out and be like, Hey, and then this is going to put some ownership on the person, but if they're going through something, they might offer a prayer request. </p> <p>Nick Clason (13:43):<br> And then if you're in that group, you are aware of something going on, which then you can go to your church management system, get their phone number and text them, and boom, which use all three of 'em. The two ideas I have for you that you're probably not thinking of are your personal intercessory, pastoral prayer for your people is probably the secret sauce to you shepherding your people well. And so maybe for you, you just have a vibrant prayer life. But one of the things I know is that most people I talk to, prayer is always an area they're wanting to grow in. I know it's an area that I'm always looking and wanting to grow in. And so one of my favorite apps is the YouVersion Bible app, and they have a prayer section. You can just log your prayers. And so maybe that can be a place where you can pray for the students in which God has entrusted to you, and you can break 'em up into categories. </p> <p>Nick Clason (14:42):<br> So you can have your own kind of prayer list. You can have maybe a gratitude list or something, but you could also have an intercessory prayer for your students list, and you just list them out by name and you just pray for your students by name. And that's going to be one of the most impactful ways for you to have a heart that grows with care and compassion and empathy for your students in which God has entrusted into your care. But maybe you just need a tool to help you organize your thoughts, to stay on track and to not forget things. The other idea I have for you is an app called Flashcard Go, and you can download it in the app store. Full disclosure, I've never used it. It's also an iPhone app, not an iPhone guy. But if I was thinking if it's customizable to the way that I believe, they are telling me it's customizable. </p> <p>Nick Clason (15:28):<br> What if you put faces of your students on flashcards and you could swipe through and see a picture of your student? Be like, got to pray for Gabe. Swipe through. Got to pray for Cameron, his relationship with his girlfriend right now, school. Got to pray for Caleb. Everything he's going through, the wrestling lady is having about faith. Got to pray for Megan. Megan, who's struggling with this, this, and this that could help you. Again, similar to the prayer app, filter your thoughts and pray for your students and pray for your students. Because here's the deal, we're in a new age. We're in the digital era, and some of the good things about physical gatherings aren't going anywhere. But how can you bring about the digital to enhance your physical ministry and make a difference both through games, through message enhancement and not through shepherding? Because I believe that every youth ministry needs to stop ignoring digital ministry. And that's the next video that's going to be linked here on the screen. Take a look at that because we're trying to make digital discipleship easy and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid </p> Hybrid Ministry, Shepherding, Pastoral Care, How to Care for Students, How to Care for Teenagers, How to use your cell phone to care for hurting teens, hurting students, how to lead a small group, how to be a great small group leader, church pastors, pastoral care and shepherding ๐Ÿ”ฅSURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME ๐Ÿ”ฅ

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
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โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
OPUS FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST
Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.

๐Ÿ‘ Shepherding
It's not as sleek and sexy as Games and Message Enhancement, but it might ultimately be the key to unlocking true pastoral leadership and care.
And how do we do so in a new digital frontier and digital landscape?

We'll talk about it!

Be sure to go back and check out the last two videos where we discussed...

๐ŸŽฎGames
๐Ÿ’ฌ Message Enhancement
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing!

Shepherding #PastoralCare #DigitalFrontier

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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
//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

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

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/073

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/yFa8UjlDigs

//YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204527836

//PLANNING CENTER PEOPLE
https://www.planningcenter.com/people

//GROW NUMBERS
https://growcurriculum.org/numbers/

//FLASHCARDS APP
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flash-cards-go-flashcards/id1257862568

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-01:28 Shepherding and Pastoral Care is the secret sauce to communicating God's love
01:28-04:18 Why Hybrid and Shepherding are surprising linked
04:18-09:19 Digital Shepherding Hack #1
09:19-12:00 Digital Shepherding Hack #2
12:00-13:53 Digital Shepherding Hack #3
13:53-16:40 Digital Shepherding Bonus Hack #1 & #2

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Pastoring, shepherding, caring for people. It's hard work. Let's just be honest. And in this third episode of this playlist, exploring New Digital Frontiers. In the last episode, we looked at games and then we looked at message enhancement. And now in this episode, the final installment of the playlist, we're going to be looking at pastoral care. I get it, it's not the fun, it's not the sexy, it's not the social media, but pastoral care is really the secret sauce. It is the warmth that what brings people back to your church. So how do you as a pastor, church leader, ministry leader, or maybe even just a small group leader, care for your people? But how do you use technology and hybrid ministry to make it easier, more efficient, and create a more inviting and warm atmosphere around you and your group and your church? In this episode, we're going to look at three ideas that you can start using immediately in your ministry to care for people well.

Nick Clason (01:11):
And beyond that, I have a tool that I think every church needs to use. And finally, make sure you stick around to the end of the video because we are going to give you two bonus tips, and I think the bonus tips might be worth the price of admission. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. My name is Nick Clayson. I am a youth pastor, currently situated and located in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth, area Y hybrid ministry. What I mean by hybrid is not just physical, not just digital, but a melding of the two, a hybrid experience between your physical and your digital. It's using technology to lean into the already in-person moment that is existing. And you and I know that pastoral care happens best, need a knee, eye to eye, maybe over a cup of coffee, but sometimes you're not physically with the person that you need to be with.

Nick Clason (02:06):
And so how do we meld the physical and the digital and bring it together to make it hybrid? And the reason I think this is important is because Gen Z and Gen Alpha are using their cell phone screen-based device more than any other screen-based device combined. And so the reality is cell phones aren't going anywhere, which is why I created this completely free ebook from scratch. It's going to give you 40 ideas a month's worth of social media that you can bring into your ministry and use in your social media. But here's why this plan is different than all the other plans. First of all, it's free, and second of all, it's recyclable and reproducible. And third, it is you and your students and your leaders on camera. It's not just a bunch of static roped, stoic graphics. And here's the thing, I think in this playlist, the shepherding idea, this might be the easiest of all the other ideas to understand more than games, maybe even more than teaching enhancement.

Nick Clason (03:07):
But some of the ideas I'm going to give you, you're going to be like, yeah, that's obvious. That's dumb, and I get it. But I do have two bonus ideas that I think are pretty next level that you're probably not thinking of. They're not revolutionary, they're not some super secret face scanning app that's going to help you be more caring of the people in your space. But they are just a little bit more outside of the box because I think that the ideas I have for you, you maybe haven't heard of or even haven't tried. But hey, before we dive in, I would love to encourage you for a like and a subscribe. Those two things are completely free for you, and they would mean the world to us because really, I do want you to be the best pastor possible to your students, to your church, to the people that God's entrusted to you.

Nick Clason (03:51):
And if you like, you subscribe, you're going to help get this message out to other people as well as not miss other ideas that we have coming your way that's really just going to help come alongside and help you be the best pastor, ministry leader or small group leader possible for you, for your students and for the people that God has entrusted into your care. So without any further fanfare, let's dive into three hybrid ministry ideas for shepherding and four K. So as we explore new digital frontiers and games, as we explore new digital frontiers and message enhancement, those things are a little bit more outside the box, a little bit more revolutionary, a little bit more, you got to kind of think and maybe squint your eyes and tilt your head and be like, okay, I see how you could incorporate that. But what I'm about to share with you are things that I think are pretty standard in most churches.

Nick Clason (04:43):
And so the first hybrid idea, the first hybrid tool, the first digital tool, and again, you might even as I say this, you can be like, well, yeah, okay, it is a church management software. And listen, I get it right. It is about the most basic thing. Most churches in America have One, you got Church Community Builder, you got Planning Center, you got the Rock, you got ACS through rum, through ACS. There are a lot of different options. Comment below what your church is using as a church management software, but here's what I want to let you know is if you're in a church like me, when I first started, we didn't do church management softwares. Our church management software was this small little tool called Excel. And if you're in a church that doesn't do church management softwares, and I get it, the median sized church in America is 75 people.

Nick Clason (05:39):
And so that's what the majority of churches around America, that's the size that most of them are. And so there may be a world where a church management software is not a defacto element to what you're doing. There are a couple of tools out there I want to share with you, links down below in the description that are actually free. So if your student ministry is 25 and under, there's a grow resource curriculum company by Kenny and l. Theirs is completely free. If you have under 25 people in your ministry, free forever under 25. And so what it does is it helps you with check-ins, sign in, and just keeping track of who's been there in the weeks to come. And that's part of pastoral care, right? Knowing who's been there so that you can reach out to those who haven't been there. Another option that's completely free, and it's free no matter the size is Planning Center people.

Nick Clason (06:40):
Now Planning Center is made famous through their services app, which is what musicians and bands would send their other band members, music song, song charts, lyrics, things for people to practice. They could assign you different positions like you're on drums this week, you're on bass this week. And then Planning Center started to dabble in other areas and other elements. And so Planning Center people is amazing and it links really well with services, planning Center Services, the module, but also events and registration and a calendaring and giving. I was in a church that didn't have a church management software. And then we finally did come around to a church management software and we went in on Planning Center. The downside of Planning Center is this, it's expensive. The upside of Planning Center is frankly, I've used all the ones I mentioned earlier, the Rock, ACS Realm, CCB Church, community Builder and Planning Center.

Nick Clason (07:39):
And Planning Center was my favorite by far. Hands down is also the most expensive, and so you just need to know that. But planning Center people is not expensive. It's all the other elements to make it kind of work together so that giving works together and that registration works together and that services works together, all linking in with people. But Planning Center People is completely free. If you want to do Check-in, it's another module that costs more money, but both of those are free Grow numbers under 25 and Planning Center people Free Forever links below in the description to check those out. But what they do is they just help you keep track of your people, their information addresses, emails, phone numbers. And as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader, one of the things I think that Covid did was it brought back some of the more old school ways to do pastoral care.

Nick Clason (08:31):
Right now, as a youth pastor send so many handwritten notes, and the way that I use that and the way that I use my church management software is I look the person up, I get their address, I write them a note and I mail it to 'em. The reality is I couldn't do that without that tool. And so again, it might seem basic, but the first idea I have for you is use and utilize your church management software. Now, if you already have one, you don't have to get it set up. You have maybe an admin who's keeping track of those things. That's great. That just gives you more access and more ability to help care for the people that God has entrusted to. So get creative, think outside the box. How else can you lean in and utilize your church management software to your advantage?

Nick Clason (09:21):
Hybrid idea number two that I have for you is text messaging. And again, I get it, you're like, dude, are you serious? That's so basic. But I just want to let you know when we had a death in the family last year, about a year ago at this point, and I was on my way driving a thousand miles from here back to our hometown, I got countless amounts of text messaging, countless amounts of phone calls from people who wanted to just offer care and support and love and text messaging is a really simple way that, think about it. Before the advent and invention of the cell phone, you had to be physically in a room with someone to offer care, and you should still do that, right? This is hybrid. That's not throwing out the in-person, but that's saying, Hey, I know this thing about you because of our in-person relationship.

Nick Clason (10:18):
I know this thing about you because of our in-person relationship. However, what I also know about you is that you're going through something difficult. And while I can't be with you right now, I can lean into the digital expression of our relationship, a cell phone, and I can text you and say, Hey, man, praying for you. It's so simple and I don't know about you, but for me, that means just as much as getting flowers or getting a meal sent to my home or even getting a handwritten note, frankly, I don't need some grand expression of shepherding or pastoral care. I just need to know that someone is there for me. Like I've told you, and in the intro, I'm in Texas, but I've been a youth pastor in Chicago. I've been a youth pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio. I've been a youth pastor in Dayton, Ohio, and still to this day, I keep up with students of mine.

Nick Clason (11:09):
We have the world's longest Snapchat streak, and I definitely don't recommend that you Snapchat your students. But what I have done is some of my students who've graduated and have volunteered for me at camps and retreats in the past as graduated seniors and students now, I keep up with them and we talk and it's an everyday thing on the Snapchat streak. So sometimes we don't talk about anything, but I know when they're getting new jobs, we talk about the Bengals because that's their favorite team. We talk about their dad who's having procedures and surgeries. That is one way that I just keep up in the lives of students that are no longer in youth ministry. They're in their twenties now, but I still have a relationship with them because of what my cell phone. So don't overlook the power of what your cell phone can do for you and how it can help you care for the people that God has entrusted to.

Nick Clason (11:59):
You have idea number three, and I'll say this, this may not be the best youth ministry friendly idea, but Facebook groups, it isn't. If it isn't helpful for you and your youth ministry and your students, it can still be helpful for you and your youth ministry and your students' parents. And so create community, create a place where conversation can happen. I think sometimes it's a little difficult to do. I think sometimes it feels more like an announcement billboard thing, but some of the best groups, some of my best experiences on Facebook are in a group dynamic and in a group setting. For example, the Download Youth Ministry community Facebook group, the Youth Pastors Only Facebook group by Ymm 360. I'll link both of those down below in the description. If you're not, are any in them, check it out because honestly, it's people who are like, Hey, what do you guys do for Halloween?

Nick Clason (12:52):
What do you guys do for a harvest party? What do you guys do for a Christmas party? What are your Christmas leader idea gifts? How are you guys using chat GPT in your ministry to help you out? It's just a open source area for youth pastors to have a conversation. I wish that our Facebook groups could be an open source place for our parents to have a conversation about raising teenagers, because raising teenagers is hard, and there should be a place where the church is both the safest place to do it and where other parents can come alongside and give helpful tips, tricks, and hacks. And so I think that that can be a great place to not only help people just with tips, tricks and hacks, but also provide pastoral care because you can reach out and be like, Hey, and then this is going to put some ownership on the person, but if they're going through something, they might offer a prayer request.

Nick Clason (13:43):
And then if you're in that group, you are aware of something going on, which then you can go to your church management system, get their phone number and text them, and boom, which use all three of 'em. The two ideas I have for you that you're probably not thinking of are your personal intercessory, pastoral prayer for your people is probably the secret sauce to you shepherding your people well. And so maybe for you, you just have a vibrant prayer life. But one of the things I know is that most people I talk to, prayer is always an area they're wanting to grow in. I know it's an area that I'm always looking and wanting to grow in. And so one of my favorite apps is the YouVersion Bible app, and they have a prayer section. You can just log your prayers. And so maybe that can be a place where you can pray for the students in which God has entrusted to you, and you can break 'em up into categories.

Nick Clason (14:42):
So you can have your own kind of prayer list. You can have maybe a gratitude list or something, but you could also have an intercessory prayer for your students list, and you just list them out by name and you just pray for your students by name. And that's going to be one of the most impactful ways for you to have a heart that grows with care and compassion and empathy for your students in which God has entrusted into your care. But maybe you just need a tool to help you organize your thoughts, to stay on track and to not forget things. The other idea I have for you is an app called Flashcard Go, and you can download it in the app store. Full disclosure, I've never used it. It's also an iPhone app, not an iPhone guy. But if I was thinking if it's customizable to the way that I believe, they are telling me it's customizable.

Nick Clason (15:28):
What if you put faces of your students on flashcards and you could swipe through and see a picture of your student? Be like, got to pray for Gabe. Swipe through. Got to pray for Cameron, his relationship with his girlfriend right now, school. Got to pray for Caleb. Everything he's going through, the wrestling lady is having about faith. Got to pray for Megan. Megan, who's struggling with this, this, and this that could help you. Again, similar to the prayer app, filter your thoughts and pray for your students and pray for your students. Because here's the deal, we're in a new age. We're in the digital era, and some of the good things about physical gatherings aren't going anywhere. But how can you bring about the digital to enhance your physical ministry and make a difference both through games, through message enhancement and not through shepherding? Because I believe that every youth ministry needs to stop ignoring digital ministry. And that's the next video that's going to be linked here on the screen. Take a look at that because we're trying to make digital discipleship easy and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid

]]> ๐Ÿ”ฅSURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME ๐Ÿ”ฅ

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
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โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
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๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST
Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.

๐Ÿ‘ Shepherding
It's not as sleek and sexy as Games and Message Enhancement, but it might ultimately be the key to unlocking true pastoral leadership and care.
And how do we do so in a new digital frontier and digital landscape?

We'll talk about it!

Be sure to go back and check out the last two videos where we discussed...

๐ŸŽฎGames
๐Ÿ’ฌ Message Enhancement
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing!

Shepherding #PastoralCare #DigitalFrontier

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
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๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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
//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

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

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/073

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/yFa8UjlDigs

//YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204527836

//PLANNING CENTER PEOPLE
https://www.planningcenter.com/people

//GROW NUMBERS
https://growcurriculum.org/numbers/

//FLASHCARDS APP
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flash-cards-go-flashcards/id1257862568

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-01:28 Shepherding and Pastoral Care is the secret sauce to communicating God's love
01:28-04:18 Why Hybrid and Shepherding are surprising linked
04:18-09:19 Digital Shepherding Hack #1
09:19-12:00 Digital Shepherding Hack #2
12:00-13:53 Digital Shepherding Hack #3
13:53-16:40 Digital Shepherding Bonus Hack #1 & #2

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Pastoring, shepherding, caring for people. It's hard work. Let's just be honest. And in this third episode of this playlist, exploring New Digital Frontiers. In the last episode, we looked at games and then we looked at message enhancement. And now in this episode, the final installment of the playlist, we're going to be looking at pastoral care. I get it, it's not the fun, it's not the sexy, it's not the social media, but pastoral care is really the secret sauce. It is the warmth that what brings people back to your church. So how do you as a pastor, church leader, ministry leader, or maybe even just a small group leader, care for your people? But how do you use technology and hybrid ministry to make it easier, more efficient, and create a more inviting and warm atmosphere around you and your group and your church? In this episode, we're going to look at three ideas that you can start using immediately in your ministry to care for people well.

Nick Clason (01:11):
And beyond that, I have a tool that I think every church needs to use. And finally, make sure you stick around to the end of the video because we are going to give you two bonus tips, and I think the bonus tips might be worth the price of admission. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. My name is Nick Clayson. I am a youth pastor, currently situated and located in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth, area Y hybrid ministry. What I mean by hybrid is not just physical, not just digital, but a melding of the two, a hybrid experience between your physical and your digital. It's using technology to lean into the already in-person moment that is existing. And you and I know that pastoral care happens best, need a knee, eye to eye, maybe over a cup of coffee, but sometimes you're not physically with the person that you need to be with.

Nick Clason (02:06):
And so how do we meld the physical and the digital and bring it together to make it hybrid? And the reason I think this is important is because Gen Z and Gen Alpha are using their cell phone screen-based device more than any other screen-based device combined. And so the reality is cell phones aren't going anywhere, which is why I created this completely free ebook from scratch. It's going to give you 40 ideas a month's worth of social media that you can bring into your ministry and use in your social media. But here's why this plan is different than all the other plans. First of all, it's free, and second of all, it's recyclable and reproducible. And third, it is you and your students and your leaders on camera. It's not just a bunch of static roped, stoic graphics. And here's the thing, I think in this playlist, the shepherding idea, this might be the easiest of all the other ideas to understand more than games, maybe even more than teaching enhancement.

Nick Clason (03:07):
But some of the ideas I'm going to give you, you're going to be like, yeah, that's obvious. That's dumb, and I get it. But I do have two bonus ideas that I think are pretty next level that you're probably not thinking of. They're not revolutionary, they're not some super secret face scanning app that's going to help you be more caring of the people in your space. But they are just a little bit more outside of the box because I think that the ideas I have for you, you maybe haven't heard of or even haven't tried. But hey, before we dive in, I would love to encourage you for a like and a subscribe. Those two things are completely free for you, and they would mean the world to us because really, I do want you to be the best pastor possible to your students, to your church, to the people that God's entrusted to you.

Nick Clason (03:51):
And if you like, you subscribe, you're going to help get this message out to other people as well as not miss other ideas that we have coming your way that's really just going to help come alongside and help you be the best pastor, ministry leader or small group leader possible for you, for your students and for the people that God has entrusted into your care. So without any further fanfare, let's dive into three hybrid ministry ideas for shepherding and four K. So as we explore new digital frontiers and games, as we explore new digital frontiers and message enhancement, those things are a little bit more outside the box, a little bit more revolutionary, a little bit more, you got to kind of think and maybe squint your eyes and tilt your head and be like, okay, I see how you could incorporate that. But what I'm about to share with you are things that I think are pretty standard in most churches.

Nick Clason (04:43):
And so the first hybrid idea, the first hybrid tool, the first digital tool, and again, you might even as I say this, you can be like, well, yeah, okay, it is a church management software. And listen, I get it right. It is about the most basic thing. Most churches in America have One, you got Church Community Builder, you got Planning Center, you got the Rock, you got ACS through rum, through ACS. There are a lot of different options. Comment below what your church is using as a church management software, but here's what I want to let you know is if you're in a church like me, when I first started, we didn't do church management softwares. Our church management software was this small little tool called Excel. And if you're in a church that doesn't do church management softwares, and I get it, the median sized church in America is 75 people.

Nick Clason (05:39):
And so that's what the majority of churches around America, that's the size that most of them are. And so there may be a world where a church management software is not a defacto element to what you're doing. There are a couple of tools out there I want to share with you, links down below in the description that are actually free. So if your student ministry is 25 and under, there's a grow resource curriculum company by Kenny and l. Theirs is completely free. If you have under 25 people in your ministry, free forever under 25. And so what it does is it helps you with check-ins, sign in, and just keeping track of who's been there in the weeks to come. And that's part of pastoral care, right? Knowing who's been there so that you can reach out to those who haven't been there. Another option that's completely free, and it's free no matter the size is Planning Center people.

Nick Clason (06:40):
Now Planning Center is made famous through their services app, which is what musicians and bands would send their other band members, music song, song charts, lyrics, things for people to practice. They could assign you different positions like you're on drums this week, you're on bass this week. And then Planning Center started to dabble in other areas and other elements. And so Planning Center people is amazing and it links really well with services, planning Center Services, the module, but also events and registration and a calendaring and giving. I was in a church that didn't have a church management software. And then we finally did come around to a church management software and we went in on Planning Center. The downside of Planning Center is this, it's expensive. The upside of Planning Center is frankly, I've used all the ones I mentioned earlier, the Rock, ACS Realm, CCB Church, community Builder and Planning Center.

Nick Clason (07:39):
And Planning Center was my favorite by far. Hands down is also the most expensive, and so you just need to know that. But planning Center people is not expensive. It's all the other elements to make it kind of work together so that giving works together and that registration works together and that services works together, all linking in with people. But Planning Center People is completely free. If you want to do Check-in, it's another module that costs more money, but both of those are free Grow numbers under 25 and Planning Center people Free Forever links below in the description to check those out. But what they do is they just help you keep track of your people, their information addresses, emails, phone numbers. And as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader, one of the things I think that Covid did was it brought back some of the more old school ways to do pastoral care.

Nick Clason (08:31):
Right now, as a youth pastor send so many handwritten notes, and the way that I use that and the way that I use my church management software is I look the person up, I get their address, I write them a note and I mail it to 'em. The reality is I couldn't do that without that tool. And so again, it might seem basic, but the first idea I have for you is use and utilize your church management software. Now, if you already have one, you don't have to get it set up. You have maybe an admin who's keeping track of those things. That's great. That just gives you more access and more ability to help care for the people that God has entrusted to. So get creative, think outside the box. How else can you lean in and utilize your church management software to your advantage?

Nick Clason (09:21):
Hybrid idea number two that I have for you is text messaging. And again, I get it, you're like, dude, are you serious? That's so basic. But I just want to let you know when we had a death in the family last year, about a year ago at this point, and I was on my way driving a thousand miles from here back to our hometown, I got countless amounts of text messaging, countless amounts of phone calls from people who wanted to just offer care and support and love and text messaging is a really simple way that, think about it. Before the advent and invention of the cell phone, you had to be physically in a room with someone to offer care, and you should still do that, right? This is hybrid. That's not throwing out the in-person, but that's saying, Hey, I know this thing about you because of our in-person relationship.

Nick Clason (10:18):
I know this thing about you because of our in-person relationship. However, what I also know about you is that you're going through something difficult. And while I can't be with you right now, I can lean into the digital expression of our relationship, a cell phone, and I can text you and say, Hey, man, praying for you. It's so simple and I don't know about you, but for me, that means just as much as getting flowers or getting a meal sent to my home or even getting a handwritten note, frankly, I don't need some grand expression of shepherding or pastoral care. I just need to know that someone is there for me. Like I've told you, and in the intro, I'm in Texas, but I've been a youth pastor in Chicago. I've been a youth pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio. I've been a youth pastor in Dayton, Ohio, and still to this day, I keep up with students of mine.

Nick Clason (11:09):
We have the world's longest Snapchat streak, and I definitely don't recommend that you Snapchat your students. But what I have done is some of my students who've graduated and have volunteered for me at camps and retreats in the past as graduated seniors and students now, I keep up with them and we talk and it's an everyday thing on the Snapchat streak. So sometimes we don't talk about anything, but I know when they're getting new jobs, we talk about the Bengals because that's their favorite team. We talk about their dad who's having procedures and surgeries. That is one way that I just keep up in the lives of students that are no longer in youth ministry. They're in their twenties now, but I still have a relationship with them because of what my cell phone. So don't overlook the power of what your cell phone can do for you and how it can help you care for the people that God has entrusted to.

Nick Clason (11:59):
You have idea number three, and I'll say this, this may not be the best youth ministry friendly idea, but Facebook groups, it isn't. If it isn't helpful for you and your youth ministry and your students, it can still be helpful for you and your youth ministry and your students' parents. And so create community, create a place where conversation can happen. I think sometimes it's a little difficult to do. I think sometimes it feels more like an announcement billboard thing, but some of the best groups, some of my best experiences on Facebook are in a group dynamic and in a group setting. For example, the Download Youth Ministry community Facebook group, the Youth Pastors Only Facebook group by Ymm 360. I'll link both of those down below in the description. If you're not, are any in them, check it out because honestly, it's people who are like, Hey, what do you guys do for Halloween?

Nick Clason (12:52):
What do you guys do for a harvest party? What do you guys do for a Christmas party? What are your Christmas leader idea gifts? How are you guys using chat GPT in your ministry to help you out? It's just a open source area for youth pastors to have a conversation. I wish that our Facebook groups could be an open source place for our parents to have a conversation about raising teenagers, because raising teenagers is hard, and there should be a place where the church is both the safest place to do it and where other parents can come alongside and give helpful tips, tricks, and hacks. And so I think that that can be a great place to not only help people just with tips, tricks and hacks, but also provide pastoral care because you can reach out and be like, Hey, and then this is going to put some ownership on the person, but if they're going through something, they might offer a prayer request.

Nick Clason (13:43):
And then if you're in that group, you are aware of something going on, which then you can go to your church management system, get their phone number and text them, and boom, which use all three of 'em. The two ideas I have for you that you're probably not thinking of are your personal intercessory, pastoral prayer for your people is probably the secret sauce to you shepherding your people well. And so maybe for you, you just have a vibrant prayer life. But one of the things I know is that most people I talk to, prayer is always an area they're wanting to grow in. I know it's an area that I'm always looking and wanting to grow in. And so one of my favorite apps is the YouVersion Bible app, and they have a prayer section. You can just log your prayers. And so maybe that can be a place where you can pray for the students in which God has entrusted to you, and you can break 'em up into categories.

Nick Clason (14:42):
So you can have your own kind of prayer list. You can have maybe a gratitude list or something, but you could also have an intercessory prayer for your students list, and you just list them out by name and you just pray for your students by name. And that's going to be one of the most impactful ways for you to have a heart that grows with care and compassion and empathy for your students in which God has entrusted into your care. But maybe you just need a tool to help you organize your thoughts, to stay on track and to not forget things. The other idea I have for you is an app called Flashcard Go, and you can download it in the app store. Full disclosure, I've never used it. It's also an iPhone app, not an iPhone guy. But if I was thinking if it's customizable to the way that I believe, they are telling me it's customizable.

Nick Clason (15:28):
What if you put faces of your students on flashcards and you could swipe through and see a picture of your student? Be like, got to pray for Gabe. Swipe through. Got to pray for Cameron, his relationship with his girlfriend right now, school. Got to pray for Caleb. Everything he's going through, the wrestling lady is having about faith. Got to pray for Megan. Megan, who's struggling with this, this, and this that could help you. Again, similar to the prayer app, filter your thoughts and pray for your students and pray for your students. Because here's the deal, we're in a new age. We're in the digital era, and some of the good things about physical gatherings aren't going anywhere. But how can you bring about the digital to enhance your physical ministry and make a difference both through games, through message enhancement and not through shepherding? Because I believe that every youth ministry needs to stop ignoring digital ministry. And that's the next video that's going to be linked here on the screen. Take a look at that because we're trying to make digital discipleship easy and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid

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