Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Recruiting Volunteers For Youth Ministry”

Episode 084: 🤝 Recruiting (and Retaining) The Best Volunteers

Nick Clason — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡

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2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] DYM Games
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======================================
DESCRIPTION
🛟 The life-line of all good student ministry is adult volunteer leaders.
🤷 So much so, Are we even needed? Eventually, hopefully not!
🇷Let’s dive into the 3 “R’s” of volunteers
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8HNzfZoiX0

//UNLEASHING VOLUNTEERS DEEP DIVE
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084

1) RECRUITING
//FULL PROOF EMAIL
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

2) ROLES
//LEAD SMALL
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

3) RETENTION
//TIME MANAGEMENT
https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8?si=kxHfp9_oeF8Wes
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077

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

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

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
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🛠️TOOLS
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//BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Life Line for all Youth Pastors
01:02 Finding the Best Volunteers
04:48 Full Proof Recruiting Email
10:06 Not Everybody is a Small Group Leader
14:01 Never Recruit Again with Good Retention

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:24:22
Nick Clason
If you've been in youth ministry for any length of time, then you know that the lifeline for any good youth ministry is a Dole volunteer. Leaders, Right. Like so much So you might even ask the question, am I even needed? I mean, eventually, Hopefully. No, because you've raised these leaders up in such a way that they're competent and can do the job without you.

00:00:24:24 - 00:00:46:01
Nick Clason
We've talked deeply in the last episode about the philosophy and the reasons behind having good volunteer youth leaders. It's our last video to enjoy the top of the screen. But in this video, we're going to round out and I'm going to give you the three R's of volunteers recruitment. And I have a full proof email, so stick around to see that the roles that you can enlist them into.

00:00:46:01 - 00:01:06:26
Nick Clason
And finally, stick around all the way to the very end of the video because the third and final R is retention. And if you lay out a good foundation and if you actually stick to the plan with retention, you won't ever have to be recruiting again. Sound too good to be true? Let's check it out. So the first R in volunteerism is recruitment.

00:01:06:27 - 00:01:29:26
Nick Clason
Always be recruiting. Now you might be thinking to yourself, Well, where in the world do I even find them coming below the best places to find volunteers in your church? I mean, just think about the places that you frequent. Maybe it's your or your wife's or your families or your children's Sunday school classes. So perhaps you have a kid.

00:01:29:26 - 00:02:00:11
Nick Clason
They have a Sunday school class, another kids parents in that Sunday school class, maybe a small group that you're in or that you lead. As you get to do life with people, you'll notice more about them and you'll be looking for certain qualities or attributes. I mean, one of the best things that you need to do is you need to realize that anyone can do youth ministry, but you're probably not going to find people who come to you and say, I am so super passionate about youth ministry and they look the part and they're cool and they have piercings and they have tattoos.

00:02:00:11 - 00:02:29:07
Nick Clason
Like you'll get one or two of those. But like you also have to be willing to recruit the moms. You have to be willing to recruit the over 55 year old, almost retired men. You have to be willing to recruit like the homeschool dad, like the people that don't exactly look the part. But if they love Jesus and if they can tolerate teenagers, then they're in a good spot to be a youth volunteer and just ask.

00:02:29:08 - 00:02:50:06
Nick Clason
I remember I was coaching one of my kids flag football teams and while I was coaching the team, it was still a church. I was coaching the team, one of the moms on the team. She we had two coaches in there on the field and she kept making her way over to the sidelines and she's like, I just love helping out and being around the kids.

00:02:50:07 - 00:03:07:23
Nick Clason
Is it okay if I do this? Like she wasn't officially a coach? None of that stuff. And so we were like, Yeah, that's great because the kids are just while an hour over there on the sidelines. We needed all the help that we could get. And so her being on the sidelines immediately, like trigger my brain, I was like, I'm going to ask her.

00:03:07:24 - 00:03:28:25
Nick Clason
And so one day I had a leader drop off like a leader call me and say, Hey, I can't do it anymore. I was dropping my son off at preschool, and this mom also is dropping her kids off at the same preschool through the church, which I had never seen her do that before. And immediately in my brain, I felt the Holy Spirit say, Ask her.

00:03:28:27 - 00:03:51:07
Nick Clason
And I had to do the digging because I had to like I didn't know her name right. So I knew the kids names from the fly football team. So I found the kids in our church, you know, database. And then I found her as the mom, and then I just shot her an email. And I'm gonna share with you that imagery just so you might be thinking, okay, I think think through all the different pools that you have and I get it.

00:03:51:07 - 00:04:11:19
Nick Clason
You might be like, I don't I don't have any like at that point, start asking like, ask other other people that, you know, who do you know, who can I ask Who's in your small group? Who's who's someone who's just friendly? Right. And one of the things I like to do is I'm like, they may not have the soft youth ministry skills yet, but if they have a teachable spirit, we can level them up in youth ministry.

00:04:11:19 - 00:04:31:06
Nick Clason
And we're going to talk about in the third and final hour on retention. But how do you ask a volunteer leader? Right. So I have this this email that I've drafted. I am going to share it with you. If you're watching on YouTube, it's going to be linked right here on the screen if you're watching on YouTube, but you're dropping these now on Wednesday morning so you can listen to them on your way into the office.

00:04:31:06 - 00:04:58:08
Nick Clason
You can listen to them while you're setting up for youth ministry. If you're listening via the podcast feed, we're going to continue to drop them on Thursday morning. So you get a little bit of a bonus day if you're watching, subscribing and consuming these via YouTube. So for free, check us out there at YouTube.com slash clay cynic or just search hybrid ministry in the YouTube search bar but the leader recruitment email goes like this dear fill in their name.

00:04:58:10 - 00:05:18:05
Nick Clason
I think that you could be uniquely positioned to be a great volunteer in our student ministry. Now before you laugh, archive this email and just think that I'm full of hot air. Take a minute to think about this. Did you know that two thirds of adult Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18?

00:05:18:08 - 00:05:39:25
Nick Clason
This statistic alone is the reason why I do what I do and investing in the next generation. However, while you may not feel equipped, qualified or ready, I'd like to point out that God uses people like that. The underequipped, the under-qualified, and the not ready to further His kingdom every day. All throughout the pages of Scripture, Moses was a murderer.

00:05:39:28 - 00:06:09:16
Nick Clason
Jonah ran the other way. Peter was uneducated and Paul was a self-righteous bigot. Now, here's what I consider a qualification for student ministry. Love Jesus. And like teenagers, Borrow that from my friend Doug Fields. If you can check these two boxes off, then I think you have what it takes to join our team. I love to sit over a cup of coffee and discuss this idea with you a little bit more in depth, and maybe we could grab a quick phone call to chat about it.

00:06:09:19 - 00:06:35:09
Nick Clason
Give me a call or shoot me text if you'd like to do that. Signed your name. That email alone has drummed up a lot of interest in recruiting new volunteers. And when I was working at a large multisite megachurch in Chicago, I needed to do a lot of kind of cold call style emails, so I'd get names of people I'd never heard of, never met, and I would send them that email to at least sparked conversation and in a lot of cases I would get responses, but not always.

00:06:35:09 - 00:06:54:02
Nick Clason
And so if I didn't get a response out of reach back out via text or call just a couple of weeks later and say, Hey, I sent you an email, I'm just curious if you've given that email any more thought. So I love the line in that email. Two thirds of Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18.

00:06:54:03 - 00:07:13:03
Nick Clason
If you knew that you owe me a subscribe, and if you did it then then hit me like, right. Because what we're doing, like I says, we're dropping this this video one day before the podcast drops. All right. So that statistic alone is why I do what I do. The final thing after how to ask him is how do you onboard them right.

00:07:13:06 - 00:07:33:10
Nick Clason
So once this preliminary conversation has taken place, it's conversation number one. You're going to have to kind of streams of volunteer in intake, right? You may be thinking I need to recruit. And if that's the case, then by all means do it. But in some other cases you may get names to like a volunteer interest form or someone telling you, Hey, you should talk to John.

00:07:33:11 - 00:07:57:26
Nick Clason
Okay. So in that case, if someone else is giving you a name or if they're filling out a form on your website, you need to have a preliminary conversation with them. You need to sit down and find a way to to to kind of vet them just a little bit, not thoroughly and not like FBI style, but just a little bit of like get to know them, get to know their story and discover their reason for why they want to do youth ministry.

00:07:57:27 - 00:08:19:05
Nick Clason
Because while you may be excited about just a random name coming into you from the website, you also have to make sure that you're not enlisting somebody who might be an abuser or a pedophile or some weirdo because as we said earlier, people are just not naturally drawn to being a youth leader volunteer. So someone does say that they are just out of the clear blue sky.

00:08:19:07 - 00:08:43:06
Nick Clason
Just do a tiny little bit of homework. So once that first conversation, that first screening conversation is done, then you need to enter them into whatever your church's safety screening process is. After they've gone through their safety screening process, whether that be a background check, taking some sexual abuse awareness classes or somewhere in between the two of those, you need to find a time to enlist them for a first serve.

00:08:43:07 - 00:09:05:14
Nick Clason
Now, the way that we sort of do it is like we have our background check and that lets them get in the room for a first serve because sometimes some of that additional sexual abuse awareness training is a lot. And so we get them in the room shadowed with someone who's already cleared and screened, but they can get a feel for youth ministry also to kind of just like strike while the iron is hot.

00:09:05:14 - 00:09:21:07
Nick Clason
You don't want that lead to go cold, so you don't want someone who says they're interested and then you not give them an opportunity to come serve. So give them a first serve. Once that first serve is over, have a clearing clarifying conversation with them. I typically like to do it the same day or the same night of their first serve.

00:09:21:13 - 00:09:44:22
Nick Clason
Hey, would you think what do you think in killing begin to kind of pursue this in this direction unless they give you some sort of like big red flag of like, I don't know, man, that's really was Wow. That really wasn't for me. I would try to find a way to start enlisting them that night, make sure that they are finishing up any of their remaining screenings before you make them an official part of your team.

00:09:44:24 - 00:10:07:28
Nick Clason
But then once they have done all those things, once they've done that first serve and they've had that clarifying conversation, get them into an on board situation and do it as quickly as you can see. I think a lot of times we say we want volunteers, but then we're too busy to actually engage with them in meaningfully bring them along so that they feel loved, valued, cared for and that their time is not being wasted.

00:10:08:01 - 00:10:31:17
Nick Clason
So let's move on. Now that we've talked about recruiting, what are the roles that you're recruiting them into? All right. So rule number one is this small group leader. We talked about it at length in the last video, but the lead small book written by the folks down at Orange is, I believe, one of the best pictures of what it means to simply be a small group leader.

00:10:31:17 - 00:10:48:28
Nick Clason
It is clear. It is concise. Any one of us could have written it, but we didn't. And so they get the credit for it because they did the work. But it is a great manual for what a small group leader is pouring into and investing into the lives of just a few students that God has entrusted into their care.

00:10:49:00 - 00:11:11:13
Nick Clason
I think a lot of times when we think small group leader or when we think youth ministry leader, we think they need to be leading a small group. And when you think through the wide swath of different volunteers that you might need, you might not need every single person that says they're interested to become a volunteer small group leader.

00:11:11:13 - 00:11:41:17
Nick Clason
If you think homeschool mom, if you think 55 and older guy, like there might be some other roles in your youth ministry. In fact, we in our studio miss you. We like to use these other roles as a little bit of a feeling out time for both of us, so we get to enlist them into another role that's not directly in the spiritual care and direction of a student, but one that we get to see them, see their faithfulness if they're actually coming to the job.

00:11:41:20 - 00:11:57:12
Nick Clason
And then we also get to know them, because if they're not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, and if you're also not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, you can have a conversation with them. I remember there is a a leader at church I worked at and she was enlisted as one of our safety people.

00:11:57:12 - 00:12:25:02
Nick Clason
She was a police officer and she was a safety person and she was in the back of the room as she was kind of doing her thing. This wasn't on any of our sort of radars with it, but she was doing her thing. She actually came up. She's like, Hey, could I do that? Like instead of safety? And you see how like just being a part of the hospitality team in some way, shape or form being part of it, it initiated her thought process to kind of like say that might be something that I am also interested.

00:12:25:02 - 00:12:45:08
Nick Clason
So some of the roles that we use hospitality, so that's getting things set up, that's greeters at check in, that's saying hey to students, first time students, help them fill out gas cards, all that type of stuff. There's safety. Like I mentioned, and you may have a plan for that from like a hiring in an officer type of thing.

00:12:45:08 - 00:13:03:22
Nick Clason
Or if not, if you're too small of a church, then you need to hire a couple, maybe volunteers, to sort of oversee it, keep eyes on dark spaces in the church, you know, keep an eye on bathrooms. Just make sure that there are an additional set of eyes on everything, because you know that as programing it's going. You got a lot on your mind, a lot on your plate.

00:13:03:24 - 00:13:20:24
Nick Clason
And so some of the last things on your mind is checking to make sure that back in that back closet there aren't two kids making out in this is safety person to do that that will help you know give you an additional like set of eyes so that you can see and know what's going on without seeing and knowing every single thing that's going on.

00:13:20:26 - 00:13:45:14
Nick Clason
You may have a cafe I don't love like cafes from like the selling standpoint, having to source food, but I do love having a cafe because it gives it gives leaders an actual meaningful task to do that. We can place them in in sort of like a first step kind of role before we move them. If I if I don't know this person at all before we move them into a small group leader type role.

00:13:45:17 - 00:14:14:17
Nick Clason
And then, you know, depending on your set in your format, I was in a church that did decentralized host homes. And so we had groups meeting all throughout the city and all sorts of different houses. Your host home volunteers are a great pool of people and a great place. You can send some people so they may not be ready yet to be small group leader every single week, but they may be willing to create a warm, welcoming, inviting kind of atmosphere in a host home situation.

00:14:14:19 - 00:14:42:07
Nick Clason
The third and final or in our list is retention. So retention is how do you keep these volunteers now that you have them? So the first thing that you need to be doing is you need to be checking in with your volunteers frequently. Now, I hear you might be thinking, I don't have very much time. Listen, as a part of this 2024 on Main Masterclass, the very first video was how to manage your time and how to get more stuff done.

00:14:42:12 - 00:15:11:24
Nick Clason
I would recommend that you take a look at that because when you implement some of those processes, you will find that you have more time than you think you do. And once you realize that you can start budgeting for and scheduling conversations, relationships, lunches, coffee appointments with some of your leaders, and it's important to do that because you just have an opportunity to sit down, have a conversation with leaders, get to know them, and let them know that like you're there and they have a place that they can turn to.

00:15:11:25 - 00:15:41:08
Nick Clason
Now, if you have 50, 7500 volunteers, then that's too much for you and that's where you need to probably implement some sort of coaching structure, some sort of additional layer where there's another person kind of put in that place to help be that for you. Again, similar to the safety team, somebody who can just be an additional hand, additional shepherd, additional person to help you care for the leaders in your student ministry.

00:15:41:10 - 00:16:04:00
Nick Clason
What about relationships? Like how are you building your relationship, your rapport with these leaders, Hang out with them in a casual environment. It doesn't always have to be a formalized like meeting sit down with an agenda and three points to get through. Just who are you hanging out with your leaders? If you're hanging out with your leaders, I told you my last video about a guy named Steve that I enlisted.

00:16:04:02 - 00:16:24:03
Nick Clason
I enlisted him to be a seventh grade boy, Smoggy Peter, which in that church, seventh grade was the earliest the youngest age that we had for our students. He still to this day, they are now seniors. He still to this day is a small group leader for them. But I haven't been in that space since like eighth grade of those kids year.

00:16:24:03 - 00:16:44:06
Nick Clason
So. So he stayed all through high school all throughout COVID. Mind you all after my relationship with him left. But because I built a rapport with him, he stuck for that. And then he got hooked and he stuck and he stayed. Finally, think about appreciation. Do you leaders know that you care about them? Do you give them moments?

00:16:44:08 - 00:17:01:29
Nick Clason
Do you give them tokens of appreciation? Does it have to be a big budget buster? But I remember I talked to a youth leader one time who she said all she was doing was just a pristine, like just the mess out of her volunteers. And she asked one of her volunteers one time like, Do you feel appreciated or why?

00:17:01:29 - 00:17:24:27
Nick Clason
Why do people like serving in students? And one of their volunteers said, You'd be crazy not to because he was basically saying, You appreciate us so often and so much like anyone who does this job just feels like a million bucks. Okay. The fourth thing under tension is develop them well, which is actually the final video link in the 2024 youth ministry.

00:17:24:27 - 00:17:42:21
Nick Clason
OnDemand Masterclass is linked right here on the screen. So go ahead and check that out because you want to develop them so that you retain them. We're working to make digital discipleship in youth ministry, in in church ministry, easy possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.

Episode 083: ❤️ Youth Ministry Volunteers Unleashed

Nick Clason — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

⚡ FULL HYBRID MINISTRY STRATEGY⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] My Best Youth Ministry Games
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤫 The Secret Sauce in Youth Ministry, might surprise you, is Volunteers

🩹 You only have a certain capacity as one individual person.
Volunteers not only help level up your care in your youth ministry.
But also, they can be the best source of friendship and camaraderie

⏫ How do we level up our volunteers to unleash them?

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/083

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/7ytA0V0MdeA

1) PASTORAL CARE
//LEAD SMALL
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

//MY FULL STRATEGY
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2) CAMARADERIE
//DARE2SHARE
https://www.dare2share.org

3) INTERSECTED FAITH STORIES
//GROWING YOUNG

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Young-Essential-Strategies-Discover/dp/0801019257/ref=sr_1_1?crid=338IYV0RBLJFS&keywords=growing+young&qid=1705628888&s=books&sprefix=growing+young%2Cstripbooks%2C153&sr=1-1

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

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

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

😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

======================================
🛠️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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-03:41 We would all be sunk without our Youth Ministry Volunteers
03:41-06:42 Caring for youth beyond your capacity
06:42-09:13 How to find friends as a youth pastor
09:13-11:05 Students need more than you

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00;00;00;05 - 00;00;19;09
Nick Clason
So early on in in Youth Minister, you've probably been there. I was running a high school and a middle school ministry separate, but I was the only guy. And so the way I actually did it, which I don't necessarily recommend this as a strategy anymore, and I can tell you why in future videos. But I had youth ministry, I had middle school ministry in high school ministry, staggered.

00;00;19;09 - 00;00;41;44
Nick Clason
So one started at six or six. One started at seven or seven. Thought I was really, really cute for coming up with that idea. But no other people have come up with that idea before. Anyway, in my middle school ministry. I had a middle school ministry of girls, like only girls had about eight or six middle school girls on a regular basis and we had no boys.

00;00;41;44 - 00;01;04;00
Nick Clason
In fact, it was a pretty big issue, big enough that there were families leaving the church over it. That being said, I had literally only been there for about four months. And so one family left the church days after I accepted the job and my senior pastor was like, Bro, that's the whole reason why we're hiring this guy to like, help get more people here, get more, you know, boys here for your your son.

00;01;04;01 - 00;01;25;57
Nick Clason
And so anyway, I had missed school ministry and I was playing Leader Roulette. And I'll tell you what, leader Roula, it is I only had middle I only had girl leaders enlisted to serve in my middle school ministry. No boy leaders because I had no boy students. And so in my brain I was like, I'll get to that problem when it happens.

00;01;25;57 - 00;01;48;58
Nick Clason
And so there I was in the lobby welcoming middle school students. And I should also say that I had like 90 minutes of programing. So say, you know, 30 minutes or so of games, 30 minutes of teaching, and then 30 minutes of smart, that last 30 minutes was the overlapping part. So I sent middle schoolers off to their small group for the 30 minutes and the high schoolers sort of right at that time.

00;01;48;58 - 00;02;13;16
Nick Clason
So I was I was unavailable to ever step in as some sort of small group. So anyway, middle school ministry is starting somewhere around 606 or so. I can't say for certain the exact moment. And in walks a boy in my face. I'm like, dang, we got trouble. Now the good news was I did have some high school boys.

00;02;13;21 - 00;02;35;31
Nick Clason
And so then thus I did have high school boy volunteers. And so one of my high school boy volunteers, his name was Aaron Coons. Shout out to Aaron Koontz, Beavercreek, Ohio, AC for short. I call them up was like, dude. And no, you don't need to be here till seven, but can you pop in a few minutes early and can you help run and cover this middle school boy?

00;02;35;31 - 00;03;03;29
Nick Clason
Small group that I was now going to figure out how to staff it. Right now I had a boy. Now I needed boy, small group leaders. And so in this video today, what we are going to talk about is the why of volunteers in youth ministry. And in fact, I actually was going to make this one video. I was going to talk about the why of youth ministry volunteers, the recruiting of youth ministry volunteers and the training of youth minister volunteers.

00;03;03;29 - 00;03;22;55
Nick Clason
And as I sort of scripting it out, I realized this is a long video. So as a part of the 2024 Masterclass, I know I said in the last year, this is going to be the last one, but it's not. We are going to extend this one and break it apart into three different videos. So very a video series inside another video series.

00;03;23;00 - 00;03;42;02
Nick Clason
That's why you should subscribe. Because in this video we're talking about the why of youth ministry volunteers and in future videos, we're going to be talking about how to recruit. And then we're also going to be talking about training. All of this is a part of the free on demand training for youth ministry. Master Class. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00;03;42;07 - 00;04;00;21
Nick Clason
So, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. I am Nic Clason Just like I was saying, I've been in youth ministry. The story I shared in the intro was about, I think 13, 12, 13 years ago. Now, at this point, no boys, no boy, small group leaders. And so from that point, I have learned quite a few things about youth ministry.

00;04;00;21 - 00;04;26;15
Nick Clason
I've learned quite a few things about youth ministry volunteers. And one of the key things for youth ministry in youth ministry volunteers is the need for volunteers to help scale up in pastoral care. In fact, we have a video that's linked right here at the top of this screen where we talked about ways to use hybrid ministry to enhance the pastoral care in the shepherding in your youth ministry and in your student ministry.

00;04;26;15 - 00;04;46;30
Nick Clason
And so I'm not going to get too deep into that and tools and tips and tricks on how to equip your volunteers to reach out to your students and to care for your students. But you should check that out. There's some that you're interested in. However, one of the key things not to sound too corporate, not to sound to business, is that you need youth ministry leaders to help scale up the care.

00;04;46;30 - 00;05;11;34
Nick Clason
I mean, the reality of the fact is that you, as an individual, a singular one person, youth ministry, one man band, you only have so much capacity and maybe you're a super relational person. And so your capacity may be higher than someone who's not quite as relational as you. But at the end of the day, you realize that like once you scale past 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, I don't know, definitely 80.

00;05;11;34 - 00;05;32;22
Nick Clason
You're not going to be able to know every single student's name, every single student story, every single student's things going on. Their families are not going to be able to attend every single student's games and every single student's extracurricular types of things. And so that is why youth ministry is so important, is because your your volunteers help spread out that care.

00;05;32;22 - 00;05;55;21
Nick Clason
I mean, that's really that's the crux, the thesis is the basis for the entire book written by Orange Lead Small, one of my all time favorite resources. If you haven't checked it out, link down below in the show notes. But it is a youth ministry volunteer's job description and I actually used it in a lot of cases to help onboard some of my leaders and say, Read this and if this lights a fire within you, then let's keep talking.

00;05;55;21 - 00;06;18;03
Nick Clason
And that'll be kind of the preliminary starting foundation for a lot of my discussions. So it helps expand our reach. Speaking of expanding regional, I think all of us realize and see the need for social media. Well, what I've done for use, I've actually led a completely free digital strategy. I call it my hybrid ministry done for you one month posting strategy.

00;06;18;03 - 00;06;42;05
Nick Clason
It's linked right here down below. Very first link in the top of this video, I want you to check out my completely free e-book and not only can you become the face of your youth ministry, social media, not only can you get students as a main primary face of your youth, missed your social media, but you can now also, as a part of this video, enlist your volunteers to be a part of your youth ministry and especially what they're doing on social media.

00;06;42;14 - 00;07;09;23
Nick Clason
But reason number two, beyond scaling up pastoral care so that you can kind of spread out the need and the desire and knowing of students, there's just a camaraderie that comes with people locking arms and going together. I remember my students, we would take them to a thing called Dare to Share. You've maybe heard of it before, and at one point in the Dear Teacher conference, what they're doing it actually said, now there's a dude, Ayrshire Live, and so you kind of host it as like a livestream event.

00;07;09;23 - 00;07;23;52
Nick Clason
But back in the day they would go city to city and so we would kind of chase whatever city they're in. Sometimes they're in Dayton, Ohio, sometimes they're in Columbus, Ohio. I think maybe one time there in Cincinnati, Ohio. But nonetheless, we would kind of go to the conference. They'd have the worship and the speakers and all the things.

00;07;23;52 - 00;07;42;04
Nick Clason
But at one point they'd send youth ministries all throughout the city of wherever the hosting of the event was happening. And they would say, go door to door, collect cans, pass out lightbulbs, whatever the case may be, but share the gospel with people and my students. I remember they'd always be so nervous and freaked out. I mean, come on, wouldn't you?

00;07;42;09 - 00;08;09;23
Nick Clason
And but but one of the things that was so helpful but it was would help kind of break down the barrier and the entry level of starting a gospel conversation. But I remember the atmosphere and the attitude once we arrived back in the conference room, everyone in that place, they were hype. They were so pumped up because they had gone out and they actually I remember one time in one of the things they equated it to, like being on a military mission.

00;08;09;27 - 00;08;30;02
Nick Clason
You have this unbreakable bond because you've been on a mission together. And I think in a lot of ways that's what a youth ministry volunteer team can be. You as you pastor, you have a mission to help reach students and share the gospel and help point them to Jesus. But then you also have leaders who are who are adopting that same mindset and strategy, and maybe they're not there yet.

00;08;30;06 - 00;08;51;03
Nick Clason
You're helping kind of bring them along or level them up into that. And once you can have that unbreakable bond, you realize that even after a bad night of youth ministry, you guys are still there together, that you're still around some other people who are a like minded on the same page and beyond just that, beyond just like the camaraderie, you have the opportunity to make real friends with these people.

00;08;51;18 - 00;09;13;00
Nick Clason
I remember I worked at a church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of my volunteers became one of my best friends, and we met every single Tuesday morning. We met to recite Bible verses together to kind of keep each other accountable. And still to this day, even now, at that point, something like five, six, seven years ago, we'll call each other every once in a while and we'll just kind of keep up with each other's lives.

00;09;13;13 - 00;09;31;42
Nick Clason
The third reason why you need volunteers in your youth ministry is simply because of the fact that students need more than you to speak into their life and into their faith story. In fact, it takes five people in the book Growing Young by Care, Power, Power. She talked about the importance and that's going to be Campbell on the show notes or wherever your podcast catch.

00;09;31;42 - 00;09;59;34
Nick Clason
You can you can check it out in the link in the description or a hybridministry.xyz/083 beyond just three of transcripts. But Kara Powell said that we need five people. Students need five people in their lives. If they have five people speaking into their lives of their faith beyond just mom and dad. But but smart leaders and youth pastors and maybe even like adults that they serve in the nursery with the they rub shoulders with and they see on a regular ongoing basis.

00;09;59;34 - 00;10;21;00
Nick Clason
You need leaders in your life because you are not going to be the only primary person speaking into students lives. And if you are, that's going to leave them with a less lustful, less less robust faith. They need other voices speaking into it so you can be a voice in their smug habit. It can be a voice and maybe their small group co-leader can be a voice.

00;10;21;00 - 00;10;39;39
Nick Clason
And maybe some are on the serving team that's overseeing the greeters, which they're they're a member of serving on the youth ministry team or whatever the case might be. But fill it in. So there's five people. Five people seems to be the kind of key marker and not wasn't I get it? You might be sitting there thinking, I don't have five people I know it can be difficult.

00;10;39;39 - 00;11;01;32
Nick Clason
And that's why we're talking on the next video about how to recruit the best youth ministry volunteers, where to get them, where to find them, how to do it that is linked right here on the video. So don't forget, in this podcast we are making digital discipleship easy, possible, accessible in this particular video through the ministry of our small group leaders.