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

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Whether you think it or not, if you're a youth pastor, you're in the content creation business!

In this episode we'll walk you through how to create
•Epic Titles
•SEO Infused Tags
•Meaningful Descriptions
•Links that get clicks
•Helpful Chapters
•Eye-Popping Thumbnails
•YouTube Cards & End Screens

This step-by-step guide is your way to get started growing on YouTube, today!

FULL PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/095

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

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

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

TAGS
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

DESCRIPTIONS & LINKS
//ONLINE MESSAGE EXAMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVc2Ij_Wo9w

//DIGITAL NOTES (YOUVERSION EVENTS)
https://my.bible.com/events

CHAPTERS

THUMBNAILS
//ADOBE TUTORIALS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//CANVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FQWvKjP_E&list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw&index=2

CARDS
💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors💥
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing

💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Social Coaching for Youth Pastors💥
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//TELEPROMPTER
https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1

END SCREENS
//MOTION ARRAY
http://www.motionarray.com

👉 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 🆓
📅 "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

📨 Full Proof Recruiting Email
EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

🍩 "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 Youth Pastors are Content Creators
01:48 Creating Captivating Titles on YouTube
04:57 Adding Relevant Tags
07:07 Creating Descriptions that Matter
11:00 Create Chapter and Timecodes
11:55 Eye-Popping Thumbnails
13:14 What are YouTube Cards?
15:44 End Screens on YouTube

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:38:18
Nick Clason
Mr. Beast, Dave Ramsey, Sean Cannell and you? What do all four of these people have in common? Well, all four of them, including you, by the way, are a content creator. And if you're a youth pastor, you are in the content creation business and maybe not yet creating online content, but you have the skill set necessary because we right now are in a playlist linked right here at the top of the screen where we are talking about YouTube for youth ministry.

00:00:38:18 - 00:01:07:10
Nick Clason
And if you've done the things that we've talked about in this playlist so far, while you start pre-recording your messages and you start scoping them out ahead of time, and you start with the idea of posting them to YouTube, which, by the way, right now I'm offering a very limited time free editing offer. So if you pre film your messages and you want to send them to me, once you get to the whole kind of editing part, which tends to be what trips people up on YouTube, I would be happy to do that.

00:01:07:10 - 00:01:28:24
Nick Clason
Click the link down below in the show notes and reach out and let me know and inquire if those spaces are still available. But you know, content is one thing, right? Like creating the content, shooting the content, even posting the content, right? But when you post it, there are actually some pretty incredibly important things that you need to make sure that you are doing.

00:01:29:00 - 00:02:00:16
Nick Clason
And we are going to talk through all of those things today in this video where we are talking about your titling, your tags, your description, the links that you include in your description, how to make chapters, thumbnails, cards and end screens. I know it seems overwhelming, but let's hang out and let's dive into that today. So if you head on over to YouTube, once you've created an account and you click create and you click upload video, you will get a screen just like this and you will click select file.

00:02:00:16 - 00:02:20:11
Nick Clason
And then you will begin uploading it. And once it begins to upload on YouTube it will look like this. So this is from episode 93 on video editing. And so I've already input all the details. But if you are watching, on YouTube right now, you'll see this. If you're on a podcast catcher, head to the link in the show notes and scrub ahead to this section.

00:02:20:11 - 00:02:41:23
Nick Clason
But you will see right up here at the top your title. Now, this is what most people do in churches. This is certainly what we did in church, especially when we started in the middle of the pandemic. We had a show, it was called unscripted and we would, have them classify by seasons, which I thought was pretty cool and pretty innovative.

00:02:41:23 - 00:03:16:01
Nick Clason
So we would say like unscripted season two episode four, which was great for us as far as indexing and titling and categorizing. However, think about this. If we had a lesson on unscripted that week and unscripted was every single thing in the, show. So that included like the game and the worship and all the thing. But like, if we had a message on suffering, let's say, like it would just say season two, episode four, there was no titling there that, you know, indicated, what the actual topic was of the message.

00:03:16:01 - 00:03:38:00
Nick Clason
So your title, just like your thumbnail, both are really important as far as communicating to your audience what your video is going to be talking about. And so if you're in church, a lot of times we do this in churches where in the middle of like a series and we're like, David series, sermon three. Right. Which like, that's great.

00:03:38:00 - 00:04:00:27
Nick Clason
And you can actually on YouTube really easily include your series into a thing called a playlist. And so they can all be included. David, you know, can be included into a playlist, but talk about what you're talking about, you know. So if you're talking about David and Bathsheba, maybe your title is like coming back from Giant Mistakes or leaning in to God's grace.

00:04:00:27 - 00:04:25:14
Nick Clason
Right. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about ways that you can figure out the best words and the ways to title these things. But very simply, if you make this small shift from just creating it for your church people, where you're explaining, like David, you know, message three and instead shifting it to like what the actual topic is like, that is going to be one major and massive shift.

00:04:25:14 - 00:04:50:10
Nick Clason
And in my completely free e-book, which is linked right here on screen with a little bit of a rebrand, new new title, we are now switching the name if you've already downloaded it. Still the same content. I just changed the title to The Complete Hybrid Strategy Guide. and we actually talked to you, in this e-book in detail for you how to start pre filming your messages and how to get going on YouTube.

00:04:50:10 - 00:05:08:10
Nick Clason
So maybe you've been watching this playlist, but if you download this e-book it will be kind of your step by step guide to starting to create content on YouTube. Once you get past your titling, there's another really important part. And it's all the way down here at the bottom. it's passed you a little description box. It's pass it thumbnail thing.

00:05:08:12 - 00:05:28:26
Nick Clason
It's pass your playlist selector and it's in this area here called tags. Okay. Now you'll see right here on mine I have these little like, ranking things and that's from a service called vid IQ which link down below is a vid IQ link if you're interested in grabbing that for a free trial or for a period of time.

00:05:28:28 - 00:05:48:25
Nick Clason
But this will help rank what some of your tags are. So if you are talking about David and Bathsheba, you might write in David and you might write in Overcoming Sin, and you might write in God's restorative grace. And just these tags, these are ways in which people, that search for things on YouTube. Because, remember, YouTube is owned by Google.

00:05:48:25 - 00:06:12:24
Nick Clason
And so people are going to YouTube and they are searching things like they went on Google, for example, how do I come back from a massive mistake that I've made and maybe your video on David will actually help communicate that. Or maybe someone's looking for some research on David and they're saying, hey, I want to know, like, when were David and Bathsheba like, you know, what year did David and Bathsheba take place or something like that?

00:06:12:24 - 00:06:32:05
Nick Clason
I don't know, but just begin to think like the people that are searching on YouTube. And so you may answer certain things like, you know, how to overcome sin, but you may also answer David and Bathsheba, you know, whatever year it was or something like that. And so you can put some of those things in. And this little plug in here is from vid IQ.

00:06:32:05 - 00:06:54:24
Nick Clason
And so I have that plugged in right here at the top, watch some of my stats and gives me kind of some, some analytic type stuff. And so it also can give me you know, some, some suggestions for tags and stuff like that. And so if you are interested in that, something like that, you can get that for a pretty nominal, pretty minimal fee and also a trial to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that.

00:06:54:24 - 00:07:14:24
Nick Clason
You should definitely check that out. But tags are pretty important. And you'll see that it has, 500 potential characters. So whatever you do, try your hardest to, get your tags filled all the way out to as close to 500 tags as possible. after that, I want to talk here for just a minute about the, description section.

00:07:14:24 - 00:07:33:13
Nick Clason
So the description section, this is where I include a lot of, like, relevant links. And so if you're watching on YouTube and you're watching my video right here, this is my, you know, hey, I'm offering free editing right now, so click that link. And since that's one of my main kind of call to actions out of this message, out of this video, like, I want you to click that.

00:07:33:13 - 00:07:50:29
Nick Clason
I'm putting it right up at the top. I also have my strategy guide right here. and you can also grab that as well. then right here, this is like just a description. So just think like think like a little mini, you know, paragraph two paragraphs, three paragraphs, kind of blog post. So same kind of idea as the tags.

00:07:50:29 - 00:08:19:13
Nick Clason
But this one is you're typing it out. You're typing it out, for the audience that may find it because YouTube and the algorithm, they're always crawling every single piece of text and every single piece of content from the video. So all the captions that you have, all the words that you say, all the things you write, all the tags you have, all the title that you have, all those things go into account as people are searching and looking for different videos on YouTube.

00:08:19:13 - 00:08:37:26
Nick Clason
And so, just fill this thing out and I'll show you an example. if you are watching on YouTube, you can see me navigating over to it live time right now. But our student ministry YouTube account, and you'll see that we have every single one. We have, a next step. So this just takes us to we use, Church Community builder.

00:08:37:26 - 00:08:58:27
Nick Clason
So this is our digital Next step card that's included in every single description. And we have a thing called digital notes, which students can use to follow along, both live in the room and also here on YouTube. And so, this is free a free service from the YouVersion Bible app. It's just a way to continually make things more hybrid in your space.

00:08:58:29 - 00:09:18:28
Nick Clason
and so look, you look we're talking about David this week as well on this episode. and so this is just an example of a couple of links that you can include. And I like to try to include every single, next step, every single link into here, into the digital notes. And so, you know, right here it says Ready to surrender Control.

00:09:18:28 - 00:09:40:27
Nick Clason
Let us know by taking a next step. This is the exact same link as the one I just showed you, right. It takes it out to that next steps form as well. And so we're all this is like our final last step. And so in my sort of like ultimate strategy guide I'm posting fun shorts that people will find as I'm posting spiritual shorts so that people will be inspired, that then push to our long form content.

00:09:40:29 - 00:09:55:26
Nick Clason
So then they go watch a long form version of our video, and then that drives them to a next step, and then they take the next step here. And that's how we capture and gather their information. That's how it is in a pie in the sky type of world. It doesn't always work that way. You know that as a youth pastor as well.

00:09:55:28 - 00:10:14:06
Nick Clason
But this is how I can reconcile and say like, this is why we post fun content. This is why we post short inspirational shorts, because we're driving to this long form version of our video, which is then driving toward a next step which allows us to capture information from students, gather their their info and follow up with them, and ultimately disciple them.

00:10:14:06 - 00:10:36:04
Nick Clason
Right. And so that's that description. Place is also where you can include, the links like, you know, digital notes. If you want to do that, feel free to borrow that, steal that. You use that in your own space, or in next steps form or whatever the case may be, if you are not, you know, like if you're, not a youth pastor and you're also just looking to post videos on YouTube, that would be where you might post things like affiliate links and whatever.

00:10:36:04 - 00:10:55:02
Nick Clason
And so you'll see that for me as well. Like right here, these are my show notes. And so these are different things like you know this it takes you to the show notes on my podcast page. This is you know we talked about Cap Cut, DaVinci resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, some other links about growing as an editor, tutorials, limited time offer.

00:10:55:04 - 00:11:17:11
Nick Clason
Here's all my socials. Here's some other freebies. Here's some affiliate links, like so. All that stuff is kind of chock full in there. But then this is another really important thing. This is really, key thing to do. I think when you're posting videos to YouTube is create chapter and time codes, and all you got to do is just add them right here in the description.

00:11:17:11 - 00:11:39:21
Nick Clason
If you're watching live on YouTube, you can see that. And I just go back through the video and I watch it manually, and I type out when I started talking about each of these things. And if you are watching on YouTube, you'll see down below. I'm also now starting to highlight that on screen with some text right? So that whenever anyone's watching, they can scrub ahead and see what I'm actually talking about in each section of the video.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:00:15
Nick Clason
Because I don't know about you, but there are some times where I don't want all the fluff at the beginning, I just want the direct answer. So YouTube helps index better when you include chapters, and just by putting them in there, YouTube will auto break that up and it will, create chapters and create divisions within your video for the people in your in your space that are watching it.

00:12:00:17 - 00:12:27:20
Nick Clason
beyond chapters. the other thing that is really important, probably just as important I would say, is the title is your thumbnail. And so your thumbnail is very simply your, your, your like first impression, right, of what's going on. And so, a lot of experts say you want anywhere from, 2 to 6 words on the thumbnail, as little as possible.

00:12:27:21 - 00:12:51:07
Nick Clason
Because think about if someone's scrolling through on their phone. They're just getting a small image of it. So you want it to be enough to incite curiosity that will cause someone to click on it and then get started on your video. And so rather than David, invest Sheba week three of the David series, your church name in your, you know, date that you preach it or whatever.

00:12:51:10 - 00:13:14:20
Nick Clason
Like just simply post like, you know, returning to God. Something like that. Right. And you can put, like a screenshot of yourself or a screenshot of whoever's speaking and do some graphic editing. With that, you can use things like Adobe Photoshop. You can use things like Canva, links to those all down in the description of this podcast episode.

00:13:14:22 - 00:13:20:01
Nick Clason
but you can use some of those things so that you can create a good first impression.

00:13:20:01 - 00:13:35:08
Nick Clason
One other, couple other kind of like next level sections. And you'll see here, here's my vidiq optimize score. there are a couple of things here that I have not, you know, like, they don't they don't think my titles very easy to understand.

00:13:35:10 - 00:13:53:06
Nick Clason
but one of the things that can help increase your score is adding things like cards. And so you get one card per playlist. And if you're watching this video, I did it right, the very top. Right. So we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministry. In this video I did it as well. I did it at 45 seconds.

00:13:53:13 - 00:14:09:28
Nick Clason
And so I'm just highlighting like, hey, you're in the middle of a playlist. If you want to go back to the beginning, catch up, or you may reference another video from another time. Maybe somebody, doesn't want this video that you're talking about, but you can help point them out to another type of thing that they may be interested in.

00:14:10:01 - 00:14:33:04
Nick Clason
It'll show up on screen, similar to something like this. Someone can click on it while they're on YouTube and take them to another video on YouTube. Sean Cannell has, a Ten Commandments for YouTube. And one of the things is keep people on YouTube's platform as long as possible. At least that's YouTube's cool, right? And so, all these things help help you rank better.

00:14:33:04 - 00:14:54:19
Nick Clason
So that's an example of a card. You get one of those per video. And when you're pre filming you can write that in. And if you're using a teleprompter like we had talked about in a previous episode, linked to a teleprompter down below in the show notes. Grab that. But you can write that in so that you make sure that you include the card in your video, but you can, you know, kind of point to it.

00:14:54:21 - 00:15:12:28
Nick Clason
and here's like a little hack, like if you are filming direct camera, if you point with your left finger, it'll pop up right here on top of your screen. A lot of times I'll add a sound effect and maybe like the thumbnail of the playlist or the video I'm talking about, and pop it right in right where my finger comes in, and also have it come across right above it as well.

00:15:13:00 - 00:15:33:11
Nick Clason
That's just a little editing thing. And again, if you're interested in editing, reach out to me down below in the show notes. but finally the last piece. And, you know, also, by the way, hey, listen, here's the thing. Maybe you don't have a budget for editing and you're like, I want to do this. and I'm going to learn editing, but, like, I just I need someone to help me walk through this.

00:15:33:11 - 00:15:53:19
Nick Clason
Like, I'm also offering some coaching right now at a smaller rate. for sessions of coaching, just a few. Just a few bucks. If that's something that you're interested in, I can help you go from wherever you are and start making progress on your hybrid strategy today. And then the final piece that you want to include is your end screens.

00:15:53:19 - 00:16:17:29
Nick Clason
And it's the same concept as the card where you want to keep people on the YouTube platform. As long as possible. You'll notice on, this video here, I included, four different end screens. I have, and this is, this is a little hack. I often, dovetail onto the next video on my on my playlist, but this is the most recent video I've uploaded.

00:16:18:03 - 00:16:36:27
Nick Clason
And so right now I don't actually have the next video on my playlist. all the way edited and all the way uploaded to YouTube. And so right here, this is just a placeholder once I upload, video 94, this is video 93. Once I upload video 94, I'll go back into here and I'll replace this video right here, which is called video, which is best for viewer.

00:16:36:27 - 00:17:03:04
Nick Clason
That's YouTube's algorithm doing its thing. And I'll add video 94. Now you might be thinking, Nick, aren't if I post it and I say next videos on screen and it's not uploaded yet, won't that be a problem? And yes, for that like one week or so it won't be there. Okay. But from that moment on, once you upload or the the second video on the playlist goes live, it will live there on for the rest of eternity and time.

00:17:03:04 - 00:17:29:12
Nick Clason
And so one of the things we got to start getting, getting used to as youth pastors and people using the internet is that YouTube will live on in perpetuity forever, as long as you keep it up there and so. Well, the people that watch your video now, for your church, maybe in the series with David and Bathsheba, when you move on to the next section of the The Playlist and you're talking about David at the end of his life, and that's video number four.

00:17:29:15 - 00:17:51:09
Nick Clason
If people discover this a year down the road, two years down the road, ten years down the road, they will have access to that next video. And you can serve the people on YouTube forever. And that's one of the beautiful things about you and I as youth pastors, becoming content creators is that we can, effectively reach more people than just the people in our direct physical care.

00:17:51:09 - 00:18:10:14
Nick Clason
And that's one of the reasons I think going hybrid as at least one of the other benefits and I don't even think it should be the main or primary benefit of what we're doing, but it is at least something that we can use and utilize to our advantage. I also oftentimes include the playlist on here and the subscribe thing as well.

00:18:10:14 - 00:18:26:14
Nick Clason
And so you can add those to the end of your video as well. You can create a little Endor screen like I do, which has like little placeholders. And you just pop the video right in there. You can use something like a motion or a.com to find a thing like that. Speaking event screens. You will see right here on screen.

00:18:26:14 - 00:18:45:19
Nick Clason
If you're watching on YouTube our next video, which is the importance of playlists and courses. And so we're going to talk in depth about those. How do you utilize them and the advantage that you and I as youth pastors have, and how playlists are the perfect solution for us in our churches, in our youth ministries. So go ahead and check that video out.

00:18:45:19 - 00:18:49:08
Nick Clason
And don't forget, and as always, to stay hybrid.

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

💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] YouTube Editing for Youth Pastors💥

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
✨If You’re a youth pastor, looking to reach the 95% of teenagers who spend time on YouTube, study according to Pew Research, and You’ve shot a video you're ready to share with the world...
How do you get the word out?
📈In this video we'll talk about Growing a YouTube channel
💥The Viral Reels Framework
🪄And the Incredible AI Tool you can use for your social media!
FULL PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/094

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/qf600kbri2Q

GROWING A CHANNEL FROM SCRATCH
//CROSSCREEK STUDENTS ON YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/@crosscreekstudents

//UNDER $100 GEAR KIT
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

//[FREE] EDITING
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing

//[FREE] COACHING
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

VIRAL REELS FRAMEWORK

1. Attention
2. Context
3. Captions
4. Relevant Hook
5. Sound Effects

//ADOBE PRESETS FOR ANIMATIONS
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

THE MAGIC OF OPUS.PRO
//[FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

👉 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 🆓
📅 "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

📨 Full Proof Recruiting Email
EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

🍩 "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 Getting the Word Out About your YouTube Video
02:05 Growing a YouTube channelf rom 0 to over 500 subs
06:15 Viral Reels Framework
11:47 Opus.Pro the Mindblowing Shorts Creator!

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:05
Nick Clason
If you're a youth pastor or church ministry leader of any sort looking to reach the 95% of teenagers who declared, spend time on YouTube, according to a Pew Research study that was done recently. And you're following everything that I've laid out in the playlist linked right here. You have pre shot a video. You have edited a video and now you are getting ready to then have posted the video to YouTube.

00:00:28:07 - 00:00:42:00
Nick Clason
Well, those are the first three steps that now now that you've taken those steps right you've taken the time to upload that video to YouTube. How do you get the word out about the fact that you have a video now on YouTube?

00:00:42:00 - 00:00:49:21
Nick Clason
Well, one of my favorite features embedded into YouTube is the shorts tab. It's very similar to TikTok.

00:00:49:21 - 00:01:19:01
Nick Clason
It's a discovery based short form vertical video category kind of algorithm. And it's it's kind of taken social media by storm. I'm curious what what your choice would be because all social medias have it now, right? Like maybe like me, I'm a millennial and a lot of millennials sort of settled in on Instagram. If you're an Instagram person, go ahead and give us a like, maybe some of you, you prefer TikTok and TikTok is sort of your social media of choice.

00:01:19:01 - 00:01:31:26
Nick Clason
Go ahead then and give us a subscribe if that's you. And, well, if you're YouTube itself and you need to turn the bell on because you definitely don't want to miss any more videos in the playlist that we're in right now. Titled

00:01:31:26 - 00:01:43:25
Nick Clason
YouTube for Youth Ministry. But YouTube shorts is a great way, along with some of those other social media platforms Facebook, even Instagram and TikTok to get the word out and to be discovered.

00:01:43:25 - 00:02:08:17
Nick Clason
And so in this video, I'm going to share with you my strategy for growing a YouTube channel 100% organically with zero paid reach. My viral Shorts five part framework and give you the not one, but two mind-blowing tools to help you do it all. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You know, I haven't had a chance to meet yet.

00:02:08:18 - 00:02:25:27
Nick Clason
My name is Nick Clason and I right now I'm employed as a youth pastor in DFW, Dallas Fort Worth area, and I started at the current job in which I'm at now in September of 2022 and in January of 2023.

00:02:25:27 - 00:02:35:16
Nick Clason
So if you do some quick math, you'll realize there's just four months, before in January of 2023 when our church made a name change.

00:02:35:16 - 00:02:58:23
Nick Clason
And so that's significant because when I started in September of 2022, our student ministry did not have a YouTube account. And furthermore, I did not launch the YouTube account because of the name change coming in January. And so I held off, which gave us which gives us very clear kind of markers and timelines and stuff like that. So

00:02:58:23 - 00:03:02:26
Nick Clason
hold off did not start the channel until January and didn't start posting until January.

00:03:02:26 - 00:03:27:00
Nick Clason
And so as I'm looking right now, I'm typing it into my computer right in front of me right now, Cross Creek students on YouTube has 530 subscribers in just over a year. It's now March 20th when I'm recording this. And so we're looking at a year, and about three soon to be four months, 530 subscribers. Now, that's nothing to write home about.

00:03:27:00 - 00:03:46:24
Nick Clason
There are certain channels that have far more you know, subscribers and engagement than than we do. But my guess would be if I were to ask you, like, hey, do you want to get the word out? Some of your students, do you want to get the word out? Some of the parents in your ministry, and you want to get the word out to just some other people about the message of hope found in the gospel through YouTube?

00:03:46:24 - 00:04:07:05
Nick Clason
You would probably say yes and say, hey, would you be okay? 530 subscribers, which, by the way, is also continually growing. And so, in that time we have pre filmed our videos. I did it all off of my cell phone, which is actually what I'm recording on right now as well. and so it looked videos looked very

00:04:07:05 - 00:04:18:09
Nick Clason
similar to this with, you know, maybe different set, different locations in our church and one of our offices behind us filmed all the videos off of my cell phone for the first about a year.

00:04:18:11 - 00:04:28:28
Nick Clason
got all my gear for about under $100, got a little tripod, some lighting, some microphones, and that is actually linked down below in our gear for under $100. And

00:04:28:28 - 00:04:43:17
Nick Clason
then if and or when you are ready to upgrade to a little bit nicer camera in a little bit, it's a little bit easier to not do it off of a cell phone, when you do it off a camera, because it doesn't, eat up your cell phone space, you can use SD cards and stuff like that.

00:04:43:20 - 00:04:57:25
Nick Clason
I recommend the Sony Zv-e10 that is also linked down below, and it is about $600-$700. $600. And then if you get a good lens with it's another, you know, 100 bucks or whatever. So in the $700 ballpark,

00:04:57:25 - 00:05:04:13
Nick Clason
which is not a ton, but maybe you're not ready to do that. And that's why I would just stick with the under $100 thing.

00:05:04:13 - 00:05:12:24
Nick Clason
And then once you've shot the video and you're staring down at a video editing screen, you might be like, I don't even know what to do.

00:05:12:24 - 00:05:27:01
Nick Clason
Right now, I'm offering a limited time offer for anyone who's interested in my video editing services. and I will actually edit your videos for free. I'm just simply trying to get the ball rolling on this for me.

00:05:27:01 - 00:05:52:21
Nick Clason
And so I'm asking for you to, to shoot it pre film sent me out, edit it professionally and get it ready for you for YouTube. And maybe, as I say, that you're sitting here thinking like, I'm not ready for that. Like I don't I don't have the infrastructure for that. Well, then I can help you implement a hybrid strategy through some one on one coaching sessions as well.

00:05:52:23 - 00:06:19:03
Nick Clason
Those are also being offered right now. Limited time for free. All you gotta do is hit the contact tab down below in the show notes. Let me know. Reach out if I have space available still in my time and in my schedule, then I'd be happy to add you to something like that. Now, when you are posting on social media, when you are using short TikToks, reels on Instagram, Reels on

00:06:19:03 - 00:06:25:12
Nick Clason
Facebook, there are five kind of key categories and key factors, and I like to call it my viral Reels framework.

00:06:25:12 - 00:06:49:21
Nick Clason
It's five parts. but really it's isn't as formulaic as much as it is like when you're posting, these are the five things you need to attempt to try to make happen. So viral reel framework, category item number one is attention. Attention is everything. On social media. You know that there are certain reels that capture your attention better.

00:06:49:26 - 00:07:11:01
Nick Clason
And then there are other reels that are just plain, flat out boring. And think about your own viewing habits on social media. When you're on there, you're not necessarily on there to just, be informed, right? Like in some cases, you might be you might be on there doing a little bit of research. And the information is also inspirational.

00:07:11:01 - 00:07:36:20
Nick Clason
And so therefore you do like gather and capture some information. That's great. But whatever, whatever causes you to stop scrolling and hover over a video or hover over a post for a while, that's going to be the key. And the same is true with you, and the same is going to be true for all of your youth ministry, social media, your, goal is to get someone to stop and give you their attention.

00:07:36:20 - 00:08:05:05
Nick Clason
And so the better that you do, stopping and grabbing their attention, the better. So that could be, you know, opening the the reel with a zoom in or a sound effect or some sort of, like, surprising thing, or someone running at the camera or, I mean, there are all kinds of different ways to sort of grab and capture someone's attention, but if you don't have their attention, they're going to continue on scrolling as you know, as you probably use as well.

00:08:05:11 - 00:08:35:09
Nick Clason
Boom boom, boom boom boom. And now you're seven reels back and no one gave you any more time of day. So be thinking about how can you capture someone's attention. One good way I like to do that is, to give them context. And so that's my second, that's my second framework piece, is that if you are pre filming your messages and if you are dropping in little clips from your messages, give them the the more fuller embodied context of what you're talking about

00:08:35:09 - 00:08:40:04
Nick Clason
so that it's not just a soundbite, but they understand what

00:08:40:04 - 00:08:44:25
Nick Clason
what this clip is referencing and where it's coming from and what you're referring to.

00:08:44:25 - 00:09:13:11
Nick Clason
So you can accomplish that with like an AI voice, or you can accomplish that with just some text on screen. And then that way, boom. As I scroll there, it's got a little text on screen. And if you want to make that context, make that hook, whatever it is, make it a little bit interesting, give it a little bit of intrigue, like the four surprising ways that you can connect with God or one thing that makes Jesus mad, or seven ideas or, you know, whatever the case may be like.

00:09:13:14 - 00:09:34:26
Nick Clason
But give them some context, because if you are going to be giving them a real from a longer form clip, you're going to want to give them some background so they know what you're talking about when they enter into it. And so both that text on screen and or I voice is hopefully getting their attention, but also filling in and giving them context.

00:09:34:28 - 00:10:12:17
Nick Clason
And whoever you are, youth pastor, social media person, just person on YouTube, person on the internet, whoever is listening to this, please all, no matter what you do, put captions on your videos. That is framework thing number three. If you don't have captions, you will lose out on a segment of your audience. A wide majority of people watch, reels, watch TikToks, watch shorts in places where they can't have their headphones in in order to have their audio turned on, or you're just like, mean your wife is asleep next to you in bed and you are watching reels.

00:10:12:17 - 00:10:33:02
Nick Clason
But you I don't watch it if it doesn't have captions on it. Why? Because she's asleep and I'm not turning my sound on. So put captions on your videos so that anyone and everyone can access them. Number four, you need to have some sort of relevant hook. Now, if you're just pulling out clips from YouTube, that's going to be trickier, right?

00:10:33:02 - 00:11:09:06
Nick Clason
Because you're not speaking in such a way that has a relevant hook. And maybe as you begin to start speaking more and more direct camera, you may just weave in naturally. Things like this is one of the seven most surprising things about following Jesus, or whatever the case may be. But if you're not natural at that because it's not a natural skill to do, nor a thing that's easy to figure out, then as you are editing it and or as you, start to clip it up for social, that's where the context is important, because the context piece can actually serve as a little bit of your hook, and then may also serve as a

00:11:09:06 - 00:11:38:05
Nick Clason
way to kind of garner and gather and capture your viewers attention. And then the fifth one is sound effects. If you have editing ability and you're able to offer your reel with some sound effects, sound effects make a big deal. You can do animated text, you can do things on screen. I have some presets down below. If you're using a thing like Adobe Premiere Pro, I got some some presets that'll make you look like a professional, but if you can pair it with some sound effects.

00:11:38:12 - 00:11:41:21
Nick Clason
Now that right there, my friend, that's next level.

00:11:41:21 - 00:11:59:13
Nick Clason
So I get it. You're like, dude, okay, cool. Yeah, let me get started right on that with attention grabbing context and captions and some relevant hooks and sound effects. did you know me? Youth pastor? Did you know that I have other things I have to do in my job?

00:11:59:14 - 00:12:21:10
Nick Clason
Yeah, I do, I look, I do mean, and it's that's the thing 95% of teenagers find themselves on YouTube. We need to find a way to get over that. We need to prioritize putting ourselves over there. Which is why I want to start editing videos for youth pastors to help them out. I want to help take some of that burden, some of that load off of their plate when they don't have the time to do it.

00:12:21:10 - 00:12:28:23
Nick Clason
But some of that stuff, it just does. It comes a little bit at a cost, either a time cost or a financial cost. So this is what I want

00:12:28:23 - 00:12:47:01
Nick Clason
to offer for you two mind. Mind blowing, life changing, life changing maybe. Resources. The first one, definitely not life changing because I created it, but it is my 100% completely free e-book, and I'm actually thinking about changing the name of it to my fully fleshed out hybrid strategy.

00:12:47:04 - 00:13:13:25
Nick Clason
Either way, this is a framework for not only how to build, edit, capture, and post done for you, but done for you ideas. But things that are or are relevant and contextual and personal. You, your students, your leaders. You are the heroes. You are the people on these social platforms. I'm telling you to use social media to help get the word out.

00:13:13:28 - 00:13:33:25
Nick Clason
Yes, for your YouTube video, but also just for additional content above and beyond that. And my e-book will detail that in outline. How to do all of it, not only how to film it, but also how to edit it and how to schedule it so that you are staying relevant and current with stuff that is going on. So go ahead and check that out.

00:13:34:02 - 00:13:55:03
Nick Clason
But then my second tool that I want to let you know about is that in all the things we're talking about, relevant hooks, text on screen, like all these types of things, you can use opus clip. It's free. It's free for a time up to a certain number of credits. And then if you want to add some more credits to the cost, you can go ahead and do it.

00:13:55:03 - 00:14:16:20
Nick Clason
I think, I got it when I was still kind of in beta, but I paid like a hundred and like $12 or something like that for the year. and like, you see right here, it's for 31 hours and five minutes. what happens is like our videos are, you know, 10 to 15 minutes long. And so I calculated that out and it's enough for a year.

00:14:16:20 - 00:14:37:24
Nick Clason
It's more than enough for a year. So I can use it for some other things too. We film the playlist and I use it for some of those as well. But what you do is you, you drop either a YouTube link in here or a zoom link, or just the actual full file. and then when you're in it once, it's already like kind of process it through whatever, it creates it and puts it down here and all these different projects.

00:14:37:29 - 00:14:59:12
Nick Clason
So you see, these are all old projects that I've used before in the past. And so in this particular one of I'm just going to click on it. You'll notice it scroll all the way down to the bottom. That has given me 15 different shorts that I can use, 15 different videos that are clipped up vertically based with captions, all the things we talked about and that you can use.

00:14:59:14 - 00:15:18:12
Nick Clason
then once it gives it, once it gives it to you, it it ranks it with some of these things. I don't really use those. I write my own headlines and taglines, but you can use that if you want. you can download it, in Adobe Premiere Pro. You can download it in, in high definition. or you can go in here and edit it, which I recommend doing.

00:15:18:14 - 00:15:33:28
Nick Clason
it'll, it has a full video transcribe. But so in this particular clip it has it transcribed right here. And so you can select the start spot like if you like I don't want it to turn the word Android or you want to send the word student. You can just change it to just select the start spot there.

00:15:34:00 - 00:15:49:14
Nick Clason
and then you can have it end in a different spot. you look over here, you see how long it is. A YouTube short needs to be under a minutes of. It's greater than a minute. You need to find places to shave it down. then over here in design, I like to generate B-Roll with some stock footage.

00:15:49:20 - 00:16:05:08
Nick Clason
And so all these little spots are. Here are places that the video decides to generate some B-roll. So this one is generating B-roll based off of the word process. And so if I don't like the word process right there, or if I don't like the video that they chose for the word process, I can research the word process.

00:16:05:11 - 00:16:25:23
Nick Clason
And, these ones right here are Shutterstock images, which I don't pay for, so I can't use. But these other ones right here without a Shutterstock watermark are, from pexels.com, which are free. So the free for me, they would be free for you to use. and then if I'm like, I don't like any of those words, I can research a new word and just say, like, I don't know, computers.

00:16:25:26 - 00:16:40:29
Nick Clason
and then search that, and I can see what kind of words I'm going to get for computers, and then I can just swap it out right there. And now it goes from my iPad thing to this little computer based thing, when I'm done with it. by the way, it also has, auto emojis over here.

00:16:40:29 - 00:16:58:14
Nick Clason
So like, as it, as it's talking, you might see moments where emojis pop up on screen just like that. just as another, like, visual stimulant on the screen. you can choose your caption style. You can also create your own brand kind of template. I'll show you how to do that here in just a minute. Caption lines per page.

00:16:58:14 - 00:17:16:29
Nick Clason
Three lines or one line. How do you want the captions to transition with the bounce and underline box? you can select your underline color. You can figure out where you want your captions to go. You can change fonts, all these types of things font, color, font stroke, font shadow, keyword highlighter and then screen overlay. So let me show you that to so.

00:17:16:29 - 00:17:34:19
Nick Clason
So when you're done you can click click save and compile. And I'll just put right here. It'll need a minute to process. And then boom you're done. And you're downloading. if you want to create a brand template, which is what I like to do, in my brand template, I have created this little guy right here as a watermark on the top of my video.

00:17:34:21 - 00:17:58:24
Nick Clason
on our student Mr.. Have something similar, which points people back to our YouTube channel. Now, when you're on YouTube and uploading it to shorts, you can click related video. And on shorts you can actually link your YouTube video, which is my favorite feature of all. But if I'm using this over on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook, I use this little watermark as sort of my way to like, encourage them to go check us out on YouTube.

00:17:58:24 - 00:18:19:04
Nick Clason
But, here here are my caption preferences. Here is my brand kind of template. and I have it all saved. I have it all. Whatever. I made this little I made this little watermark thing, and then this is where I uploaded it. Right here. I just built this in, like, a thing, like Photoshop with a clear background, and I uploaded it in,

00:18:19:06 - 00:18:36:18
Nick Clason
And then I saved it. And so this is my pre preset template number one. But I could go to preset template number two. And I could create a whole different look, a whole different flow a whole different feel. Now when I'm done I download them all. I save them in a folder and I post them, I save them in a folder to be posted later.

00:18:36:18 - 00:18:57:27
Nick Clason
And so you can use Opus clip, you can use my e-book, both of which to help you level up your social media game and get the word out. Once you've shot your video, once you've edited your video, and now it will help you create in a matter of minutes, social media content for you and for your youth.

00:18:57:27 - 00:19:25:09
Nick Clason
Ministry, But. Now, now you've done all these things. Okay, now it's ready to go on YouTube and post like you're going to click the plus button and create. And then it's going to give you the YouTube dialog box. So you have to put in titles and descriptions and tags. One the world you even post on there. I'm glad you asked, because we're actually going to be unpacking that fully in the next video, which is linked right here on screen.

00:19:25:16 - 00:19:35:17
Nick Clason
We're helping you take digital discipleship and make it easy. And don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

In this episode we'll give you a COMPLETELY FREE Done for you, reproducable month long social media posting tool and stratgey framework. Just copy and paste this month after month for a strong social media presence in your church's youth ministry!
Hit the link below!
👇👇👇👇👇

🆓FREEBIES
📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

😨 "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
//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

RISE OF THE NONES
https://amzn.to/44YyZlT

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, it's crucial for every church to embrace the power of social media. Whether you're a small local congregation or a thriving mega-church, marketing the church effectively can help you connect with your community like never before. We'll be discussing tried-and-true marketing church strategies that include utilizing social media platforms to create a strong online presence. From crafting compelling content that resonates with your audience to developing a comprehensive church social media strategy, we've got you covered.

Looking for innovative church social media ideas? Look no further! Our channel is your go-to resource for church social media management tips and tricks. We'll guide you through crafting a church social media policy that ensures your online presence aligns with your church's values and mission. With our insightful videos, you'll learn how to become a proficient church social media manager or even explore the option of bringing in a dedicated professional. Together, let's unlock the potential of social media for churches and take your ministry to new heights. 🌟

Don't miss out on our game-changing advice for creating the best church social media strategy. We'll provide you with customizable church social media templates and actionable steps to execute a flawless plan. If you're wondering how to effectively use social media to extend church invites and foster engagement, we have the answers you need. Join us as we delve into real-life examples, including the social media strategy of renowned churches like Elevation Church. Prepare to elevate your church's online presence and witness the incredible impact it has on your youth ministry and congregation as a whole. Subscribe now and embark on your journey to a Strong Digital Presence for your church's youth ministry! 🎉🏛️

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/060

//NPR ARTICLE
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1175452002/church-closings-religious-affiliation#:~:text=Estimate%3A%20In%202019%2C%20the%20year,opened%20and%204%2C500%20churches%20closed.

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT EPISODE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/033

//FINDINGS FROM BARNA E-BOOK
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/006

//SIX FINDINGS FOR THE HYBRID CHURCH EXPERIENCE
https://shop.barna.com/products/6-questions-about-the-future-of-the-hybrid-church-experience

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLE:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/attendance-at-religious-services/

📱NICK'S SOCIAL MEDIA RESOURCES
SPIRITAL PRACTICES TIKTOKS
•https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/spiritual-practice-videos/social-media/instagram-8804.html

INSTAGRAM TOOLS
•https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/instagram-slider-engagement-tool-vol-1/social-media/instagram-8118.html
•https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/instagram-stories-slider-tool---hot-takes-edition/social-media/instagram-8034.html

ALL RESOURCES
•https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/nick-clason/?cgid=shop-nick-clason&q=nick+clason&start=18&sz=18

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-02:19 Intro
02:19-10:18 How can our church be more relevant for Gen Z & Gen Alpha?
10:18-21:52 Why youth ministries need to post their messages to YouTube
21:51-25:05 40 Done for You Social Media Posting Ideas
25:05-26:50 Where to get all these resources?

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00):
Well, hey, everybody. In this episode, we are going to answer this question why I believe every single youth ministry needs a strong social media presence. We're going to look at some trends, some statistics, and share with you why now is the time to double down, to engage and to make social media and a digital presence important in your church's student ministry. Well, everyone, if you and I have not had a chance to meet, my name is Nick Clason. I am an actual youth pastor in the D F W Dallas-Fort Worth area, host of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast. So welcome to that. Excited to have you with us. We are going to dive into some statistics and some, some trends and some quotes, and I got all kinds of fun stuff. If you are not already subscribed to our YouTube channel, hit that subscribe button, hit that notification button, hit that like button.

Nick Clason (00:57):
All those things help us get seen by other people who also need to hear this message about the importance of digital and student ministry in your church in 2023 and honestly, far beyond. So excited to have you with us. Hey, I also wanna let you know we got a couple of freebies. So link down below in the description in the show notes. If you're listening on a podcast, hit those up. We got your free ebook on how to create a complete TikTok from scratch. And in this episode, we are also going to, with that exact same link, we are going to drop another free done for you social media structure plan, um, 40 free videos, your social media plan. I'm gonna give it to you for you and for your youth ministry. Make it happen, download that ebook. Also, if you are a video editor and you use Adobe Premier Pro, we have some free presets for you so that you can use those Adobe Premier Pro presets in your editing.

Nick Clason (01:52):
Completely free, super easy to use, just want to encourage you to check those things out, uh, a like rating, subscribe, all those things. We are on TikTok, we are on Instagram. We are all the places. Hit the description, YouTube, hit the link in the show notes on a podcast. But without any further ado, let's hop in and let's dive in to the topic of why every youth ministry needs to have a strong social media presence. Let's go. So I was recently reading through, uh, the comment section of YouTube channel, and I saw this question and I thought it was fascinating, and I thought that it was worth exploring the question read like this, what elements can we bring into our service and our church, whether innovative or just a mood that increases our relevancy to Gen Z and Alpha? It may cost us discomfort, but we are willing to stretch.

Nick Clason (02:44):
First of all, I love the notion here that we are willing to stretch understanding that the times that we are in with Generation Z and generation alpha, gen Z, um, most people are saying, uh, the old, the, the youngest of them are born 2010, uh, on up through young adulthood. Now they're in their twenties, mid twenties or so just now graduating college, just now getting started to, um, have a career. And in addition to all of that, joining your church force for the first time. And so if you're in youth ministry, gen Z is not in your youth ministry. Uh, maybe like your high school we would say is, is Generation Z, gen alpha, um, eighth grade, seventh grade or so, right in that range. Um, down on through, uh, having been born between, uh, 2010 and 2025. So some of them aren't even born all the way yet.

Nick Clason (03:35):
They're in the kids' ministry, but they're waving on up. So Z and alpha are so, so completely different. I wanna share just some, some kind of state of Gen z state of gen alpha statistics with you. But those things are gonna help us frame this conversation about why social media is so important for the next generation. A lot of churches have a social presence and it operates as their outreach arm, their evangelism, uh, branch of their ministry, so to speak. And I, I think that is a great tactic and a great tool, and if you're not doing that, you definitely should. However, that being said, I think there are also opportunities to, um, promote discipleship growth, theological and spiritual connection and commitment, not only with each other, but also just with connection to God's word. And so I want to dive into some of those things, but before we do that, let's look at who Gen Z and who Gen Alpha are, what we know about them, what some of our learnings are, and what we can kind of like take from that and how that's gonna help us frame this conversation.

Nick Clason (04:38):
So, uh, over here, before we dive into that though, over 4,000 churches close their door yearly, over 4,000 churches. This from npr.org. Um, and the estimate is this, in 2019, the year before the pandemic, before the pandemic, keep that in mind. So the pandemic was already, or, or was, or was going to be hard on people. This right here, right? Like this is pre pandemic, more Protestant churches closed than opened in the us. Um, 2014, 4,000 churches opened, and 3,700 churches closed 2019. Then that number started to shift and get a little bit more. And so churches are slowly becoming, um, starting to close at a rate greater than their opening. And you know that with that trend over time, that's going to make churches more and more obsolete, less and less relevant. Now, is that because Generation z generation alpha don't want to go to our church, perhaps, and there may be some things worth learning, but why?

Nick Clason (05:45):
And where does social media play into this? I'm gonna give you that in a second. But first, 56% of Generation Z claim to be Christian. And you might think, oh, that's pretty good. That's encouraging. I thought that might be lower. I did. However, 25% of Gen Z claim to have no faith at all. James Emery White wrote a book called The Rise of the Nuns. And this is that trend right here being played out. This is the highest classification of no religion at all by any generation. Gen Z, millennials, Xers, boomers, all the things. Gen Z the highest at 25% claiming to actually have no faith whatsoever. Furthermore, the five biggest terms, when, when, uh, this is done by a study from Barna, the five biggest terms that Generation Z used to describe their faith were these five growing at 47%, open at 38%, curious at 35%, spiritual at 33%, and then exploring at 32%.

Nick Clason (06:48):
And so what that tells me is that Gen Z, while they may have a classification, right, of not having religion, um, not claiming one at all, they are open and they are willing and they are curious. And so I think that pairs well and creates a really good kind of groundwork and ecosystem for us as student ministry leaders and personnel to, uh, continue to answer some of their questions. Here was where this gets fascinating, and I think personally where the rubber meets the road. In response to this statement, Barna said, Hey, the statement is this. The church does not answer my questions. 13% said that that statement was completely true. 13% said the church does not answer my questions 24%. That's somewhat true. So more true than not that the church doesn't answer their questions, um, 28%, somewhat not true. Uh, so, uh, it's getting a little bit better.

Nick Clason (07:46):
And then 35% said that's, that's not true at all. Okay? What I wanna highlight and kind of pull out there is that 37%, almost four out of 10 people would say that the church doesn't really answer their questions yet. However, they would classify themselves as growing, open, curious, spiritual, and exploring. And so if there's an opportunity for the church to lean into a demographic that is curious, open exploring, um, asking questions, why would we not answer those questions? Well, I hear your rebuttal on the other end of the camera, right? Well, I, I am handling those, uh, questions I am asking and answering big questions through my teaching series, through my bible studies, through my devotionals, and that's great. However, pew Research recently said that 58% of evangelical protestant church attenders attend church get this at least one time a week, 58%. So that means out of your, uh, your a hundred percent membership, people who call your church your student ministry home, only six out of 10 are actually coming on a week to week basis to even hear that teaching.

Nick Clason (09:00):
Also, Warren Bird, on our last podcast, we, I, I shared some, some snippets from Warren Bird, uh, but Warren Bird says this, he says, people tend to over exaggerate when it comes to this question. When it comes to their church attendants. They overinflate the numbers, right? They want to look better perhaps than they actually are. And if 58% are actually attending at least one time a week, then there's this to keep in mind that there are still 40% who of their own admission and of their own classification are not hearing your weekly messages unless they're actually there because only 58% are attending at a week to week sort of clip. And so what should I do about that? You're asking, you're like, I am trying to answer their questions. They say they're open, they're spiritually engaging. This is where I think that all churches, especially all youth ministries, should be posting their weekly message content.

Nick Clason (09:55):
And you should be doing so uploading to YouTube. Okay? Here's the thing. You probably already have a soundboard that you're using in your room, and if you do, in most cases, you're able to add a minimum capture the audio, and you can start uploading that to podcasts. But YouTube is king right now, and I wanna share with y'all why after this. So here's the reality. If you head back into the archives of any of my podcasts, YouTube videos, um, we talk a lot about YouTube, in fact, episode, um, 33 http://www.hybridministry.xyz/033, link in the description link in the show notes talks about how to start a YouTube channel completely with links to all the gigs that you're gonna need and how to do that directly off of your phone. It will help you upgrade your audios just ever so slightly. I am now using, I got a couple lights here.

Nick Clason (10:49):
I got a camera that I'm recording off of. I'm also going to drop here in just a couple weeks, probably next week. Um, a a complete gear rundown of us after a year of YouTube upgrading our camera equipment. And I say a year, I look at my watch here, which actually gives me my date today as I record. This is July 31st. We officially launched our YouTube channel at the student ministry that I work in, in January 1st of this year because we, our church changed their name. And so I was holding the YouTube channel to launch along with the name change and all that stuff. We, so far this year on YouTube have posted well over, um, I think it's over 200 videos. Um, I'm trying to go to it right here on live, that auto channel player player, oh, 399 videos. I just uploaded a short this morning, uh, by this afternoon, I'll post my second short.

Nick Clason (11:42):
We'll be at video number 400 since January 1st of this year until now, July 31st. We are currently at 202 subscribers. Not crazy numbers, not anything that you wanna write home about necessarily. But if you had the opportunity to reach 200 additional people in your student ministry or in that 202, there are probably people who, well, I do know this. There are students who subscribe to our channel. There are parents who subscribe to our channel. Would you not want the opportunity to speak to those people? And that's the key, right? If Pew Research says only 58% of people are attending church once a week, then YouTube offers you an opportunity to share that message with them. But why YouTube? 3.48 billion people according to Hootsuite, roughly 45% of the world's population use social media. That's where they are millennials, which is not necessarily our target demographic. That's us as the youth pastors.

Nick Clason (12:39):
However, this is a trend worth watching because millennials are setting the pace, I think for some of these younger generations. Millennials say that they prefer YouTube to traditional tv two to one. That's crazy to me. I don't, but that's how millennials are, are consuming it. And that's also how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are consuming it. I had a kid yesterday walk up to me and I was recording some videos for some of our social media stuff, and he's like, oh, I wanna do it. I wanna do it. Look, I have a YouTube channel. I have over a thousand subscribers, and I was low-key jealous of him. 'cause that's my goal right now is to get my channel up to a thousand subscribers. I was like, no, you don't. Let me see. And he showed me, and he is just doing like goofy Minecraft tutorials and stuff like that.

Nick Clason (13:17):
He has 1.1 K subscribers via his YouTube channel. It is bunkers. Uh, also check this out, 51% of YouTube users say that they visit YouTube, get this daily. So why should we be on YouTube for all of those reasons? So if you wanna know how to start your own YouTube channel as a church, as a student ministry, you definitely should hit up episode 0 3 3 link in the show notes for that, and we will help make that happen. Um, help you get the gear and all that type of stuff going. Now, here's the thing in our context, this is why I want you to hear this in our context. We are in a large auditorium space. We have a soundboard, but it's not retrofitted and it's not graded to livestream. Okay? Our big church auditorium is, but our main service is not. And so because I didn't, uh, we're gonna be delivering live messages and, um, I, I also wanna post to YouTube.

Nick Clason (14:09):
I had to have a kind of like reconciling moment. What I decided was I was gonna do video. If you're watching our YouTube right now, it's just like this direct to camera. I'm talking directly into the camera with a scripted teaching video. We've got a teleprompter. It goes right in front of the camera here and it scrolls and you can watch it and you can read your notes and you can deliver a message with a YouTube hook that's hopefully engaging, um, with video, uh, lower thirds, uh, text that'll bounce in, bounce out sound effects. You can weave in other clips, B-roll, all that type of stuff. But it's made for YouTube. It's not just a camera perched in the back of the room, which is what most of us do for time reasons. And here's why that's important. In episode six of this podcast, me and my previous co-host, Matt Johnson, looked at some of the findings of the Future Church.

Nick Clason (15:00):
Um, this was from Barna. They, they dropped an ebook a little over a year ago called Six Questions About the Future of the Hybrid Church Experience. We pulled out some stats, we chatted about it. I'll drop the link to that episode in the show notes. I'll also drop the link to the Barna ebook in the show notes if you wanna explore more about that. But I wanna 0.2 things out to you from that ebook. It says, 60%, 60% of those participating in church that offer an online service during the pandemic say that this is the only digital offering that the church makes, their live stream of their service. And furthermore, 63% of church adults believe that the church should use digital resources for the purposes of spiritual formation and disciple discipleship. 63% of churched adults, not Gen Z, not gen alpha, the church adults in this classification.

Nick Clason (15:55):
So this is millennials, this is Xers, this is even maybe some boomers giving us some of this data. Um, according to this ebook, they have a quote in there that says, churches, if if churches more than a building, can digital ministry be more than a sermon? And I would contend the answer to that is unequivocally yes. We're gonna dive into the nitty gritty, the tactical, and give you a free downloadable resource on how stick around for that. But before we do, I wanna drop one more eye-opening thing out of this ebook. It said, this faith, this is, uh, a stat I'll, I'll put the, um, graph on YouTube if you're following and watching there. Faith expression during the pandemic, the question was, do you use the internet? The percent answered yes. Um, there are three categories practicing Christians, church, adults, and dropouts. 66% of practicing Christians say that they use, uh, faith, uh, in the internet.

Nick Clason (16:48):
They use the internet for faith practices during the pandemic at 66%. Church adults at 56%. And dropouts, even those who've dropped out at 36% say that, um, as a faith supplement, 52% of practicing Christians, 42% church adults, and 30% of dropouts as a faith supplement. And then as a substitute for physical church, 50% of practicing Christians say that 46% of church adults say that. And 30% of dropouts would claim that. In addition, they broke that out, uh, with, uh, a deeper classification of church, gen Z Church, millennials, church Gen X, and church boomers, obviously, no surprise to you, gen Z was the highest of that. 67% as, um, for faith purposes, 56% as a faith supplement and as a substitute for physical church, uh, that was at 58%. So Gen Z, and mind you, this was old enough. So at least 18 years of age Gen Z.

Nick Clason (17:43):
So that's not counting kids in our youth ministry. And that's not counting Alpha, 'cause none of them were old enough to be pulled on survey. So if it's that high in churched adult Gen Z, how much more for the teenagers in your youth ministry? Uh, James Emery White has a quote out of his most recent book, hybrid Church, rethinking the Church in a post-digital age said the vision. This vision, talking about the metaverse, this vision led Zuckerberg, c e o of Facebook to change the name of its company to Meta. Zuckerberg described a grandiose vision of a metaverse as an even more immersive and embodied internet. When or where you're gonna be able to do almost anything that you can, uh, imagine, get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create as well, uh, as entirely new categories that don't even fit how we think about computers or phones today.

Nick Clason (18:37):
If you, uh, wanna reference point, think of the movie Avatar. The Metaverse would be a shared social space where avatars represent users, a world that avatars interact and inhabit. And in that metaverse, you could own virtual property just as you would physical property or even create, uh, your, even create your own virtual property. Not to mention, you can buy and sell property. The last step in achieving all this would be a full three D telepresence v uh, via VR or AR glasses. Hubo technology is a technology company that manages hybrid and virtual events, predict that soon events will be, um, less about chronology and speakers and more about exploration and interaction. That quote right there is worth weight in gold. Um, I, and I'm just kind of picking it up 'cause I read this at 1:00 AM last night, the end of a standard webinar is coming near and being replaced with live streaming VR entertainment and Oculus Rift parties.

Nick Clason (19:34):
What Emory White says is this, and this is what made me pull this quote out. Needless to say, the internet is not gonna be flat for too much longer. And why do we want to do this for Gen Z and Gen Alpha? This is the internet that they are going to be ushering in and growing up in. They're spending time on the internet, on their phones. And while there are, uh, digital hygiene things that we as youth pastors need to model and teach our students to do, I think gone are the days of just, Hey, no phones. Like, yeah, that's easier. And we all know that like reducing our technology use helps us. However, you got a new kid walking into your student ministry, are you really gonna take his phone and lock it up in a locker and tell 'em you can't have it until the end?

Nick Clason (20:18):
Is he coming back after his first week of visiting your church? Probably not. But if you help teach students, Hey, here's technology, here's resources. Here's a way that you can grow in your faith beyond the walls of this sermon and service while I'm up here trying to answer your questions, but give you more to study with because this is what I was studying this week as I was preparing this content. And here's something for you. Here's a P D F, here's a checklist, here's a devotional, here's a prayer guide, whatever the case might that's gonna help students grow in their faith. And all of that can exist and live on your digital platforms. In particular YouTube. But wait, I'm so busy, but wait, I don't have time. I'm already preparing messages. I'm sitting in meetings. I'm running C c b or I'm running church data management reports.

Nick Clason (21:05):
I don't have an admin. I used to have an admin. I might get an admin. I'm probably never gonna have an admin. And I'm stacking chairs and I'm repainting the youth room and I'm patching the wall from the kid whose butt fell through the thing. I get it. I'm there. I'm a youth pastor being in youth mystery 12 and a half years. Here's why this, uh, this is why we are dropping this resource. So we are going to be giving you all the month long social media posting tool done for you and your youth ministry free ebook link in the show notes. When you download that, you're gonna get a link to two eBooks, my TikTok from scratch, and now this month long youth ministry social media thing. Let's dive into what is actually going to be in that. Let's go. So we will detail this a little bit more in the ebook, but essentially I'm giving you a basically 40 ideas that you can post, uh, five days a week.

Nick Clason (22:01):
So there's seven days in a week. I recommend that you take two off just to practice Sabbath and, uh, not working whatever your two days off that you want to be. So for example, I post Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I don't work on Fridays in the office or Saturday. So I don't post either of those days. And each of those days I post two tos. I recently talked a couple episodes back about how we went from three down to two, and then I'm gonna give you three or I'm, I'm sorry. I'm gonna give you, uh, a video thing to post every single day. So for me, my Sunday, I post the message hook from our teaching video that we do, we we capture it like this, then I clip it out and make it vertical. And I post a game on Monday. I'll do Meme Monday, and then I'll post some sort of spiritual practice video, either a talking head or pre uh, existing resource.

Nick Clason (22:50):
I have some resources in the show notes on Download youth ministry that you can ahead and grab if you want. Um, on uh, Tuesday I'll post a message clip, and then I'll do some sort of game or fun thing, uh, Wednesday, another spiritual practice video, and then a recap of our Wednesday night youth ministry, just some B roll and some audio that I did the sync auto sync on TikTok around cap cut. And then finally the third message clip, and then another game or activity. And so here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna help teach you how to clip those messages. Um, I want to, I wanna let you know about a, a resource. I'm gonna include the link in the show notes called Auto Pod. It is taking my long form sequence in Adobe Premier Pro and shrinking it and making it vertical. That's something that you can use and that's helpful, uh, to you if you are a, a video editor in that way.

Nick Clason (23:38):
If not, just clip it in on your phone using cap cut and, uh, you cap cut's a super powerful tool you can use. Um, and then, uh, and then also I'm gonna give you about 10 to 15 different game ideas or activity type ideas that we've done in our youth ministry. You can check it out, link to, um, you can check out our student ministry link in the description, cross Creek Student Ministry, social, go to our shorts, watch just some of the goofy stuff that we do. But I'm gonna give you ideas on how you can repurpose like d y m type games or other fun things like that and use it on camera or, or one thing I did yesterday was I, uh, me and a student took the camera around and he asked people, Hey, we're going back to school soon. What do these back to school?

Nick Clason (24:22):
Emoji phrases mean? He'd show them a picture on the phone and then they would try to guess, um, and to like incentivize them to actually choose to be on camera. We'd give 'em a fruit snack if they said yes, and then I captured it, and then I'm gonna go edit it and post, um, and have the, uh, emojis pop in. But if you don't wanna do all that right, you can just video it and just do like a quick picture and picture overlay of the emoji phrase. So there's all kinds of ideas, but all of that is going to be done for you. 40 ideas, replicatable, reproducible, the same framework, but also different videos every single week on your social media because vertical short form video is still king, bro, I missed all that. Great. We offer free transcripts for every single episode at our, uh, podcast page, hybridministry.xyz.

Nick Clason (25:14):
This is episode 0 6 0. So you can go there, pick up the free transcript, also link in the show notes for free editing presets for my TikTok video and now my, um, month long social posting tool done for you for youth ministries. Check that out. And hey, listen, if you're not in youth ministry, grab it and adapt it to your church. Because here's the thing, you don't have to just be silly and goofy in youth ministry churches wanna see their pastors having fun as well. So, uh, hope that you guys found this episode helpful. Hey, if you did, would you do me a favor and just share it? I would be forever grateful if you shared it, if you liked it, if you rated it, if you reviewed it, if you dropped a comment so I could engage with you in the comments. So pumped to be here walking through this with you.

Nick Clason (25:56):
Listen, I'm in the trenches just like you. If you're in youth ministry, if you're in church communications, if you're a social media manager for a church or business, I'm right there with you. I'm doing this podcast in my free time early morning before everyone else gets into work. And then I'm gonna turn around. I'm gonna start working right after this because I'm doing it with you. And so I want to be along on this journey with you. Make sure you follow us on TikTok, subscribe on YouTube, hit me up on Instagram. And until next time, and as always, we are making digital discipleship easy and accessible. Don't forget to stay hybrid.

Long Form Video:
https://youtu.be/uZzatZ4KFyE

Hang out on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick

ShowNotes & Transcripts:
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/055

FREE E-Book:
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

Instagram:
http://www.instagram.com/hybridministry

SHOWNOTES
FREE Animation Effects for Adobe Premiere Pro:
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

TIMECODES
00:00-01:13 Intro
01:13-02:14 Setup For Editing a Short Form Vertical Video for Church Social Media
02:14-02:52 Converting from Widescreen to Full Screen in Adobe Premiere pro
02:52-03:12 Setting in and out spots on a Sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro
03:12-03:26 Starting your TikToks to catch people's attention
03:26-03:55 Shaving Down Excess Space for Quicker Jump Cuts on TikToks and Reels
03:55-04:19 Zooming in and out for TikTok Videos and Shorts
04:19-05:12 Animating Text Layers in Adobe Premiere Pro
05:12-06:08 Adding Sound Effects
06:08-07:14 Add a Call to Action to Watch the Long Form YouTube Video
07:14-07:57 Adding Music to your Short Form Video
07:57-11:30 Adding Captions to your Reels and TikToks in Adobe premiere Pro
11:30-12:19 Rendering the Short Video for Social out of Adobe Premiere Pro
12:19-14:33 Determining Which Clips to Add for a Social Media Clip
14:33-19:13Clipping out the Spaces
19:13-19:48 Adding the Call to Action
19:48-22:49 Transcribing the Sequence for Reels and Shorts in Adobe Premiere Pro
22:49-22:32 Rendering out the Sequence
22:32-24:17 Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:02):
What is going down everybody? Welcome back. Another episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. If, uh, you have not, um, if you've not gone back and seen the last one where I edited a full, uh, video down, then I want to encourage you to go back and check that out. That is what I would do for, um, editing a full video for YouTube. Once that's done, render out some thumbnails and some time codes and stuff like that. However, for, um, this episode, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna edit out three short form TikTok style videos. So I wanna make sure that you can see that. So I'm gonna be using the same premiere file. I'm just gonna resave it and make it vertical as opposed to horizontal. So I wanna show you how that goes down. Um, hey, don't forget, we are on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Nick Clason (00:46):
Go subscribe all three places, check those things out and hit the show notes for transcripts and my free ebook. Um, tell you how to post a TikTok from scratch on your phone. This, however, is about posting a TikTok. Um, first saving it on, uh, in a video editing software. In particular, this one's Adobe Premier Pro. And then, um, saving those somewhere that you can repost them later. So, without any further ado, let's dive in. Check the sucker out. So, like I said in the last video, you would've seen, um, something like this. This is, um, me opening up the Adobe Premiere Pro file. Um, I don't think I need those, so I'm not gonna worry about those. All right, so here's the, the final. So the first thing I do,

Nick Clason (01:36):
Okay, you'll never be left

Nick Clason (01:38):
Out. All right, so the first thing that I do is I, um, file save as. Um, and I'm gonna save it as underscore social one. I do every social, I do a new one, um, just cuz I sometimes move around like backing tracks and audio and resync some things. This is more, this happens a lot more with my podcast than these, but I just try and do a different one every single time. Sometimes I forget, but the more that I I file save as the source file, the less chance for error. Um, and so I'm just gonna start here. Um, so now this is the source file. So now I can change the sequence settings. I'm going up here, sequence settings. Frame size is 1920 by 10 80. That is wide screen. I'm gonna change it to, um, up, up and down, whatever that's called. Verticals vertical video. So that's 10 80 by 1920 pixels, click. Okay. And then, okay, so now you'll see here in my preview I have it, um, uh, 10 80 by 1920. Problem is I need this video to be fully screened. So that's why I kind of change it every single time. So I'm gonna, um, zoom that in in a minute. But first I am going to, um, create a title track. So I'm gonna make it this one right here. In this

Nick Clason (02:52):
Video we're gonna talk about how, about how, how you, how you can get,

Nick Clason (03:01):
So I want to do it right there. So I clicked I how you go in. Um, and then right there I hit C to get my razor tool and then v to select that and get it outta here. Now one of the things I like to do is I like to open it with an animation. I feel like as people are scrolling, when they see an animation, it jars them and at least gets their attention at least a little bit

Nick Clason (03:22):
How you can get,

Nick Clason (03:24):
I'm going to need to zoom that in though, right? So it needs to be like that.

Nick Clason (03:28):
How you can get invited to every single party.

Nick Clason (03:34):
I'm gonna do c v, get rid of that, bring that in ever. I'm gonna make these quicker cuts, you'll

Nick Clason (03:42):
Never be left out again.

Nick Clason (03:44):
So where there's a gap there in the audio, how I'm clipping

Nick Clason (03:50):
This party started and find out.

Nick Clason (03:53):
So go back here and now I'm gonna just do some zoom. So that's at 1 94. I'm gonna zoom in even more to 2 27, 2 27 and then 2 27. So

Nick Clason (04:10):
How you can get invited to every single party ever. You'll never be left out again how this party started and find out.

Nick Clason (04:19):
All right, so, um, I also want to take my, uh, thumbnail, which I made in Photoshop. Um, I don't think I showed that on camera, but that's what I ended up making. So I'm gonna bring that in in the P S D and then since I have all those layers, I'm gonna animate those and this is gonna be like my announcement or like title sequence. So I always do one that just like explains what the video is. It's just like an announcement. Um, and so this is that one. This is me, you know, right here at the beginning. So I'm gonna go

Nick Clason (04:51):
How you can get invited to ev.

Nick Clason (04:56):
So I'm gonna have that come in at the same time and then I'm just gonna move it so it fits

Nick Clason (05:07):
How you can get invited to every single party ever.

Nick Clason (05:13):
I'm gonna do a sound effect as that comes in. I still have that sfx saved from earlier. If you don't have it, um, go find it. Um, wherever you have sound effects saved, um, go find it in your finder and then you can drop it right here in this bin. Since I did use that earlier in my long form video, it's already saved in here. Um, so that's one of the reasons too where I like to go back to the original file cuz all the things that I pulled in are already still there. So I'm gonna do I right there, o right here. I have a lot of other options, but I'm just gonna pick that one. Let's see how that sounds.

Nick Clason (05:49):
How you can get invited to every single party ever. You'll never be left out again. How

Nick Clason (05:58):
I feel like that needs to be

Nick Clason (06:00):
How let's get party start. Oh, how, let's get this party started and find out.

Nick Clason (06:08):
All right, so over here, um, in my shared file, I have created a graphic that I use for my enders. So it's in, uh, shared students social media, TikTok and reels. And then I think I have it in admin. And this is just where I push people to watch the full video on YouTube. So I'm gonna put that right here. I'm gonna let that bounce in, right? And I'm gonna get a, I'm gonna get a whoosh sound with it. Take just the audio there. Boom, put it right there. Yep,

Nick Clason (06:51):
Let's get party started.

Nick Clason (06:53):
I wanna make that a little later. Let's do it right here.

Nick Clason (06:57):
Party started. Find out

Nick Clason (07:00):
We let it linger a little bit past the talking. Make that oh for out and then I'm gonna go back in here into messages. Um, start the party and I'm gonna get the party music so that there's a little audio track with it. Um, is it necessary? No. Um, does it add to it? Maybe you can be the judge of that. Um, I'll just, I'm just gonna drop it in here. I'm gonna make it negative 25. So it's real low.

Nick Clason (07:27):
You can get invited to every single party.

Nick Clason (07:32):
Adjust. I'm gonna adjust these audios right here. So I'm just gonna highlight them all. Select, all right, click audio game. I'm gonna make it 15. So it should be pretty substantial difference how you

Nick Clason (07:42):
Can get invited to every single party ever. You'll never be left out again. How, let's get this party started and find out.

Nick Clason (07:52):
All right, the only thing is I lost my right there.

Nick Clason (07:56):
Start and find out.

Nick Clason (07:58):
All right. Now last thing is I wanna add captions. So I'm gonna go to window workspaces, captions and graphics. Um, here's where I transcribe it. So I'm gonna click, um, from captions to transcript. I'm gonna click transcribe. Uh, okay, I don't know what this is doing. This is new. Okay, so let's do transcript.

Nick Clason (08:37):
Oh,

Nick Clason (08:48):
All right, let's try it again. So this is just gonna take a minute. There used to be, this is an updated version. So like I said, I have a new computer in my last video. So there used to be an option to just transcribe the in and out portion so it wouldn't take quite as long. Uh, looks like it got it right here. All those right there. So I'm gonna click captions, click captions from transcript, click this dropdown arrow. I like to do single lines and then create captions. So

Nick Clason (09:37):
I do,

Nick Clason (09:37):
So there you see they right there. So I'm gonna go over here and highlight that one. Click command A to select all. And then I'm gonna go change all. So I'm going to, I like to do, uh, every one of my captions for students has been Babe New Pro. Um, I put it in the middle here, but then I do uh, bottom line text, um, take away the shadow and I want to give it a little background. So I'll give it a black background. I'm gonna make it a hundred percent a opaque and then I'm gonna give it some roundedness and some size. See, so it looks like that. Now problem is, it's still covering that. So I have two options. I can lower that. I can lower the texts. So I can do like this and then like top aligned or middle aligned, or I can move this, um, in, in affects controls. And so I think I might do that so my face isn't covered. Um, and then, but that still doesn't solve this problem. If I go there, yeah, if I go there, it's still a little bit. So I might still move this down, just ale and then over here and text command A.

Nick Clason (11:01):
Yeah, I'm just gonna leave it there in the middle. It's fine.

Nick Clason (11:04):
Oh, you can get invited to every single party ever. You'll never be left out again. How, let's get,

Nick Clason (11:13):
You just gotta go back in here and edit anything that didn't get picked up. So how, let's get this party started and find out, out

Nick Clason (11:22):
Again how, let's get party started and find out started and find out.

Nick Clason (11:30):
I'm going to cut it right there, back to V to select it. So now when my under slide comes in, it's gone. All right, so now I'm gonna click on sequence command M, make sure my format is set to H 2 64. That's for MP4 files. And now I'm gonna go back out here. Instead of putting it in messages, I'm gonna put it in TikTok and reels. 2023, start the party oh three Nick, oh one title and change it from, uh, entire source to in and out. So it's just gonna do that a little bit right there. Export, there's TikTok number one.

Nick Clason (12:20):
All right, sweet. Now I'm going to go file save as I'm gonna gimme social two, I'm gonna go back up here to window and get my effects panel back. Some switch from workspaces, from captions to effects. It's probably an easier way to do it, but I'm not gonna worry about it now. It autogenerated all these captions for me. That could be good, that could be bad as long as I keep the same order. I like to tell stories on TikTok as much as I can. So if this story right here can make sense, I'm gonna go with it.

Nick Clason (12:54):
Church, I, I used to work at one time, likes to be the person ever. Nobody.

Nick Clason (13:12):
All right, so these captions are messing me up. So honestly, I'm just gonna start this over. So no, I'm not gonna save that. Um, I'm gonna go back in here three premiere and pull this up. So now I'm going to just get myself a clean copy and all I gotta do is change the sequence settings, file, save as social. I'll just make this three. All right, sequin. Gotta click on sequence. Sequence settings. 10 80 by 1920. All right. Now back to my story. So I don't want these things here, okay? I don't need those things for TikTok

Nick Clason (14:00):
Ever. Whoop,

Nick Clason (14:08):
Cut V out. I'm gonna animate this in motion. Presets position in smooth bottom. Let's be

Nick Clason (14:17):
On

Nick Clason (14:18):
And I'm gonna zoom in, go over to effects controls, and I gotta cut the gaps.

Nick Clason (14:27):
Nobody, let's be honest, nobody ever likes to be the person left out. One time I moved away from a church that I used to work at

Nick Clason (14:54):
Just cutting out all these gaps. So C then V and then sliding over.

Nick Clason (14:59):
And at this church at this,

Nick Clason (15:04):
I don't need that big long. And

Nick Clason (15:09):
At this church I did retreats with an

Nick Clason (15:25):
So I'm gonna bring all of these photos over

Nick Clason (15:33):
Treats. What's another,

Nick Clason (15:36):
I just gotta zoom in.

Nick Clason (15:38):
A friend of mine down the road, he worked at a church. And so together our church would, our two churches would come together. We went on this fall retreat. And so before I moved, I was was one of the ones who went on the,

Nick Clason (16:08):
All right, let's go back here and shave out any fluff. I don't need whatever this is.

Nick Clason (16:14):
Our church would come to our two churches would churches. So together our church would come to our

Nick Clason (16:21):
Cut out that, so it's just this

Nick Clason (16:25):
Boat. He worked at a churches, our two churches would come together and we went on this fall retreat. And so before I moved, I was one of the ones who went on the retreat, helped plan it,

Nick Clason (16:42):
Speak,

Nick Clason (16:42):
Do all the things. And so every single fall we went to camp Fall retreat. And so

Nick Clason (16:49):
I'm gonna cut all that goal is to make it as short as possible. And

Nick Clason (16:52):
So every single fall we

Nick Clason (16:53):
Went to, I felt losing the story

Nick Clason (16:56):
CSA in Briston, Indiana. And we called the retreat, the Recharge retreat. And it was awesome. And it was awesome. It was awesome and the same place. And because I followed both my and it was awesome,

Nick Clason (17:23):
Roll

Nick Clason (17:23):
Around,

Nick Clason (17:26):
Same.

Nick Clason (17:27):
And it was awesome. I leave that church, I move on to another one, and that same weekend rolls around.

Nick Clason (17:33):
Gotta get that out of there. I could have left. It just chose not to the same place.

Nick Clason (17:39):
And because I follow both my old church and my buddy's church on Instagram, I see that they're both on a retreat.

Nick Clason (17:47):
And I

Nick Clason (17:47):
Was like, God, it's interesting both that church and this church are both on a retreat together at, but on the same

Nick Clason (17:54):
Weekend, probably gonna cut all this out. That's

Nick Clason (17:56):
Interesting. Wait,

Nick Clason (17:58):
It

Nick Clason (18:00):
Go wait.

Nick Clason (18:04):
And that same weekend rolls around.

Nick Clason (18:07):
Wait,

Nick Clason (18:17):
And it was awesome. I leave that church. I'm watching that same weekend roll around, wait in ton Indiana, hold on, hold on. They're together. And what I began to notice, hold on, was that these two churches came together and instead of calling it the Recharge retreat, they called it the Lifeline Retreat or something like that, that these two churches came together and instead of calling it the Recharge retreat, they called it the Lifeline Retreat or something like that. I don't remember, but I felt, so

Nick Clason (18:59):
This is why I wanna end on right

Nick Clason (19:00):
Lifeline retreat, but

Nick Clason (19:01):
I, I felt so left out, left, boom. And then I just wanna kind of leave a little cliff hangry. So I'm gonna go back over here. I'm gonna grab my ender screen. I'm gonna bring it in. It's gonna position in, right? I'm gonna get the sounder for it.

Nick Clason (19:31):
Same weekend.

Nick Clason (19:35):
So that's at 1 30 46. All right, so it's less than a minute. Um, YouTube shorts only allows a minute. So I always make my goal to be less than a minute. So transcript, get this outta here. I think that that's my in-out points. I just want the audio transcribed. I don't need all that transcribed. That might be all the little ones. Listen, you and I are learning this all together with the new transcription interface. In the meantime, Marvel at me in this old shirt. All right, so I don't want that. I want create new caption track there. So I need to get all these, I'm gonna do Babes New Pro. I'm gonna do another black. Actually, I'll do a white background with black text this time. I don't want shadow, I want background. And I'm just gonna put it right in the middle and then lower it down just a little bit beneath my face. And let's see how it looks.

Nick Clason (21:48):
Let's be honest. Nobody ever likes to be the person left out. One time I moved away from a church that I used to work at this church. I did retreats with another friend of mine down the road. He worked at a church and our two churches would come together and we went on this fall retreat. And so every single fall we went to a camp called Camp Tecu Tecumsah in Brookstown, Indiana. And we called the retreat the Recharge Retreat. And it was awesome. I leave that church, I move on to another one. And that same weekend rolls around. Hold on. Was that these two churches came together and instead of calling it the Recharge retreat, they called it the Lifeline Retreat, but I felt so left out.

Nick Clason (22:38):
I'm just gonna cut that right there. I'm gonna put my out there. I'm gonna come back over here, put my in, and then command M, switch it to H 2 6 4 TikTok, start the party. Boom. All right. And then one more. I like to do three week. I typically post my Title one on Sunday, um, and then I post the other two, um, on a Thursday and a Tuesday. So that's just kind of been my rhythm. Leaves some gaps in the calendar or in the TikTok posting schedule for some other things. So, all right, as this encodes, I am going to wrap up to the next one,

Nick Clason (23:37):
Actually. Um, I'm going to, you get the gist. Um, I will do the third one the exact same way. Uh, just realized I have a meeting in two minutes, so I'm gonna go ahead and wind this down. Um, I will, I will make the third one without you here. Um, but I hope that you found this helpful, um, in pre-recording and then making TikTok in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. So, sounds helpful. Leave a like, subscribe, rating, review, hit the notes, uh, show notes for transcripts or my free ebook. And, um, we'll talk soon. Don't forget, stay hybrid.

Come hang out at http://www.hybridministry.xyz
Or on TikTok http://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Or on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9pjecCnd8FVFCenWharf2g

SHOWNOTES
FREE E-Book: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook
Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account Video: https://youtu.be/oxBn-p9O-eg
The Do's, Don'ts and lessons learned from launching a YouTube channel for your church in 2022: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/018
Atomic Habits: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=asc_df_0735211299/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312014159412&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8492597528919365054&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027304&hvtargid=pla-541463258824&psc=1

TIMECODES
00:00-01:31 - Intro
01:31-03:47 - What is the role of the church as a whole?
03:47-11:55 - How the Church should carry out the Great Commission
11:55-15:00 - Build Up
15:00-19:51 - Speaking Truth
19:51-21:42 - Stir Up
21:42-24:24 - 3 Short Form Video Hacks
24:24-26:24 - Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00):
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. I am your host, Nick Clason, excited to be here with you today. And if you have not go check out the show notes or head to hybridministry.xyz I'm gonna put a link to it in here, but we just released two things, a brand new YouTube video and a brand new ebook, both which are built to help you post a TikTok from start to finish. It's titled, have I Already Ruined My TikTok Account? And the entire purpose of it is really this understanding that like social media in 2023 is moving a hundred percent towards short form video content, TikTok, Instagram reels, YouTube, short style content. And so are you prepared and equipped to post that type of content? And are you prepared and equipped? Do you know what it takes to, do that?

Nick Clason (00:57):
Um, and have you, if you've ever logged into TikTok, and if you've ever been confused and you're like, what is going on in this place, this video and this ebook are both, uh, guides to help you walk through and navigate how to post something from something that you pre-recorded, or how to, uh, record something natively in the app, how to, uh, jump on trends, how to use audio, personal, um, business accounts, all kinds of different things. And so, uh, like I said, we got the link to that for you here in the show notes. Go check that out. I hope that that's something that you find beneficial and valuable. But in, uh, today's episode, I want, I really wanted to look at what is the purpose and what is the role of social media in the local church? So if we think about it, the purpose of the church, um, I think it was given to us by Jesus.

Nick Clason (01:51):
So I don't think that that changes. I think, you know, churches all have their own mission and vision statements, but I think they all should be derived and come from, uh, the Great Commission, which we find in Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, where Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Again, this is Jesus talking. And he says, so therefore, go and make disciples. That word go is often used for like missionary conferences, like, go, go, go, go to Africa, go to Poland, to go to wherever. Right? But, but really the verb there is not go. The verb is this idea, the word go is better translated like as you are going. And so the verb, the actual verb is to make disciples. So the purpose of every church, every local, uh, church expression, every gathering, every eia, the Greek word of churches, eia, gathering and coming together, a conglomerate of people, um, that are all built and, and focusing on the same general mission, um, is to make disciples.

Nick Clason (02:58):
So as you are, are going, as you are living your life in the places where you live, learn, work and play, make disciples, help people take meaningful, significant steps towards Jesus. Um, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. He says, and then he, um, says, Baptiz them in the name of the Father, son, holy Spirit. Once they make that decision. And then finally, I will be with you always, even to the very end of the age, Jesus gives us this promise of His presence, this promise that he will not leave us nor forsake us, that he will, as we are taking steps towards him, as we are helping other people make decisions to follow him, um, that people will be, um, that, that he will choose and will be with us to the very end of the age. So that is the purpose of the church as given to us by Jesus himself.

Nick Clason (03:48):
So then if, if the purpose of the church is to go and make disciples, the avenue or the venue with which Jesus lays out for us to do that is, I believe, best to be done in and through the context of his local church. And so I think that, um, what has happened is if we look back into a little bit of church history, which this is not intended to be like a church history podcast, nor am I that well versed in that topic anyway, but the, the, we all know, if we look back to like the Book of Acts and some of the early church, like the church was much more like a family. And now I feel like in America, north America, um, because of Western influence, the church is much more operated like a corporation, less, like, less like a family. So more corporation, less family.

Nick Clason (04:44):
And so social media, um, oftentimes is the marketing arm of this corporate entity that we're all living in and experiencing. And so social media's role often is an awareness. Um, role is often a role on helping people, um, learn about, have brand recognition and awareness of the church. It's all about color schemes and guides and branding and fonts. And, and listen, like as a, as a marketer at heart, like I'm, you know, I'm a youth pastor, right? But like, I, I'm obviously interested in this topic of marketing and stuff like that. So as a marketer at heart, I don't mind those things. In fact, I actually, I appreciate them. I understand what we're doing and, you know, with those things. So with that being said, right, like what, what is the role of social media in a gathering? Is it to help, uh, draw family together, right?

Nick Clason (05:40):
If we're gonna go off the old, uh, new Testament example, um, and framework, or is it to bring brand recognition and awareness, um, the role of the church to make disciples to do that in the context of a of gathering of a family. Um, where, where do we get our basis for what church is? You know, if we look through the New Testament, there's really not a lot of examples of a church built like a business with a c e o, with a head, with a pastor, with a president, with a figure talking head. Um, it's just, that's, that's really not what we see a lot. Instead, what we do see a lot of in the New Testament, right, as we see some of these examples of one another's. Um, so I think one of the best, uh, examples of, uh, what the church can do and what the church should be and what the church should look like is, um, found in the 59 times that we see the phrase one another spelled out in the New Testament.

Nick Clason (06:34):
So for example, we have, um, the command to love one another. We have the command to honor one another from Romans 1210. We have the command to live in harmony with one another, Romans 1216 to build one another up. Romans, uh, 14 for Thessalonians five to be like-minded. Romans chapter 15, to accept one another, Romans 15 to admonish one another. Colossians three, we have care for one another, serve one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another, be patient with one another, speak the truth to one another, be kind and compassionate to one another. Speak with Psalms and spiritual songs. Submit to one another, consider one another, look to the interests of others, and finally, stir up, stimulate toward love and good works. And I think most of us would agree that that entire slew of list, that's not even all 59 of them, right?

Nick Clason (07:24):
But the ones that I picked out that I put there on that list, I think most of us would agree that those are best done, or at least most familiarly done and accomplished through, um, being done in person. And so, if we are going to live out the call of the church, then I think, um, you could make an argument. I think some people do, and try to make an argument that the church should be most and best expressed in the context of a family, in person, local gathering type of experience. Okay? Now, just because it's familiar doesn't mean that something different is wrong, okay? And I think if you look at, um, the New Testament, obviously, what is the majority of the New Testament, the majority of the documents right, that we have in our New Testament are letters, letters from the Apostle Paul, letters from James, letters from, uh, Luke, letters, from whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, letters from Peter, letters from John.

Nick Clason (08:33):
And what are these letters? They are written to different churches with what? With the intention to live out these one another's, to admonish one another, to speak truth to one another, to build up one another, to stir up love and good works to one another. And so if those things are the case, um, what was writing in the first century? Well, writing was the means and method to communicate from long distances. Paul was writing to these churches because he was in prison. So he did not have the option to be physically present with them. And I think in a lot of ways, like, so, okay, then like, let's play that out. So yeah, that's what, that's, that was Paul's issue. But our issue, like, we can be together. Yes, that's true, but we also don't live in this very oral, um, slow paced, you know, in the first century, there were no cars.

Nick Clason (09:22):
The main mode of transportation was most likely walking. And so a lot of the, as you are going from Matthew chapter 28, right? A lot of that was probably on the way on the road. Jesus and his disciples probably had so many conversations as they were walking to and from different places in different locations. And so when we think about it, we're like, well, we, yes, we don't have to write letters cause we're not in jail to one another, but we don't live in a culture that really allows us to be together as often as they were in the first century. And I think that we should potentially try to pursue that. I think we should try to make every effort to be living life, um, together, uh, life on life and, um, encouraging one another and moshing another and doing those things in person.

Nick Clason (10:09):
However, I think that distance is still an obstacle, is still, uh, a thing that we experience here, um, in 2023 and beyond. And so, um, the constraints of not being able to physically be together 24 hours a day, seven days a week are real, right? Like, we have jobs, we have families, we have homes, we have sports schedules, we have, um, band practices, we have, um, we have to run our kids to and from all kinds of different things and activities. We have obligations, we have PTO meetings, we have family gatherings that are obligations. We have all kinds of different things that keep us from living life on life with our faith community. And so we should be doing all of these things in person. However, I think that the hybrid side of this is there is a means and a medium that is now available to us that was also available to, um, a a similar means of method that was available in the first century.

Nick Clason (11:07):
Paul used letters. Now I think we can use digital means and digital mediums to get the message of hope across. So let's talk about living out some of these one another that we looked at, right? I want to pick in particular three and, and talk about how those can be lived out in a hybrid world, okay? Because yes, social media can be a good marketing tool, yes, social media can bring a lot of awareness to your church and help get people to your big gathering. But if we're really gonna live out the method of Jesus, which is to make disciples, and then as the New Testament lays out 59 different times to do things with and for, um, one another, okay? Let's look more at the family aspect and think about how we can, um, how we can use social media towards that end. So the first one I wanna look at is build up, build up one another.

Nick Clason (12:01):
What are ways that you can build up the people of God that call your church, um, home, that want to be a part of a, a family and a faith community? How can you encourage them? Maybe you can look down the barrel of a camera and a shotgun microphone and record one video a day, one video a week, and encourage them to keep the faith to make a difference in the world and this sphere of influence that God has placed them in their life. Maybe you can read scripture. I think I don't have this stat very well off the top of my head, but I think it's something like 8% of, um, Christians say they read the Bible on a regular basis. And most people would say that regular means one time a week. Okay? Conversely, they say that Generation Z um, spends anywhere from five to eight hours of screen time per day.

Nick Clason (12:56):
All right? And so, um, that's just one of the generations that we're dealing with. The reality is they're reading scripture once a week versus being on their phone anywhere from five to eight hours per day. What if, while they're on their phones, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook, on any of the social platforms that by the way, are now all promoting short form video content, what if you just read scripture? That's all you had to do. One of my, one of the trends, one of the, um, one of the frameworks that I used in my own ministry that gets some of the most traction is a hook like this where they open the phone and I I'm doing nothing. I'm saying nothing. And all I'm doing is pointing to text on the screen, no words for about 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds. And I'm pointing at the, at the text on the screen, which says either stay or scroll, which is just big and bold, right?

Nick Clason (13:46):
Like that's the whole point. Big, bold. And then right beneath it says, read scripture with me so they know what they're staying for, right? And once you see that, like if you're a Christian, okay, and you see stares scrolling, it says, read scripts with me, you're gonna have this like sort of guttural, visceral reaction. Like, ugh, I probably should stay and not just go onto the next dance video or sports video or whatever other video's gonna be behind it, right? And then just read a verse, one verse and then just riff on it for the remaining 30 seconds that you probably have left. You know, what does it mean? You could, um, promote other spiritual practice. You could help them get into practice of meditating, memorizing scripture, prayer, um, maybe even accountability. Hey, text a friend that you haven't texted in a while, like, do this one another text a friend from your small group who you know, needs encouragement. That's a way to help, uh, through another person, encourage a person in your local body. Um, you could also just deliver some wise words, um, some, some words that come from scripture, some words that come from a wise mentor pastor, somebody who has some age and life experience, but that's just an ex. Those are just a few examples to kinda get your wheels turning of how social media and short form video can be used to help build up the elicia, the gathering, the family of Jesus.

Nick Clason (15:01):
What about speaking truth? Um, obviously you can use sermon clips and we have talked about that ad nauseum, but it's still a worthwhile thing to talk about. If you are live streaming your service, grab a clip of your pastor, cut it down, get it into a 16 by nine framework, put in some sort of hook. If he doesn't have a good hook, use like the voiceover feature or some like big text on screen thing, be like how to navigate conflict. And then boom, cut to the pastor talking, right? If you do not have the technology available to you to, uh, do a sermon clip, um, we've talked in the past, and you can go back to the ultimate YouTube framework. I will, um, put that link here in the show notes. Um, but you can, um, pre-record your messages and you can make that be, um, a thing that you then pull clips from and, uh, give just different quotes.

Nick Clason (15:47):
Uh, 62nd inspirational things from the sermon content. Here's the thing, I'm a pastor, okay? A youth pastor, but a pastor nonetheless. And, um, I, I put a lot of prep into my weekly content that I deliver one time a week to a room full of people, and after that, it goes to die somewhere on my hard drive. But being able to then repurpose this out of your communications department or your digital strategy people, or even if you, it's you the pastor, take your content and put it back out there into the world that you have spent so much time preparing, that's a way to help, um, speak the truth with one another, to the people in your church to remind them of what they heard on the weekend. Maybe they weren't there. Maybe this is a, a primer, a teaser of what the appetite for them to hear a clip of the sermon.

Nick Clason (16:29):
Then they're like, you know what? Maybe I should go listen to that whole thing. Which leads me to the point that if you are, you should have a place for them to go listen to the whole thing, uh, either in full audio form or on a YouTube channel. Again, whether that's your live stream or that's a pre-recorded thing that you are doing, and then posting. Some other examples of speaking truth are sermon quotes, right? You can take just a quote from your pastor sermon and you can create a video out of it, even if it's just like a video of a drone flying over a mountain and then the pastor's quote flies in or a a tweet screenshot or something with some nice music behind it. Um, you can do adjacent type content from the sermon, right? So this month, for example, in our student ministry, we're talking about the, um, sermon series of habits.

Nick Clason (17:13):
Okay? So it's the habit of living in community, the habit of, um, bible reading, prayer, and then accountability. Okay? But what I'm gonna do on social media, and you can go check this out if you want, at our, um, our TikTok, um, it is at Cross Creek Students on Instagram, YouTube, and hopefully TikTok here soon. If you can't find it on TikTok, you might try at first. Colville students, we just changed our name and here's a quick story for you. We just changed our name and I, uh, I secured the handle at Cross Creek students on TikTok, and it said that it has, it has 30 days, um, to totally deactivate your account. So I deactivated and deleted the Cross Creek students account so that I could go from my first Colville account and change it to Cross Creek students, um, because I held it up until the 30 day period.

Nick Clason (18:01):
Um, but I have not been able to switch it over. So everything is Cross Creek students, the new logo, the name, um, and all the other handles are, but that handle specifically is still at first Colville students. I'm looking every single day this week to see if I can change it. If not, I may have to change it to something like first, uh, cross Creek students one. Um, but then once I do that, I have to wait another 30 days before I can make another change. And so I don't know when or if that, um, at Cross Creek students handle will become available. So I don't wanna lock in something temporary and then that handle becomes available, but I'm stuck, you know, for another 30 days. So anyway, um, welcome to the life of someone who's, um, working with these companies, by the way, their support not helpful.

Nick Clason (18:45):
So anyway, um, but the adjacent content that I have written on habits is, um, I just got done reading the book, atomic Habits by James Clear, phenomenal book. Definitely recommend it. I'll put the link to that in the show notes as well. Um, but I am going to share just some, some habit building, um, tips and frameworks, um, general habit building tips. And so that's adjacent content. We're talking about these four disciplines of community prayer, scripture, reading and accountability. And then over here on our social media, we're gonna talk about how habits are built, informed, make 'em easy, make 'em attractive, how to break bad habits, make 'em invisible, make 'em difficult, make 'em, um, something that you don't desire, right? And those two things go together. But this one is a little bit, um, more psychological, not as spiritual necessarily. And this one over here is spiritual. But if you take some of these principles from the Atomic Habits book and some of the other habit building things, you can apply them over to the spiritual habits. Okay? Um, another idea that you can have in speaking the truth is just like a hook. Like, Hey, here's what the Bible has to say about blank. It's a great hook. You're gonna get people start your video off strong.

Nick Clason (19:53):
All right? The third and final one, another I wanna look at is how can we stir up one another? How do we stir up one another toward love and good deeds? Um, you could give them a challenge to think about this. This is what scripture has to say about that. Um, what about, um, toward good deed, you could give them, give them challenges. You could ask 'em to pass along something maybe on like in like a Facebook group, like post a picture of you paying it forward and you do that whole thing at Starbucks line repay for the person behind you, or whatever the case may be. Um, but that just gives a little bit of social proof and a little bit of like camaraderie, like, Hey, we're all in this thing together. And, and better yet, right? Like, you can try to do all that and facilitate all that through social media, but if you can get your pastor from the stage to push that and say, Hey, this week we're all gonna pay it forward.

Nick Clason (20:40):
And then on social media, you're, you're posting, Hey, post a picture of you paying it forward, or, you know, something like, like that. Um, or you get a little, a TikTok video of, of you paying it forward. You have someone just in the passenger seat taking a video of you doing it or someone in your church doing it. And, and you can find a way to grab that and curate that and have them send it to you. Then you can post that and celebrate that. Remember what gets celebrated gets repeated. And so if these are some of the things that you want to do in your church, uh, capture that on video and sell, get that out and celebrate that. Again, we're in this unique time where all the four major players in social media, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, are all in right now, all in on short form video content.

Nick Clason (21:22):
And so for the first time ever, you do not have to create custom content for all four of those things. You can create one video that works for all four, and I have the, the framework to help you create that, post that and repurpose that to those different platforms. Again, Lincoln Bio, how you can get that free ebook or the YouTube video, check that out. Let me give you, um, three short form video hacks that, um, were noticing for 2023 as we're moving ahead. So hack number one is SEO does matter. If you look at TikTok now, especially, they are trying to use it more like a search engine. So just like YouTube was very much like how to this, how to, that. Now TikTok is moving that direction. So think about your videos that way. And so be using things like captions on screen, be using things like, um, hashtags, and then also be thinking about the actual caption that you are writing as you're getting ready to post your, um, your TikTok.

Nick Clason (22:20):
So try to think of search engine type optimization type of words. Another short form video hack you want is you wanna have a good hook, something that's going to stop the scroll. That's why that stay or scroll thing that I explained earlier is such a good hook because it's literally asking people to stay instead of scroll, which is the main behavior that people are doing when they're on social media, especially in a short form video place like reels or shorts or on TikTok. And then finally, um, use cross platform posting, like I said. So go to YouTube shorts. I just started doing that on our own account. Go to reels for both, um, Facebook and Instagram. And then you can duplicate and do dual purposes through your Facebook and Instagram feeds, right? So like, um, your feeds will help, um, if you, if you like, on reels, if you also post a reel to the feed that's going to go out mostly to your church members, to your eia, um, or into your stories, right?

Nick Clason (23:17):
That's another place that's gonna go mostly to your members. If it's on just reels, that's more of a discoverability. So how having people outside your church find you and see you and engage in spiritual practice with you. And so you can, for, again, you can do dual purposes. You can encourage admonish, build up, stir up, um, speak truth to the people in your church, and also offer some of those spiritual guided practices to some people who may not be inside your, your church. It's a unique and amazing opportunity that we have right now as people in 2023 to use the tools, to use the, the means, mediums, and methods of the day to help share the message of hope, to share the gospel with the people of the world, the people in your church, to encourage one another, to build one another up, and to help make them more like Jesus.

Nick Clason (24:09):
So use it. Be a social media user. Don't let it get you. Don't let it suck your soul dry, but use it to share the message of hope of Jesus because he has changed your life and you wanna share that with other people. Hey, thanks again so much for hanging out on this episode. I hope that you found it helpful if you did share it or leave a rating or a review. Both of those things are going to be phenomenally helpful in our indexing and helping get this message out to other people who are, uh, social media managers, church communications specialists, and their churches. Um, we just really want to be a resource to the local church. Um, I believe that the local church is God's Plan A for reaching the world. And so in every way, in everything I can, I wanna just help, um, the, help those people and help, uh, God's people get this message out there to them.

Nick Clason (24:59):
Um, also head to hybridministry.xyz. Um, you can grab that copy of that free ebook link is in the description or on the website there. Um, and, uh, come hang out with me personally on my TikTok. It's @clasonnick, um, c l a s o n n i c K. Um, I'm posting Little Clips, um, from this podcast to my own personal TikTok and I also just try to have some fun on there posting some football content and other fun things that interest me. So just fun place to hang out. Um, and then I also got my YouTube channel, which, um, is gonna be a little hit or miss admittedly. Um, but that is where that, how to post to a TikTok video is going to live. So you can go check that out. That's something that interests you, and we will talk to you all next time. Keep it hybrid people.

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Or get FREE transcripts at http://www.hybridministry.xyz
Or find more written content like this from Nick at http://www.myyouthmin.com

TIMECODES
00:00-00:36 - Intro
00:36-07:22 - The lessons I've learned from starting a YouTube channel during COVID
07:22-10:31 - Why start with YouTube?
10:31-13:13 - How to get indexed in searches on YouTube
13:13-16:26 - Ministry Implications
16:26-20:36 - YouTube Best Practices
20:36-22:09 - Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00):
What is up everybody? And welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Excited to be with you today. I am Nick Clason, your host, and today I wanted to talk about YouTube, and I actually wanted to talk about why I think it is useful for churches to quit live streaming their sermons. Now, hear me out. Hear me out. Before I dive into all that, let me just get a couple of things off the bat here said. So first and foremost, I wanna talk about YouTube. I don't like to talk about things on this show that I don't have a lot of experience with. And so today is an exception because I have almost zero experience with YouTube. And so for you to understand why and why and the history and everything like that, I just want to give a quick overview. So the church that I most recently served at, not where I am now, but where I most recently before here served at, had a almost 600 YouTube subscriber channel and over 300 or something like that, videos published on it.

Nick Clason (01:22):
The reason for that being that we started our YouTube channel and our YouTube show, the first day of Covid. And so our YouTube channel and strategy was primarily a digital version of what we would do if we were in the room. So we would think, let's do a game. And in our defense, I think what we did game wise and announcement wise and host wise was a little more YouTube centric than just simply throwing a camera in the back of the room and us pretending there were students there. But instead we were doing it a live stream. So what I mean by that is we built a studio and instead of a game, a screen game or something, we would do a segment. And it was almost like competition or challenge based. So I mean, if you think Mr. Beast or any of those big YouTubers, it was things like that.

Nick Clason (02:27):
So we were trying to think outside the box and trying to morph and do student ministry in a YouTube sort of way. One of the things that I think shot us in the foot was, first of all, we did it in a pinch. So we did it immediately and we pivoted very fast. And what we did and what we created, I personally was very proud of. But all that being said, once Covid began to run its course and things were over and opening a little bit more, people were looking for an in-person experience. And so what we were producing online was really no longer fulfilling the need that it needed to. So it probably needed an adjustment, and we started to make those adjustments. And what I mean by that is once Covid was over and kids were not stuck in their room, they're probably not that interested in our little segment or our little trivia game that we're playing or whatever on the screen.

Nick Clason (03:29):
But I do think that we had tons of formidable and useful spiritual content sermons, messages, whatever and whatnot that were totally useful. The problem was we did it in a full, long form show, so to speak. And so just youth group games and announcements and worship and all those things led into the message. And so you didn't get to the message until about 16 minutes on the actual YouTube thing. Typically the shows around 30 minutes or so. And so it was about half stuff and half a message. You get it If you're programming in the room, it's exactly what you would think as far as format wise, okay? And all of that. I was at a multi-site megachurch. All of that was handled by a creative team, a video editor, an audio producer, our tech department handled that, handled, uploading, posting, making it live, all those things.

Nick Clason (04:29):
And so I helped produce the content. I helped think through some of the philosophy and the strategy of it, but I was not boots on the ground in the weeds, hands on with doing, posting all the YouTube content and growing the channel. And in a lot of ways, the 600 something subs subscribers were a response to what happened during Covid, right? Everyone was subscribing to YouTube channels. Everyone that called our church home, parents, students alike, they subscribing to our channel. All right? So now fast forward to where I am now, and I'm at a little bit smaller church. We got a team of three, but we have around the same student count, or slightly more than the campus that I was at. And so we have a pretty frequent schedule Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday. So every three days, there's something that we need to be thinking for, planning for, and prepping for.

Nick Clason (05:26):
Not to mention, the entire team of where I'm at is completely brand new. And so we are basically building something from the ground up. There was some stuff in place before and whatever and whatnot. But the reality is we're starting from the ground up. One of the things that we're starting from the ground up, we're continuing on with the Wednesday meeting times, Sunday meeting times, but we're launching and fleshing out a completely digital strategy. And so with all that being said, I wanna just give that caveat to this is my experience with YouTube. I have been very involved in the production of YouTube content. I've learned a lot of things, some dos and don'ts and whatevers and whatnots. But also we are at the church of, we are gonna be changing our name here in January. And so I actually secured the YouTube channel for our future name of our student ministry, which is still a secret to a lot of people.

Nick Clason (06:28):
So because of that, I have not started posting things to YouTube. What I have started doing is I have started beta testing our YouTube strategy more on a video filming and editing side of things. Is this a sustainable and scalable process that I can continue to implement beyond on a week to week type basis? And so I've been practicing some things, and so I think I feel pretty good about the workflow and rhythm to be able to pull some of these things off. And so I'm excited about launching a YouTube channel and account in January knowing that I'll be able to replicate what I've been doing. So that's sort the background and the history of at least my personal experience with YouTube. So why start with YouTube? Alright, I think YouTube is, is actually a really unique social media platform. It's the only one of its kind in the category of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube is owned by Google, and it's the only social media platform in that category of those kind of core FI four or five that is owned by Google.

Nick Clason (07:52):
So you got Google, you got Meta, and then you got TikTok, who's sort of like the third player, the owner there in that, right? You've probably heard this before, but YouTube is actually widely considered by many to be the second largest search engine in the world behind only Google. Some if you get real nitty gritty with it, some actually say it's not the second largest, it's the third largest because Google Images is technically larger. Bottom line, all three, Google search, Google images and YouTube are owned by the same parent company, Google. And regardless of that, right? YouTube is a search engine. And so who among us has not installed a light fixture from the help of a friendly person who posted a YouTube tutorial on YouTube for us to watch and consume and use, Okay? And because it's a search engine, I think it's actually a pretty strategic advantage that can be used by us as pastors and ministry leaders.

Nick Clason (08:55):
Because if you think about it, when you search for a video, right? Search more how to or think how to fix, how to answer, how to do this, how to navigate this. So, or challenge us to think YouTubers rather than pastors or speakers. And I think that was one of our number one Achilles heels in where I was before. We were thinking YouTubers in a lot of ways, but in our, for example, and I'll get to this in a minute, but in our titling and in our thumbnails, we were treating this as series, the series Jesus series, Part three, March 1st. That's not a compelling, in captivating title for our audience who is with us every week and just wants to get on there and watch something on demand that may be helpful. But to someone who's gonna organically come across our YouTube content, that doesn't explain anything about what's in the video.

Nick Clason (09:59):
So why is live streaming problematic particularly? And full disclosure, I'm a student pastor. And so if you're watching this in a senior pastor and your church has good cameras, good audio equipment, good lighting to fully embrace a live streaming strategy, then by all means continue to do that. But if you're a youth pastor, I would not necessarily recommend building the gear, the switcher, the infrastructure of live streaming. All right, So let's talk about watch times. Cause this plays into it. According to a backlink.dot com, they surveyed and looked at 1.3 million YouTube videos to try and better understand the YouTube search feature and algorithm. What they determined was that longer videos significantly outperform shorter videos. And the average length of a first page YouTube video that's beneficial and helpful is 14 minutes and 50 seconds. All right? So you need to understand that the way that YouTube indexes and categorizes their videos is a combination of two things.

Nick Clason (11:15):
Overall, watch time paired with average percentage viewed. And so it turns out that videos in the 14 to 16 minute range actually index really well. In fact, those are the highest ones on search. There are other factors of things that help increase watch times, such as the hook or the intro. All right, So let's just think in the land of sermon delivering a sermon, Okay? I want you to just rank these two scenarios. Scenario number one. Hey everybody, welcome back. Real quick before I dive into tonight's message, I wanna remind you about the Churchwide Bake sales. It's coming up on Sunday, and if you want to earn money toward the mission trip, it is required that you be in attendance. If for some reason you can't make it, just be sure to talk to me afterwards. All right? Now, last week when we were in part three of our series, Jesus, we were reminded that Jesus was bonded together with his disciples because of their love.

Nick Clason (12:14):
And so tonight, what I wanna focus on in part four is what happens after the death burial and then ultimately resurrection of Jesus, right? That's scenario number one. That's you preaching to your congregation, your students, the people that call your church home. Let's talk about scenario number two. Hey, what if you could win a million dollars? What if I told you that the message of Jesus is actually one that supersedes and rises far above the benefits of winning millions and millions of dollars? Do you see how one at least has the intention of a hook? I don't know if it's good or not, right? That's why I say in fairness, I'm not a YouTube sivan or expert, but I want you, I wanna challenge you to think like a YouTuber. And so where one is taking care of housekeeping in your student ministry, what's going on the bake sale? The second one is actually thinking about YouTube first. It's creating a hook. So what are some implications for ministry? Well, first of all, a 30 to 45 minute sermon where the speaker is presenting primarily to a room full of people versus not really looking or paying attention to the camera. It's just there. Capturing them, doesn't act, Doesn't exactly right. Speak YouTube's preferred language. Think about it, in a live room environment anyway, messages between the length of 10 to 25 minutes seem to have become a pretty optimal length for student ministries who gather in person.

Nick Clason (13:51):
And I also think that if you take your YouTube or if you take your message content that you're going to already naturally deliver into a room, what I'm gonna actually propose here is that instead of capturing you delivering live to your room, I'm gonna propose that you prefill your content. And what happens is when you prefill your content, number one, you can create and craft a hook that is specific in particular for YouTube. Secondly, you can shave the time down to fit into that 14 to 16 minute window. Even if you go longer in the room, aim for that 14 to 16 minute window. And third, it gives you the opportunity to practice your message before you get up there and deliver it to a live room full of teenagers or parishioners or congregation members. And so that's one of the things that we've been doing.

Nick Clason (14:58):
We teach live every single Wednesday night, but during that week, after I'm done with my prep, I sit down, I put up a camera and iFilm my message. Then I do a little bit of post production, I add a sound bed behind it. I do some flying in graphics, lower thirds slides, and I put those on the screen as well. And that's gonna be our strategy for YouTube. Why? Number one, it's gonna let us do a YouTube first messaging. We're not gonna bury it behind a bunch of other elements. We're gonna go with the message first. If YouTube is in fact a search engine and kids are out there searching for answers to their faith, then let's give them the answers to their faith. And they might not care about our church announcements. They might not care about the worship, but what they do want is they want answers.

Nick Clason (15:45):
So answer the question, tell them what you're gonna talk about with the hook right up front at the very beginning of the video. And that for me is one of the hardest shifts, is moving from holding my ace content up my sleeve until the very end, waiting for the message to climax, but instead giving a teaser and a preview at the very beginning of the message. That's a shift. YouTubers do that really well. Pastors build to their ultimate conclusion, and so they try to create this mystery around what's gonna come. But the reality is on YouTube, if you don't hook them right off the bat immediately, then they are gone and on to the next thing. And so think like a YouTuber. Let's talk through some other YouTube best practices. Like I said, make sure your titling is something that a YouTuber would search for as opposed to Jesus Week three, Mark 14, one through 10.

Nick Clason (16:39):
That's not as captivating a title as Is hell a real place dealing with crippling anxiety or is rest even possible? You see the difference between those two. Think YouTube, think search engine, think click bait, think controversial type titles that help your video perform better because it's a search engine. The meta description or the title, the description of the video, those things all play a huge role in the YouTube ranking. So make sure you spend a little bit of time thinking through and crafting some good compelling descriptions. And then you can also link to things on your church's website or social media, or maybe even some products in the description of your video. Also include tags. YouTube gives you a spot to do that. So include keywords from your videos or tags that relate back to the topic. All three of those factors, title, description, tags, all play a role in the searchability of your YouTube content.

Nick Clason (17:33):
Also, your thumbnail plays plays a role. Go look at Mr. Beast. He's like number one, YouTuber in the world. Go look at his thumbnails on his YouTube channel and just get some photos with a decent iPhone, maybe a Google Pixel phone to take some halfway decent portrait shots. Throw some catchy text over it using maybe something like PowerPoint Canva, or if you have more skill Photoshop and use different catchy thumbnails to try on your videos. You can also then use a free tool like trends.google.com to look up your searchable words and compare things. AB testing. If you wanted to use the word fear versus the word anxiety, put those into trends.google.com. And you'll notice that anxiety has a higher search level. So use that.

Nick Clason (18:25):
And then also comments and shares and people embedding your videos are all things that are gonna help index it better in the YouTube algorithm. So ask for things like comments, ask for things like shares, and then on the embedding feature, try to embed your YouTube videos onto your church website onto your, And so then your website is hosting your YouTube video and embedding it already helps index it better. So you already have a platform that people are going to. So use that. That's a feature that's already built in and that can help you get going. All right, what if you're just starting? What starting gear do you need, right? Listen, if you're gonna go budget friendly, get a nice smartphone, right? I just gotta Google Pixel, the latest iPhone have some great things. One of the main things for filming is you need a separate microphone, Okay?

Nick Clason (19:24):
So you can get, just go on Amazon, do a quick search for a shotgun microphone with your style of phone connection that's needed. You can get something for under a hundred bucks. You can also get a lapel, a wireless lapel lighting. Natural lighting is great. Some ring lights can help. Do the trick. Get a tripod that you can stick your phone on. If you want a more professional rig, then listen. Just go to YouTube, search best YouTube starter set for gear, and you'll find something. I love everything that Brady Sheer from Pro Church Tools has to say just about anything in the church digital space. And in fact, I think the day I'm recording this, he yesterday just trapped a video on his favorite camera gear. So go copy that if you got the budget to do it and make it happen. And then you're just gonna have to do things like edit, and you're gonna figure out you wanna use iMovie, Da Vinci, Resolve Adobe Final Cut Pro.

Nick Clason (20:20):
Again, budget for some of those are cheaper, like iMovie and Da Vinci Resolve are free. More expensive options are the Adobe Suite or Final Cut Pro. You're just gonna have to see what you have and what's available out there. But listen, my recommendation, again, like I said, get on YouTube. Treat it like a search engine. Get out there. Put your message, the message of hope that you have about Jesus. Create a YouTube channel. Prefill your content or film it after you deliver it. If you want it to be a little bit more polished and you've a little bit more familiar with it, and just start posting some stuff out there, right? Try some things. Follow some of these best practices. You may not go viral overnight. I can't promise that, but these are some of the best practices out there on YouTube. And so simply following them is just gonna give you the best chance to be discovered.

Nick Clason (21:12):
And that's the goal. We want students, teenagers, or people wrestling with faith to come across the content that we have to offer, and hopefully give them something that's helpful. And this is just a way to expand your impact and your reach as a youth pastor, as a regular pastor in 2022 and beyond. Hey, I hope you guys found this episode helpful. If you did get, Man, leave us a rating or a review. We are on iTunes, Spotify, all the major podcast platforms, hybrid ministry. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We have full transcripts of everything. We provide this to y'all at hybridministry.xyz Come check us out there and we will talk to you guys.