https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products

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DESCRIPTION
🎮 Games & Youth Ministry
This is your ultimate "Oh Crap! I forgot the game" video!
Get all 9 of the games talked about in this video, from downloadyouthministry.com for COMPLETELY FREE!

All I ask for is a simple subscribe, it costs you nothing!

Ready to see my top 9 favorite games of all time?
Let's check it out!

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/136

9 HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR TOILET?
This hilarious game was my very first game in my DYM journey.
I was in a Jimmy John's bathroom and noticed a sign with funny toilet facts on the wall. I took a photo, immediately went back to the office, and created this game. It's not my best designed resource, in fact DYM did some graphical upgrades after I submitted it, but it's on this list because it was one of my first ones.

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/toilet-trivia-game/games-738.html

8 MYSTERY SEARCH
This is a super fun game, where you're tasked to find the hidden item in a busy photo. Think "Where's Waldo" meets "Youth Ministry."

It's a tough contestant based game, I think, because it's fairly difficult, but there's also a social media version which I think is perfect to play on your church's social media

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/mystery-search/games/sports-6938.html

7 VISUAL VARIANCE VOYAGE
A Simple Spot the Difference Game! Social and Widescreen versions available!

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html

6 FRIENDSGIVING
This game is a fun take on "This or That" Thanksgiving Food and Activities Edition.
One fun way is to play with "celebrities" like your senior pastor.
"Does your senior pastor prefer Ham or Turkey?"

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/friendsgiving/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-games-8387.html

5 BACK TO SCHOOL BINGO
One of my favorite interactive games, where students play bingo based on how they spent their summer. There are categories such as

Church Summer Activities
Vacation
Miscellaneous
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/back2school-bingo/fall/back-to-school-8921.html

4 GIF FLASHBACK
Tests the memory of your students. Watch the GIF, then immediately answer a question related to it.
The questions get HARD!

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/gif-flashback/games-6794.html

3 BRING ME
My All-Time-Go-To game in any moment, you don't need a screen, but we have one for this game.
The first student to "Bring Me ___" wins
That's it!!

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/bring-me-10-game-bundle/games-bringmebundle.html

2 EMOJI PHRASEOLOGY
My best selling game series of all time, we have one for just about every holiday and instance in which you can possibly imagine. Guess the emoji phrase. Widescreen & Social versions included!

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html

1 DUCK DUCK TRIVIA
Duck, Duck Trivia is the first of it's kind. A game inside a game. My favorite Hybrid Game we've ever played!

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duck-duck-trivia/trivia-8705.html

👉 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⌚TIMECODES
00:00 "Oh Crap! I forgot a youth group game!"
01:33 Free Game #9
03:18 Free Game #8
05:22 Free Game #7
06:51 Free Game #6
08:35 Free Game #5
10:20 Free Game #4
11:39 Free Game #3
12:33 Free Game #2
13:20 Free Game #1

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my fellow cat herders.

00:00:03:21 - 00:00:11:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my fellow i.t. Specialists. Welcome my fellow pets. Math

00:00:11:19 - 00:00:17:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
gurus. Welcome. He's past you. In this video, I'm going to share with you

00:00:17:13 - 00:00:24:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
nine of my favorite games that I have played and created

00:00:24:16 - 00:00:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and have now published on the download Youth ministry.com website. You can go by any of them. There will be link down below and I would love a review

00:00:34:14 - 00:00:35:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on any of them.

00:00:35:21 - 00:00:40:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But why go visit me on the website when I'm

00:00:40:08 - 00:00:54:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just going to give you a link to download all nine of them for completely free? That's right, you've heard it completely correctly. So in this episode, not only am I going to share with you my nine favorite free games,

00:00:54:06 - 00:00:54:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
but

00:00:54:16 - 00:00:55:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it is

00:00:55:02 - 00:00:55:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your ultimate

00:00:55:23 - 00:00:59:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in a pinch. Oh crap, I forgot about the game moment.

00:00:59:13 - 00:01:04:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't worry, my friend, I got you. Go grab that link. It will take you to drop

00:01:04:03 - 00:01:04:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
box

00:01:04:10 - 00:01:04:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and you

00:01:04:23 - 00:01:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
can get all nine of them for free. But you know would be awesome if as payment

00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for the nine,

00:01:09:10 - 00:01:09:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you

00:01:09:17 - 00:01:17:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just simply hit the subscribe button. It cost you nothing. But truly it does benefit me and my channel greatly.

00:01:17:13 - 00:01:29:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That sounds like a deal. Okay, awesome. Let's go. I'm going to be counting down top ten style from episode or from episode? From game idea. Number nine. And so this first one

00:01:29:20 - 00:01:32:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that I'm going to show you, if you're watching here on screen,

00:01:32:14 - 00:01:46:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you'll see it is called how well do you know your toilet? Now this game, the reason it's even on this list is because it was the very first game that I ever submitted.

00:01:46:10 - 00:02:10:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're looking at it, you can probably tell I think this game was probably submitted somewhere in the realm of like eight years ago. And at that time, I thought that the submission guidelines required all the fonts to be used as Calibri. I don't think I've ever even told anybody this, but in hindsight, the font requirement for Calibri was teaching or document based resources.

00:02:10:06 - 00:02:37:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this game has the world's worst font for it. But the content is still great, and I even a year ago, Nick, when I had use these fonts. But here's how this here's how this game came into its inception. I was at a Jimmy John's eating lunch and I was in the bathroom washing my hands before I was heading back to work, and I found this, little like placard, this little infographic about toilets.

00:02:37:14 - 00:02:54:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I took a picture of it and I said, these are so funny. I'm going to go home and I'm going to make a game. And so here we go. You can grab this game for free, but it's some it's things like this. Most toilets are a public B flushing the key of flat C use one third of your house is water or D are green.

00:02:54:20 - 00:03:01:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What do you think it is coming? Your answer below. Of course the answer is B flush in the key of E

00:03:01:05 - 00:03:14:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
flat. There's ten other questions like this. And you know what? I've even put these, into like a video editing software and put a countdown timer on it and I've used this for bathroom break, slide, like a video or something.

00:03:14:18 - 00:03:30:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's something fun to do. The eighth game that I love in this game is actually incredibly hybrid, and I, think you guys might like some of this on this channel called Mystery Search. All right. And here's how Mystery Search works. It is, this one in particular is

00:03:30:05 - 00:03:36:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
mystery search Easter egg hunt addition. So what you do is you put a graphic on a screen, right.

00:03:36:22 - 00:03:54:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's an instruction slide. If you're watching, this egg right here, you have to find this egg on every slide. So here's the first, you know, the first slide. Where's the egg? Do you find it? Can you see it? Boom. There it is. And it's like this on every single slide. It gets harder, it gets more difficult.

00:03:54:14 - 00:03:58:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's video. So that's the still version. There's video

00:03:58:04 - 00:04:13:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
versions. And so if you want to try and find out where this is with this guy here, he's, you know, looking at it, it's got music leading to, as you could hear just a second ago. But then you have, like, a contestant on stage, like, where's the, where's the, where is it?

00:04:13:10 - 00:04:23:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then boom, well, egg transition comes in and then this little magnifying glass moves around until it zooms in on where the egg is and boom, sound.

00:04:23:09 - 00:04:33:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, now that is also an available option in, phone base graphic or phone based video. So what

00:04:33:22 - 00:04:34:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you could do

00:04:34:09 - 00:04:48:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is you could post this on your Instagram story or on your TikTok and say, find the egg and then post the second one here or link it together and video and then the magnifying glass reducing, and it'll move to the spot where the egg is located.

00:04:48:01 - 00:04:58:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then someone will say, I found it. And if you want to make it interactive, you can poll, you know, poll options. Hey, did you find it? Yes or no beyond this sort of thing.

00:04:58:09 - 00:05:06:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this is one of my favorite games. Like I said, for free. There is an Instagram or at least a social version in in the room version and

00:05:06:23 - 00:05:08:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a countdown version.

00:05:08:15 - 00:05:09:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you just want to play

00:05:09:13 - 00:05:16:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this with a five minute countdown clock overlaid on top of it and let people as the countdown is on, you see right here up top corner

00:05:16:09 - 00:05:30:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as the countdown is on, let people go ahead and, play that game as it's going, game number seven, which is again for completely free, is my game called the Visual Variance Voyage.

00:05:30:04 - 00:05:39:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is the full edition. So this one, similarly to the last one, also has a social media option. And this one, the way that you play

00:05:39:08 - 00:05:54:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is very simply before this ten minute timer runs out, you need to identify the difference between the two photos. We've all done this in dentist's office. We've all done this in doctor's office, but now it is available to us in youth ministry.

00:05:54:11 - 00:06:12:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's an example. Here's question number one. 10s is on the screen. Can you tell and can you spot the difference between these two photos I don't know. It's difficult. There's also a countdown option for this one as well, which is a really fun thing to have on have it looping. So at the end of question ten, can you figure it out I don't know.

00:06:12:02 - 00:06:16:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the answer side. Boom right there. Those leaves are different I'm telling

00:06:16:22 - 00:06:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you it's not super easy. And just like the last one, there's also

00:06:21:02 - 00:06:31:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a social version as well. So here's what the social version looks like. You got these two catch fall edition. Can you tell the difference between these two photos? These are not broken up into different size.

00:06:31:18 - 00:06:44:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are actually the same slides. And so when the ten minute countdown is over all of a sudden boom it's away. And then it will circle and reveal the difference in the differences in the photo. And then the texture on screen changes to

00:06:44:05 - 00:06:52:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
did you get it in time. So that is option number seven. This is option number six is called Friends Giving.

00:06:52:18 - 00:07:09:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know, truth be told I actually had some other iterations of this. Now I've changed the branding behind it a little bit is called pickle. So you can go to the download Youth Mystery Store and search for a couple of games called Pick Them. But this one in particular, this one is meant to be a Thanksgiving theme.

00:07:09:05 - 00:07:29:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this is Friendsgiving. And so the instructions are very simple. You have to try and guess what the other person is going to do. So the question here at hand is is the friend we just call all of our contestants in this game friends. Is the friend going to stay at their house or going to travel elsewhere? Now I'm everything like, who's the friend?

00:07:30:01 - 00:07:50:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's where you can have like an opportunity to kind of implement your creativity. It could be your senior pastor and you go to his office to answer these ten Thanksgiving based questions ahead of time. Are you staying home this year or are you traveling? Are you you know, this next question here is, are you going to do a Turkey trot or are you just going to get fat and put on your stretchy pants?

00:07:50:16 - 00:08:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Question number three is, you know, are you going to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or are you going to watch NFL football? Spoiler alert you can actually do both, but we're just going to put them against each other. And so you can kind of go through that. If you don't want to use your senior pastor, you can bring contestants up on stage.

00:08:06:12 - 00:08:10:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you don't want to bring contestants up on stage, you can do volunteer leaders or

00:08:10:04 - 00:08:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
something like that. But I also have, like a worksheet here and so they can keep track of their answers. You can print this out and give it to everybody, and they can keep track of their answers. Did they get it? Did they not?

00:08:20:10 - 00:08:28:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, there's this version, but and this is like a Thanksgiving version, you can play it like a Friendsgiving or something like that, or there's a pick

00:08:28:08 - 00:08:33:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on version. You can go grab one of those over, on download using this website.

00:08:33:04 - 00:08:39:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The game option number five is called Back to School bingo. And I love this game because

00:08:39:12 - 00:08:43:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
every single player gets a bingo card that looks just like this.

00:08:43:12 - 00:09:02:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so instead of meeting a variety of bingo cards, there's all different numbers and all different letters. You can get the same static bingo card. And the goal is be the first one to fill three in your category or the first person to get a blackout. And so you know the categories you see here at church and youth group, school and extracurricular summer.

00:09:02:17 - 00:09:05:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then there's just rotating slides. So I have in ten church

00:09:05:18 - 00:09:21:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sizes. So for example it's going to rotate through and it's random even though you know it's you know going to be question number one in the church category. Did you go to churches. Our church is youth camp this past summer. So remember this is a back to school timeline event.

00:09:21:17 - 00:09:39:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's kind of looking back over the summer. That was as it pertains to church and youth. So did you go to youth camp last summer? And if they did, then they put, a checkmark or whatever on the little bingo spot in the church kind of category. Did you go on a summer missions trip this past summer?

00:09:39:20 - 00:09:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So on and so forth. And so you put these in sort of a random order and like, these are obviously all in the church

00:09:45:14 - 00:09:49:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
category. But if you look here at the where the folders are set up, here's the school category.

00:09:49:19 - 00:09:59:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this one's going to land on one of the school options here. And so, you know, it's did you already buy your school supplies for the upcoming school year.

00:09:59:15 - 00:10:18:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yes or no. And so it's a way to kind of do a, a recap kind of back to school kind of bingo style vibes sort of thing. So, there's these different rotating slides and if you don't want to use that, you can put it into something like a sidekick and using like people picker and just kind of copy and paste these different clues into that.

00:10:18:21 - 00:10:34:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on to number four, this may be my favorite one on this entire list. I know I have it at four, but I'm I wrote this list a while ago. It's called GIF flashback, and it does have an Instagram version. And what it is is you simply have to watch

00:10:35:07 - 00:10:43:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a classic GIF. So here's the Homer Simpson backs into the back of a bush, and then the multiple choice question pops up on the screen.

00:10:43:14 - 00:10:55:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How many strands of hair on Homer's head did you get it? Let me know down in the comments if you did. The correct answer, of course, is here as it stops one two boom said to you got

00:10:55:03 - 00:10:58:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it right? And so in the same way you can play that on Instagram Stories.

00:10:58:03 - 00:11:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Play the gif here. You let them watch it a little bit of time and then you post like the little poll question sticker right here.

00:11:06:18 - 00:11:27:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. Instead of it having the multiple choice option listed on screen, you you post it either right here or you can post it here on the second one, right in this moment where they can answer it. Then after they answer it, they wait for this second in POV receipts 123456. Like keep going seven eight even more 910 different people in that gif.

00:11:27:15 - 00:11:29:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Did you get it right when

00:11:29:10 - 00:11:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you said if there are ten people in GIF flashback, that's all it is. It just shows people and how bad their memory is on something that they just did. Also, we have a very classic game called Bring Me and Bring me, a volume one, volume two, and volume three. And so what did I say?

00:11:48:23 - 00:11:49:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I said you were going

00:11:49:19 - 00:12:07:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to get nine games, but actually you're getting nine, ten, 11 games. And in this game you very simply have to bring and be the first person to bring this item to the person on stage. So bring me a piece of gum. Bonus points if it's straight out of your mouth, bring me some Tic Tacs.

00:12:07:10 - 00:12:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bonus points for this exact flavor of Tic Tacs. Bring me some keys, glasses, a church bulletin, hand sanitizer, a hat. Bonus points if the hat looks just like this a pen, a ping pong ball, a cell phone, and bonus points for the oldest model

00:12:22:14 - 00:12:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
cell phone that you get. Three of those, again, is a one of my all time favorite resources.

00:12:28:02 - 00:12:32:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So quick, so simple. Just go ahead and use them. Another one of my

00:12:32:08 - 00:12:50:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
favorites may be my top selling category of games is emoji phraseology. And this one is, volume one. But I have all different hobbies that you can possibly think or imagine. I have a countdown version in this as well. I've Instagram version of this as well, but very simply,

00:12:50:18 - 00:12:53:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you look at the emoji phrase and you try and guess what it is.

00:12:53:12 - 00:13:07:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What's this looking at here on the screen? What do you think it is? X rocket Scientist of course it's not rocket science. Or this right here a clock and an airplane and a person celebrating is it? Time flies when you're having fun? Of course it is. You know

00:13:07:20 - 00:13:27:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that you can do that on Instagram. You can do that on TikTok, or you can walk around even do men on the street style videos, where you ask people if they know them and try and roast them for how bad they do, but the number one favorite game, Drum Roll please, is actually kind of detailed and explained in my 100th episode.

00:13:27:04 - 00:13:42:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll have that link right here if you want to go back and watch that from when me and the team I was at, at the church I was at during Covid did a full live, in-person YouTube show. But then we moved back to the campus and we were doing this sort of hybrid model, hence the name Hybrid Ministry show.

00:13:42:10 - 00:14:00:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, we were creating a duck, duck, goose style game that they could watch, video on the screen, but also play an interactive version of duck, duck, goose. While it was happening on the screen. And so I took that same kind of idea and that same kind of concept. And so how it works is you play a game of

00:14:00:22 - 00:14:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
rubber duck trivia, okay.

00:14:03:00 - 00:14:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then here's just like the questions in the Rubber Duck trivia. And you can play just rubber duck trivia if that's what you want

00:14:09:08 - 00:14:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to do. But what really makes this fun is this is a like for just version video. You just play. You see, here's

00:14:17:08 - 00:14:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
five minutes and 32 seconds long. What happens is someone starts ducking and whenever they hear a quack on screen, they.

00:14:29:10 - 00:14:48:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go there it is. When they hear the quack boom. That's when you hear, you know, duck. That's when you hit goose, okay? And then you start running and you start playing. You start going all the while as that's happening. All right. Here in just a minute. If you're watching here on screen, a trivia game is happening and the trivia game stops for no people.

00:14:48:21 - 00:15:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the question right here on screen is, rubber ducks were originally true, true toys. Is that true or false? The people who are playing duck, duck, goose right now, they are having to try and answer this question while playing duck, duck, goose. This is the most middle school game. This is the most like high energy. Just crazy insane.

00:15:08:09 - 00:15:14:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Get people up, get people moving. So put your people round tables, put them in rows or whatever the case might be,

00:15:14:08 - 00:15:33:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and send them going. There's a seven question version, there's a ten question version, and there is a countdown version. So you can go ahead and play this with your students in your next youth ministry or something like that is one of the funnest ways, I think, to kind of interact with the screen and what's happening live in the room.

00:15:33:08 - 00:15:53:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there you have it. Those are my nine most favorite games that I've created and put on download. Yes, master. But because you are loyal listener to the Hybrid Master show, you get these for free. If you're listening and you're not a youth pastor, grab the link and share it with your youth pastor friend. Give it to them.

00:15:53:13 - 00:16:13:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Gift it to them because the next time they're in a pinch for games, boom! These are nine of my favorite. Actually, living, as we said, would bring me of my favorite screen time. Screen based games. And so excited to have you check those out. And you know what? Link right here on screen is actually going to be the start of our next little playlist series.

00:16:13:20 - 00:16:32:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we are going to be talking about communicating in a noisy world. And next episode is going to be the reasons why your youth ministry and church announcements don't really work. We're going to dive into that. So I hope you tap onto that video. But don't forget my friends and as always, to stay hybrid.

✅Let me Run Your Church Social Media
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

DESCRIPTION
Join us as we celebrate YOU in the "Year in Review for 2024" of the Hybrid Ministry show.
We'll celebrate some statistics, give some shout outs and share the "best of" clips from the 2024 Hybrid Ministry Show.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/130

//BONUS Pod!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

//GIFlashback Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVHcraeNlC8&list=PLngXlSr64YaIui8LNpnlUI3yFAm9SGrLy&index=5&t=24s

//9 Best DYM Games
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

//No Prep Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=melm8BS97es&list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg&index=6&t=164s

//Youth Ministry Planning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI&list=PLngXlSr64YaKjRX2ytO0tvzo8VnF6X03t&index=2&t=202s

//YouTube for Youth Ministry
https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=aNYGzB08DV6HHD3G

//Interview Series
https://youtu.be/D4vE7_ZqBpE?si=Hdk5X2KRn_SGr6HM

//Hybrid Tools
https://youtu.be/0np1d4Trcn0?si=7OkkCVCmY8Kvx6ha

//Meet Gen Alpha
https://youtu.be/DWYvsn2Kglk?si=FrnlS3C1xDHITyDb

//Social Challenge Framework
https://youtu.be/K_9Ch2KVNH0?si=THozXMi9NqzxJeUt

//Sidekick
https://youtu.be/lXI3ZKSvFY0?si=O-Em7X00hV9waXBE

//Sidekick + ProPresenter Setup
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup

//Interview with Nate Clason
https://youtu.be/uplCz1S1nz4?si=sne7LvdGvAgrKU72

//DYM Blog Post
https://blog.downloadyouthministry.com/introducing-hybrid-ministry-with-nick-clason/

⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Welcome to 2025!
00:40 Some Stats & Wins
08:47 Personal Reflections
11:21 Thank You to our Amazing Guests!
14:45 Year in Review

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;36;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What a year it has been. From the incredible wins to the unforgettable moments, we have covered so much ground together. And in this special Year in Review episode, we on the Hybrid Ministry show, we are celebrating you, our amazing community with highlights and stats and the best of the hybrid minstrel show here in 2024. Make sure that you stick around because I've actually distilled a highlight reel of the 2024 Hybrid Mr. Podcast Best Moments.

00;00;36;14 - 00;01;08;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This just might be your favorite episode yet. Welcome back, everybody to the Hybrid Minister Show. I as always, I'm your host, Nick Claassen. And today we're going to be taking a little bit of a trip down memory lane to celebrate the amazing year and this incredible journey that you and I have been on together. As we always have on this podcast, we're going to be exploring the cutting edge ministry ideas and equip you with the tools to dominate the digital space in 2025.

00;01;08;04 - 00;01;35;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's been a ride in 2024, and 2025 is only going to get better. And it is all thank you to you. You know, in 2024, we released a total of 52 audio podcast episodes because we release one every single Thursday. If you haven't liked or subscribed yet, wherever you listen to your podcast, it's free and it will show up in your podcast.

00;01;35;14 - 00;02;13;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Catcher. Every single Thursday. Why? Because youth ministry often happens for most youth ministries across the country on Wednesday, so who doesn't need a little jolt of energy to get the to get them through the rest of their week on Thursdays? But 52 episodes released because we have not missed a single Thursday in the two and a half or so plus years that we've been doing this podcast, I just want to share with you some some highlights of the top performing video over this last year was a video that I titled top five Last Minute Game Ideas.

00;02;13;17 - 00;02;36;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on YouTube, you can see some of the clips being overlaid with B-roll. We also over this year we've had nine different playlists that we've worked through. And so in each of those playlists, there's a obviously a top performing video in each of those playlists. And so our very first playlist we had was the 2024 On Demand masterclass.

00;02;36;22 - 00;02;56;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in that video, the five No Prep games was a part of the masterclass. And that video had to, 361 views. And so that was not only the number one video for the year, but obviously the number one in the masterclass playlist. We also dropped a bonus you might not notice we dropped a bonus playlist called the Friday Game Day Series.

00;02;56;28 - 00;03;28;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It released every Friday on YouTube, and, we covered nine of my favorite DRM games that I use. And so actually, if you had any of those or linked down below in this episode nine of my all time favorite do swim games, I'm giving them away to you completely for free. They are games that are on the, they're on the, they're on the website, the download Youth Ministry website, but I'm giving them away to you in this episode, 100% completely for free.

00;03;28;06 - 00;03;49;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the best performing video in that playlist was the GIF flashback episode. We also went through a playlist titled some of the Youth Pastor's Biggest Problems, and the number one episode in that was youth Ministry planning weekend services versus mid week programing. And actually in that episode we ranked youth ministry curriculum. Spoiler it's clear you should try it.

00;03;49;29 - 00;04;12;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you haven't yet, hit the link down below. Sidekick.tv/pricing if you've never signed up for anything with Diam or Calendar, use the code Hybrid Ministry ten. All one word for get 10% off your first order. We went through the YouTube for Youth Ministry Play lesson playlist in the best performing video, and that playlist was the flagship title episode YouTube for Youth Ministry.

00;04;12;22 - 00;04;33;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I then took you through some of the hybrid ministry tools and gear that you needed and the the best episode, and that the highest performing episode was the best gear for Digital Ministry in 2024. Must have tech accessories. Then over the summer, we went through an interview series and that episode, the one that was best in that playlist, was the solution to distractions.

00;04;33;07 - 00;04;56;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
At youth group, where I interviewed my good friend Josh Baldwin from Download Youth Ministry sidekick and co-leader. Then we went through Meat Generation Alpha, and in that playlist, the Ora and Bach versus Covenant Eyes. An honest youth pastor review was the highest performing video in that playlist. Finally, I went to my Social Challenge framework, which is the four things that I'm creating content with students and for students.

00;04;56;24 - 00;05;17;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I can't tell you, I think that might be my most popular playlist to date cumulatively, and just word of mouth and things I've heard from youth pastors on the street. So thank you so much for that feedback. But the best episode and that one was the third one, how churches can use social media ideas and examples. And finally, the sidekick more engaging youth ministry.

00;05;17;16 - 00;05;39;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, the best episode on that one was the live sidekick demo at the day of recording. And again, don't forget Code Hybrid Ministry ten. If you're interested in sidekick or link down below for how we are using to computers to run Sidekick and Pro Presenter seamlessly. To switch between the two, grab that black magic video switcher, it will make your life so much easier.

00;05;39;10 - 00;06;05;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now listen on YouTube. In total, we had 84,569 views, including our shorts content with 522 hours of watch time and 151 new subscribers. And in the youth ministry space is a fantastic number and I'm so thrilled, with those stats and with those numbers, simply because here I am in my guest bedroom late at night, recording a podcast into the back of my cell phone.

00;06;05;23 - 00;06;26;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I have a real job, and I'm just doing this on the side with my own. Sort of like, equipment at home. And so thank you so much for your support. You might also not know this, but we have an audio only podcast. It drops anywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify or Apple Music, not Apple Music, Apple Podcasts.

00;06;26;12 - 00;06;51;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we had almost 5000 downloads. Our biggest month was by far August, with almost nearly 1000 downloads in that month alone. And the number one downloaded audio podcast was my interview with my brother himself. The, YouTube video is linked down below in the show notes. But here's my interview with my brother, Nate Clayson. We talked about social media and how he's doing it in his context and in his youth ministry.

00;06;51;11 - 00;07;13;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So shout out to all of you again, thank you for an amazing year. Thank you for cruising through the stats with me. But what I wanted to do now is I wanted to share some of the best comments that we've gotten so far this year, and so far today. So from Jesse Johnson, first of all, he disagreed with my take on coffee and saying that Duncan was terrible, which I'll give him that it's not great.

00;07;13;00 - 00;07;30;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a chain. But if I have to choose between that and Starbucks, that's what I'm stuck with. That's what I'm going to choose. But he said he said using polls in the welcome loop in sidekick is so easy, I can't believe I didn't think of it. Excited to try that one out. Claire said this in our best parenting app podcast.

00;07;30;01 - 00;07;49;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use bark and it has been so wonderful for our family. We have an 11 year old, and it has been a lifesaver. We can monitor everything that she does online, block her from seeing certain websites, track her locations, etc. recently, she disabled the app because her and my husband, we both get notifications, so we went to our daughter immediately.

00;07;49;05 - 00;08;06;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It turns out she had disabled it because she wanted to watch South Park and Family Guy, as well as some other PG 13 movies. She said nope. Luckily, my husband and I got there before she could see anything inappropriate. We're grateful for bark to bark, for protecting our little girl from online dangers, and protecting her from innocence and inappropriate content.

00;08;06;29 - 00;08;26;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We love bark. Paul Turner said this about our, why youth ministry. Follow up isn't working. He said, this is great stuff. Lots of idea. I went and bought it. Talking about the box that I sold. I'll be sharing this with my newsletter. If you ever want to collab, let me know. Keep up the great work! And finally, a frequent guest here on this podcast.

00;08;26;05 - 00;08;59;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Over a year ago we did a Christmas episode together. He was also on one of my interview series over the summer, Eric with the K Williams. He said this is great. Anyone starting out needs to watch this and he's talking about my church social media from scratch episode in the hybrid ministry tools. Man, what an amazing year. But if I'm looking back and if I'm taking on some of my reflections and kind of key moments, I'd have to say it's two individuals, a guy by the name of Tim Kelly and Kendall Eaton, both, by the way, who happen to live in the state of Indiana.

00;08;59;05 - 00;09;21;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't think that the collab done this, but both of them at two different times. Tim actually reached out to me for some custom coaching this year, and that was a super fun and super, just a honestly rewarding process to walk through. And it showed me the value of custom coaching, because what I would have recommended to you in my guest bedroom and to the back of my cell phone camera was a little bit different.

00;09;21;14 - 00;09;38;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Once I started talking to Tim, which is why I believe custom coaching is valuable for anyone who's interested it. Link down below if you want to inquire about what that looks like. It is a very modest and a very cheap price for custom coaching. Or if you don't want like the one on one zoom type interaction and consider joining our Patreon page.

00;09;38;21 - 00;09;55;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a dollar per week for a bonus episode, $4 per month, and I'll just share, stream of consciousness ideas. And you might not need the actual, like, coaching to do this, to do this, but you'll get to glean ideas. And then I was at the I 100 conference, a month ago or so, and Kendall walked up to me.

00;09;55;04 - 00;10;20;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, man, thank you so much for your podcast is really helpful. It's really beneficial. I shared your playlist, your ideas with some of our social media people and is incredibly, incredibly helpful. And so it's just really rewarding for me to be able to do this and just put this content out into the world, out into the ether and get feedback from real, live human beings and real life people who've come to me, in different instances, in different cases.

00;10;20;02 - 00;10;39;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tim, all virtually Kendall in person to say, man, thank you for what you're doing. It really is helpful to me to hear that. And so if if you know you have feedback or anything like that, I would obviously and always welcome that. Lines and channels of communication are completely open. You know, here on this podcast we have a couple of really cool benchmarks.

00;10;40;12 - 00;10;56;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just in the month of December, we launched a Patreon page, are selling a couple of products over there, as well as that monthly podcast that I'm talking about. And so that's a pretty fun kind of benchmark kind of new thing for us. And new endeavor. Would love to have you, check that out if that's something you're interested in.

00;10;56;27 - 00;11;19;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then also, back in August, I got the opportunity to start posting these podcasts to the Download a Youth Ministry blog. So if you're interested in that, you can go blog that download Youth ministry.com to check that out. And the link down below introduces my very first, post on there, actually, Josh Bowman, he introduced me and then I now am an author there on the doing blog.

00;11;19;06 - 00;11;48;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's something that's really, really exciting. But speaking of Josh Bullman, as well as many of our other guests, I would like to thank my different guests that I had on this year. So Josh Boardman, of course, from down the youth ministry, we actually had him on twice. We talked once about sidekick and solutions to distractions and youth ministry and harnessing sidekick and utilizing and using cell phones, to not be a distraction, but instead to be something that you can use to help promote creativity and involvement engagement.

00;11;48;07 - 00;12;13;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then one episode, my all time, my favorite episode this entire year was there. Him and I sat down and he brought a service, a mock service order sheet that he put on, and then he said, hey, how can you hybridize this? How can you, make this, accessible to the people sitting online streaming at home? Man, both those episodes go to either one of them now, but that was one of my all time favorite episodes.

00;12;13;11 - 00;12;31;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I had, Eric with a K on when we talked about better event for promotion, and that was actually a collaborative episode. So the first part of that interview was on his channel, Practical Youth Ministry Tips, and the second part was over here on my channel. And so if you only listen to on my channel, you only heard really half of that conversation.

00;12;31;24 - 00;12;53;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of course, I mentioned earlier, my brother, we had David Carpenter, youth pastor from Kentucky, my former resident, Caleb Fly mule, fly wheel, Miata, and again, Zeus take on what we've been doing. And youth ministry and student ministry. He worked with and for me for an entire year in this sort of hybrid, infrastructure. So if you want to hear an honest take here from him.

00;12;53;00 - 00;13;18;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we had a really special episode dropped this year, our 100th episode. And so for our 100th episode, I went all the way back to the beginning, even before this podcast started. And I talked about, when I started at church in Covid. And so I interviewed my current boss now and my boss then, Darren Sutton, his son, who is our video editor for much of what we did, for our digital online presence, for a show that we created on YouTube called unscripted.

00;13;18;10 - 00;13;44;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So his son Isaac was on the show. And then I also interviewed Sam Voss, good friend of mine and host of the unscripted show and podcast Super Fun Time. But hey, listen, this year, like, I'm wondering if, as you know, I'm recapping and recounting 2024 if as you got your eyes set on 2025, what are you doing to have a more hybrid, more digital, more creative youth ministry?

00;13;44;03 - 00;14;14;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because as my friend and boss Darren says, digital is no longer a luxury. It is now a necessity. And so that's what we're trying to accomplish again over on our Patreon page. If that's something that you're interested in, where I will talk about what we're doing on a week to week basis in our youth ministry over on Patreon, I would love to have you just come check out, listen in on what we're doing, and hopefully maybe just that $4 a month is an investment, enough to help kickstart and spur on your own creativity.

00;14;14;16 - 00;14;38;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We love to have you join us over there. It's super fun. Community. There's all sorts of perks as well. But hey, thank you so much for sticking around for this entire episode. And as promised, at the very top right here, we have an amazing, recap overlay. I went back through every single episode, and I pulled out some of my favorite snippets and clips from the last year.

00;14;38;16 - 00;15;00;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So enjoy this. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. Okay, so there are like three kind of core tenets philosophical things that you guys need to understand when it comes to time management. These aren't tips. These aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first. And these have to inform the tips and the tactics.

00;15;00;10 - 00;15;24;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Know my tips. No amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenet number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time. The reason this matters is because this is the difference between is that kid and kid in ministry or is that kid and youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z.

00;15;24;19 - 00;15;47;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have, is going to be freshmen and sophomores in high school. And now after that, they're waiting on up there in college already, and they are entering the workforce. What should you be? Gen one, number one, start posting longform to YouTube, get a DUI gym membership.

00;15;47;03 - 00;16;14;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it looks very different in 2024 and frankly, beyond because of generation Z and now Generation Alpha saving up Z into the adult ministry, conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation, it makes me wonder if the future is already here. I think it might be Megan and all her friends, and she brought a lot of her friends to youth group, so this, like kind of mattered because, like, she could bring two, 3 or 4 different friends with her.

00;16;14;00 - 00;16;35;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The youth group, they had show choir and it met every single Wednesday night. And so that made Wednesday nights a really tricky night to do youth ministry. But Brandon, the only other boy in the youth ministry, had Tuesday night and Thursday night karate. And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA.

00;16;35;23 - 00;16;58;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's when the high school team is playing his football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which but the pro of, of Wednesday night to me is probably the your most traditional youth night. It's been what, a lot of churches, a lot of youth groups have done for years. And like down here where I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, a lot of churches do.

00;16;58;18 - 00;17;22;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Wednesday night, and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night. And that's just kind of a cultural thing, right. But the pro to me is it's like a midweek kind of jolt of energy. Well. Hey, everyone, welcome to Friday Game Day. In this episode, link down below 100% completely for free. I have for you back to school.

00;17;22;15 - 00;18;04;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bingo. And if you're like, I don't need back to school bingo, it's not back to school yet. Well, then head on over to download Youth ministry.com and you can grab my end of the school year. Bingo! Well, that idea of course, is go hybrid. And listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings. In fact, that would go completely against the hybrid strategy because hybrid is melding together of your digital presence in your in-person presence and making it one in the same, but linked right here on screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybrid ministry X, y, Z/089 is my 100% completely free strategy guide, is my e-book on

00;18;04;03 - 00;18;32;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how I build out a full fledged digital strategy. It's mostly focusing on a done for you social media strategy, but it's anchored by the, long form teaching video, which takes place and is posted weekly every time we teach pre filmed messages on YouTube direct to Camera Pro. Number one, of course, is like develop mentally splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate.

00;18;32;09 - 00;19;07;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In my over a year journey on this podcast, I have grown to love YouTube. When I started with social media and what I started trying to reach students on the internet, YouTube was a distant kind of far strategy that was on my radar. Like it was like, I'll post some videos over there. But in my time since that, which was probably five, six, seven years ago, I have come to love YouTube and I am more and more convinced that YouTube, in addition to all other digital and social mediums that we can effectively reach students with.

00;19;07;19 - 00;19;30;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But YouTube is one of the best resources out there. You can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my Student Ministries YouTube channel, we post two links. The first link is a Next Steps digital type Connect card, and I think about your own viewing habits on social media.

00;19;30;04 - 00;19;55;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you're on there, you're not necessarily on there to just, be informed, right? Link down below is a complete log of every single piece of gear that I have built in the studio.

Isaac Sutton
All of the students in the room who are watching unscripted have bingo cards that coordinated to stuff that know yes, digital integration is not a luxury, it's a necessity.

00;19;55;10 - 00;20;19;09
Sam Vos
It was probably I probably felt God's hand more in like my career, my life in that moment than a lot of other moments.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Unscripted played a really major role in like the catalyst to especially my podcast and everything like that. I would say the reason for that is simply realizing and understand that students live online.

Darren Sutton
There's a lot I've messed up in my years of youth ministry, but that is one thing that I'm really proud of.

00;20;19;13 - 00;20;30;14
Darren Sutton
Like in the middle of the pandemic, there was not a blank ministry kept going. We're going to try something different.

00;20;30;17 - 00;20;53;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you should use your cell phone to your advantage.

Caleb "Flywheel" Maeda
I think. I think the things that have been working the most has been getting students involved on the page, not even in terms of like on the page traction as much as like in-person traction.

David Carpenter
We speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes.

00;20;53;14 - 00;21;24;18
David Carpenter
And we think they probably remember everything we said, right? Like they they wrote the notes, they've got it and they've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was alliterative. And remember my great illustration. And one, you know, when when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room.

Nate Clason
and seeing you, like, super passionate about it and watching your podcast really, honestly like, and your different videos and clips on like TikTok and stuff to sign it

Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
every single time you had to type in the password.

00;21;24;19 - 00;21;47;00
Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
It was a great and I, I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our I like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running and then it crashed and then they had to reopen it. And they're like, from the booth they yell out, what's the password? And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00;21;47;00 - 00;22;09;14
Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, we need to not be afraid of what our students want, and we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion. And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us.

00;22;09;14 - 00;22;36;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Better event promotion as well as a holistic digital and social media approach for your church and your youth ministry. And this is actually part two. Part one is linked right here at the top of the screen over on another channel, because we're doing a massive mashup collab. And I am joined today by my friend Eric with the K petition, because in just a minute, we're gonna look at the Bark vs Aura

00;22;36;20 - 00;23;01;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But Aura has parental controls and they are now in partnership with circle. You might remember Circle by Disney, the first video idea that we do it's called Drafts challenge idea number two that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called name of the game is seven Questions. A man on the street named transition stab video is where it starts with the video of something else.

00;23;01;20 - 00;23;22;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the most popular one I can think about is like a a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls. And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and millennial churchgoers said this. They said hybrid church just as much as physical church will be a get this good fit for them.

00;23;22;26 - 00;23;44;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the things about five minute countdowns that I actually hate, and I know that as talking to a guy who works for Download Youth Ministry, and that's where a lot of the money is made and a lot of five minute countdowns are sold. I actually prefer, which, by the way, talking to you right now, let this be an unofficial sidekick feature request.

00;23;44;24 - 00;24;11;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Because right now in sidekick, you can, you can loop your announcements, right? You can loop some, like, graphic slides. And I actually prefer that to be the five minute countdown with just the five minute countdown overlaid in the corner, so that all of the announcements that you're announcing and trying to let your students know about are happening, is being seen on the screen.

00;24;11;18 - 00;24;37;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video. Scan me. And so we'll have students who are new to the open this up theoretically on their porch, on their patio or wherever they will scan it, and then it will take them to a video right here will be launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd.

00;24;37;09 - 00;25;00;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week. Going to be over on my Patreon page, but a student give them an opportunity to to be a part of this. Give them a seat at the table to let them know that that this church is about the next generation and that matters. Again, it's no longer the day where we can just hand this off to to an unpaid intern.

00;25;00;24 - 00;25;11;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hope that they keep our social media on life support. Like get after it. My friends, 2025 is going to be your year. We are here in the Hybrid Ministry show to help.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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

** 2024 Social Media Strategy*https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
*======================================**
DESCRIPTION
🎮 Games & Youth Ministry

We’ve been doing them since the invention of Youth Ministry.

📨 But what do you do when you’re in a hurry or a pinch?

💪 Don’t worry, we got you!

This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/082

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/QyUfb0kQlL4

#1 BRING ME
//BRING ME
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/bring-me-10-game-bundle/games-bringmebundle.html

#2 DYM Membership
(DownloadYouthMinistry.com)
//DYM Membership
https://www.dymmembership.com/pricing

//TRY SIDEKICK
https://app.sidekick.tv/auth/create?code=NickClason

//MY BEST DYM GAMES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

//9 FREE GAMES
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products

//HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#3 CLUMPS
//CLUMPS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/clumps/games-1717.html

#4 STEAL THE BACON

#5 ENLIST A VOLUNTEER
//VOLUNTEERS ARE THE NEXT VIDEO IN THE PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

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

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

🎅 "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet
PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

🍩 "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
00:00-00:28 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v
00:28-01:50 #1 Bring Me
01:50-06:25 #2 DYM Membership
06:25-07:23 #3 Clumps
07:23-08:18 #4 Steal the Bacon
08:18-09:29 #5 Enlist a Volunteer

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

00;00;00;05 - 00;00;21;15
Nick Clason
Games and youth ministry. They go together like Bert and Ernie, Batman and Robin, the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Do you even get that reference? Because I barely dude from an old worship song. But what happens when you are running low on time and you don't have time to pull a game together and you have barely any prep ready?

00;00;21;20 - 00;00;48;31
Nick Clason
Well, here are my five best go to ideas in a low prep, no prep situation. Let's check it out. Idea number one is one of my all time favorite games. I like to call it Bring me In. It's simply, Hey, you're standing on stage and you say, bring me a penny, Bring me a shoelace, bring me your leader's left sock, bring me a gum wrapper, bring me a couch cushion, bring me a hat, bring me a cell phone charger.

00;00;48;43 - 00;01;13;14
Nick Clason
Bring me a Stanley, bring me a sweatshirt, Bring me your cell phone case. But your cell phone can't be in if you if you head over to a hybridministry.xyz/082, which is this episode, you are out. I actually have nine of my favorite doing games that I've ever submitted and put on Doom's website on there completely for free.

00;01;13;18 - 00;01;26;37
Nick Clason
Bring me is one of them. But you don't even need a screen for this. You can just screenshot all the ones I just said, put them down on a list and then just get up there and say when you don't know what to do, when you don't have time, when you don't have prep, bring me is a great game.

00;01;26;37 - 00;01;49;41
Nick Clason
It incites a lot of chaos and panic. Students are running up and back and forth to the stage to try and win, be the first one up there, especially if you make it something difficult. Like I like to do a shoelace, but it can't be in the shoe anymore. So I have to like on threat it, stuff like that that makes it take a little bit more time, but then still creates a lot of moments of just excitement and running and all those absurd things.

00;01;49;41 - 00;02;14;41
Nick Clason
Super fun. Idea number two is get a dude gym membership. Now if you have not checked out, download Youth Ministries. DuHaime For sure. I mean, they have absolutely changed the game when it comes to youth ministry and youth ministry games. In fact, at the top of this video, I have a detailed an outline of the entire history of why we even do games in youth ministry.

00;02;14;41 - 00;02;37;12
Nick Clason
So check that out for something you're interested in. But for the rest of us you need to check out dkim. And there member pricing is so cheap they just upped it. And so they have one now called platinum, but they have a starter for just 1199 a month. Gold for 24, 74 month gold plus for 30 a month and then platinum for 74, 92 a month and platinum we just upgraded to platinum.

00;02;37;12 - 00;02;58;14
Nick Clason
It has everything. It's like 800 a month. You get your curriculum, you get access to sidekick and phone voting. You get like store credit per month, you get all the member downloads. So I remember my brother, he just upgraded to the download Youth Ministry membership and I remember telling him I was like every single month you get new stuff.

00;02;58;14 - 00;03;24;44
Nick Clason
And then I was like, And then the credit reloads every single month. And he literally said to me on the phone, Dude, this is a game changer. And so if you have not checked out sidekick, which has live polling, one of my favorite hybrid like advancements in youth ministry that we have today, they have the spinning wheel they have name picker but the phone voting, the live voting, they used to be a service you had to pay for poor everywhere.

00;03;24;44 - 00;03;44;57
Nick Clason
Now it just rolled into the do I am memberships. If you're not a DUI I member, it may sound pricey to you with a little bit of sticker shock, but once you get any start using some of their products, you realize just how cheap it really is. And when you're in a pinch, DuHaime is a must. It is a go to you can jump online, you can grab a game that looks done.

00;03;45;02 - 00;04;10;29
Nick Clason
Pro-level or pro ready, you drop it into your pro presenter, you drop into sidekick and boom, you are off to the races and no one's none the wiser that you just pulled that together in 5 minutes. Having a DUI membership is an absolute game changer and one of my actually favorite hacks for DUI games is taking one of those games and turning it into a social media moment.

00;04;10;29 - 00;04;35;50
Nick Clason
And so I have a lot of games in my nine best DuHaime blog posts, which if you scroll all the way to the bottom, have a link on there though. Actually just give it to you completely for free so you don't have to pay for them, any of them. You can check it out. You can test those are all Nick Leeson games, but I would take some of those games and yes, I have vertical based videos, vertical based graphics for some, so you can just post the graphic on your social media feed and that that's one way to do it.

00;04;35;50 - 00;04;51;39
Nick Clason
But a next level way that I like to use it is to hand the graphic to a student on a phone and then have them walk around, kind of like Mr. Beast style. All throughout my building on a Wednesday night or on a Sunday morning and ask other students or ask other leaders to try and play the game, to try and guess the thing.

00;04;51;39 - 00;05;09;21
Nick Clason
So we do that a lot with one of my games I've created called Emoji Phraseology. And so they'll take the the social media graphic and they'll walk around and they'll be like, Hey, what is this emoji phrase? Was this camp emoji phrase? What is this New Year's emoji phrase? What is this Christmas emoji face? Was this back to school emoji phrase?

00;05;09;26 - 00;05;27;56
Nick Clason
And then we get to watch other people kind of deal with it. One of the recent adaptations we did, I would usually do that for like one question at a time. So one student gets one question and we just film them and see how they respond. One of the most recent adaptations I did was I brought five students into my office and then I asked all of them all ten questions.

00;05;27;56 - 00;05;45;10
Nick Clason
And then I went back through each of the ten questions and I spliced up the best moments from those. And so every question had five students, and we would cut to them thinking and and wrestling with it and giving answers, whether they're right or wrong. And then, you know, when they gave the right answer a little ding would pop up on screen.

00;05;45;10 - 00;06;03;22
Nick Clason
So all kinds of different ways to adapt that. You know what? I actually have all that type of stuff detailed for you in my completely free e-book, which wants to help you crush social media. It's actually got a month's worth of social media resources, but it's not what you think. It's not just a bunch of graphics that you can scheduled to your feed.

00;06;03;27 - 00;06;31;14
Nick Clason
It actually helps you take and adapt a real true next Gen. Gen Z Gen Alpha friendly Hybrid Ministry, Digital Ministry Integration of strategy to your ministry where you film your messages ahead of time. That's the bedrock of all that you do. And then you post short form, vertical based videos on your feed throughout the month and you and your your youth ministry, your volunteers and your students, they are the faces of the youth ministry.

00;06;31;19 - 00;06;53;23
Nick Clason
You're not just a social media with a bunch of graphics. You are a social media with humans, entertainment based, fun based and also spiritual content. My e-book outlines details all of that 100% completely for you. Moving on to idea number three, when you are in a pinch for games, it is one of my favorite elimination style games. It's called clumps.

00;06;53;34 - 00;07;08;08
Nick Clason
You don't need a screen for it. You can use a screen for it. Do you? AIM has a version of it. You can check it out. Link in the show notes where ever you are listening on a podcast catch or if you're watching here news you read down below, but you can essentially just say, Hey, in groups of four.

00;07;08;08 - 00;07;38;47
Nick Clason
And then if you get groups of four and then anyone who's not in a group of four, whether they are the slowest or they just are less standing, they are eliminated and you start to whittle your group down to you have a last group or last team standing. It's super fun game. Check it out. It's a it's a go to in a pinch idea number four for going to in a pinch is steal the bacon If you've never played it before you get two lines of people on each side and you number everybody one through however many you have, make sure it's a even number on each side and then you put something in the

00;07;38;47 - 00;07;54;07
Nick Clason
middle. And this is the no prep part. You can literally put a hat in the middle, you can put a sweatshirt in the middle, you can put a couch cushion from your youth room in the middle, and then you call out numbers. And so when you say number one, each person's number one runs in. They have to grab it and then have to bring it back to their side.

00;07;54;12 - 00;08;12;43
Nick Clason
That's it. You can get creative. You can start calling multiple numbers. You can call number one and number seven. And then they both come running and trying to grab the pillow and then run back. It is a no prep low prep game. It is fun, it is active. It gets people moving, it gives people sweaty. So if you've never played steal the bacon before, go ahead and try.

00;08;12;43 - 00;08;33;58
Nick Clason
If you do, please tag us. Let us know on social media so that we can repost you. That would be super fun to know. And then idea number five if you are running low on time and Prep is perhaps enlist a volunteer. Enlisting a volunteer is a great way to get the stress of games off of your plate and then you can put them in charge of choosing the game.

00;08;33;58 - 00;08;52;10
Nick Clason
You can put them in charge of hosting the game and you can even help put them in charge of creating a student hosting team. I remember when I was in middle school there was a volunteer. Your name was Bruce Craig, and Bruce Craig, wasn't you? He wasn't your quintessential volunteer leader that you think of, right? He wasn't like young hip tows like he was a dad.

00;08;52;10 - 00;09;14;55
Nick Clason
I think he had a high school kid, but he ran games for our middle school ministry every single week in the gym, on the microphone, and he was making it happen. And here's the thing. Adult volunteers are truly the lifeblood of everything that we do in student ministry, which is why I saved adults for the very end of this 2024 Youth Ministry on Demand playlist.

00;09;14;55 - 00;09;28;35
Nick Clason
It's the seventh and final video link right here on the screen. Click it and we will take you to that and we will talk to you next time. Don't forget, we are making digital discipleship easy inaccessible. So as always, stay.

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

☝️ONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
OPUS FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

🧑‍🚀 EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST
Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

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

DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

🧑‍🚀 In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.

🎮 And in this video we're exploring the world of Youth Ministry Games and Fun!
What is different?
Where did games even come from in the first place?
And how should we adjust as we move forward into this new digital frontier?

In the subsequent videos we'll talk about
💬 Message Enhancement
🐑 Shepherding

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

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

🆓 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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/071

//View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube
https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8

//Rank 'Em
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/fall-8962.html

//Visual Variance Voyage
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html

//Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Crash Course
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//Budget Friendly Design Options
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

//Emoji Phraseology Vol 1
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html

//Emoji Phraseology Camp Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---camp-edition/games/sequels-8122.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Summer Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---summer-edition/games/bundles-and-sequels-8088.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Easter Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-easter-edition/games/pop-culture-6957.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Vol 2
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---vol-2/games/sequels-8640.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Halloween Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---halloween-edition/fall/halloween-8320.html

//Emoji Phraseology: March Madness
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---madness-edition/spring/march-madness-8594.html

//Emoji Phraseology: 4th of July
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---patriotic-edition/summer/4th-of-july-8780.html

//Emoji Phraseology: St. Patrick's Day
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-shamrock-edition/games-6929.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Christmas Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-8426.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Superhero Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---superhero-edition/games/pop-culture-8827.html

//Emoji Phraseology: SuperBowl
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---big-game-edition/sports/football-8520.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Bible Story Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---bible-story-edition/games/bible-based-8687.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Back 2 School
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---back-2-school-edition/fall/back-to-school-8900.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Valentine's Day
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-love-edition---game-%26-social-media/games/humor-6855.html

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-02:08 Exploring New Digital Frontiers in Youth Ministry
02:08-04:10 What is Hybrid Ministry?
04:10-08:20 Why do we play games in Youth Ministry?

08:20-17:35 3 Hybrid Game Ideas you can use this week!

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Games and youth ministry, they go together like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin. But how can we as youth pastors or ministry leaders readjust the way in which we approach games and lean more into this digital space that we found ourselves in? Should we ignore it or should we find a way to capitalize on it? My approach and my mission for this podcast is to turn your ministry hybrid. How do we make your ministry hybrid, not just in person, not just digital, but a melding of the two. Does that mean that we should play more like cell phone based games, Kahoot games, zoom screen games? In this three part playlist, I want to give you the three new frontiers that we should be exploring as youth pastors, as youth ministry leaders into the digital space and frontier number one. Today. In this episode, we are going to be exploring the world of youth ministry and youth ministry games.

Nick Clason (01:02):
We're going to delve into the why and the philosophy of youth ministry and give you three games that you can adopt and take into your student ministry immediately today. All of this in effort as we are in this new digital frontier, this new digital space to effectively reach the students that God has placed in our trust with the message of hope and the mission of the gospel. We're also going to be exploring in this playlist how you can bring up your message enhancement in the hybrid world, and finally, how you can implement ongoing care, shepherding and relationships to the students that God has entrusted into you and your care in your student ministry. But let's dive further into this new frontier of digital discipleship through the means and avenues of games. Make sure also that you stick around to the very end because at the end I'm going to leave with you a one surefire resource that you can implement with multiple done for you game ideas and ways that you can hybridize your ministry.

Nick Clason (01:58):
And I have the ultimate hack that you can bring just about any game and turn it into a hybrid game. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am Nick Clason, a 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently serving in the great state of Texas. And I want to let you know that I am on a mission, as I said in the intro, to help youth pastors usher themselves more and more into this digital age. And I want to make sure that we are keeping the integrity of our in-person gatherings while also offering more and more of an opportunity for our students to engage with us from a digital mindset and digital framework. And so what I actually have for you as a surefire link in the description, I have a ebook. I have created 40 a whole month's worth of posting strategy for you as a youth pastor implement the strategy that I'm currently using, the one that I've used to grow our YouTube account and our followership in our social media from zero to around 300 up to this point and just under a calendar year.

Nick Clason (03:03):
And it will give you ideas and games that you can use and implement that are turnkey right now that you can use. But they're custom. You and your students and your volunteers get to be the heroes on your youth ministry. It's not just a bunch of static on account of foreign kind of boring graphics. It's real faces, real human beings. If you put a little bit of work in, you can totally revolutionize your student ministry. And I also want to let you know that links right here at the top of this video is a link to a video, what I believe every youth ministry needs and why this is also important. It's basically the thesis for this entire podcast. Hey, and finally, I want to make sure that you like and subscribe to this episode because here's why we are going to be dropping more and more episodes, especially this one as we're exploring new frontiers of hybrid ministry in the next episodes to come.

Nick Clason (03:49):
And I want to make sure that you don't miss it and likes, honestly, they're free and they really, really help us out and they help us get this mission to more and more people. But let's explore before we dive into the actual nitty gritty of games and youth ministry, let's talk about the philosophy and even the history of youth ministry and youth ministry games. Where did games come from? Why do we do them? It seems like it's the rite of passage. Every single youth ministry needs games. You look at resources like YM 360, download, youth ministry, even old school back in the day group. They're all trying to help solve this problem of how can you have games and what do games look like and where can you best take care of supplying games for you and your students? And we have screen-based games and active games and digital games and hybrid games, and we're going to get into all of that.

Nick Clason (04:43):
But I wanted to take a step back and be like, where did this even come from? So back in the 18 hundreds when students were not going to school on a regular basis, they were working six days a week, they invented this idea of Sunday School to bring about an age graded focus for students and an age graded Bible study, one that was a little bit more relevant to them in their timeframe, a little bit more relevant to them in their age group. And so what they did was they created this breakdown by age and grade and gender even. And they started to create this school vibe where they would teach the Bible. Well then fast forward to the 1940s, churches were maybe not super relevant to reaching young people. And so these two organizations popped up right around the same time, young Life and youth for Christ.

Nick Clason (05:34):
And so they both came with the mindset with the entire goal is to reach young people, reach 'em for Christ, and help change them from the inside out and revolutionize them with the power of the gospel. And then finally in the 1970s, churches began to start to see a void of that because what they were doing was in Sunday school mode, they're having volunteers and parents kind of lead these groups, but they started to identify this need for pastors, for people who could come in and who could be specialists in this area for teenagers and for the young people in their churches because they saw what was going on with Youth for Christ and Young Life. And they wanted to also bring that and usher that into the local church. And so since about the 1970s and the Jesus Revolution time, shout out to that movie if you haven't seen it yet, but they're bringing about this young people, this place for young people to come and find belonging, meaning, and purpose.

Nick Clason (06:28):
So that's the history of youth ministry. But why games? So if you look over time, there's always an element of fun and something that will bring about a draw of a crowd. And so to get the maximum amount of people you might feed people, you might offer fun, you might offer warmth, you might offer a great environment or a good vibe. And the truth of matter is, is that games have always sort of been a staple in what we've done in youth ministry, so much so that I do think at some point we've gotten a little bit rote with them and they're benign, and we just do them without even thinking like, well, what's the game going to be? Well, why are we even doing games? What's the purpose? And so what I've seen in my 13 years of student ministry experience is that if you just do games for game's sake, it doesn't have much to offer.

Nick Clason (07:17):
But in my mind, the purpose of a game is to help speak the language of teenagers, which by the way is the entire reason why I have this ebook linked in the description below for you to become more hybrid and for you to become more digitally focused. Because I believe it's a way for us to speak the language better of our teenagers and teenagers, whether they want to admit it or not, they love fun. Fun is the currency of teenagers. Fun helps break down the walls of people who may or may not know why they're at your church or who God is, or they're exploring this faith thing for the very first time. And fun helps alleviate and reduce the tension out of the room why we do what we do. And so with that in mind, I want to give you three game ideas, three hybrid game ideas that you can take use and even download immediately with links in the description of this episode that you can use both on your social media in person, and better yet, maybe you can find a way to meld the two together.

Nick Clason (08:17):
So let's explore that in the next section. All right, so link below in the description are three games that I have in my Download Youth Ministry store right now, and they are fun ones that I like to use. But I also just want to let you know that in all of this, many of the things that I'm going to be suggesting to you are also linked in my completely free ebook. So if you don't want to go pay for it, you can come up with some of these ideas on your very own by just looking at my completely free ebook, which is 40 done for You Ideas to help you and your students and your volunteers become the heroes on your church's social media and in your church's digital presence. And listen, in my ebook, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a sneak peek and a little bit of a hack.

Nick Clason (09:01):
I recommend that you sit just like this direct to camera and present and preach your message ahead of time before you deliver it live into the room. You then use that to clip up, make short sermon clips. But if you aren't willing and don't have the time to do that, I do recommend the remainder of my strategy, which is having fun with your students and having fun with your leaders and having fun with maybe even other staff on camera and posting that to your social media because it's a way that you can interact and engage with something that's live and happening real and in the room, but you can also show that content out to the rest of the world, and if not the rest of the world, at least the rest of your church, the rest of your youth ministry, the parents that are connected to the students in your ministry.

Nick Clason (09:45):
And so three of these ideas are ideas that I have either detailed or outlined before, or ones that I've come up with since I released the ebook. So the first one is a game called Rank 'em, and there's two different ways to do it. I believe right now I have the fall version online on DYM and coming up soon, I should be having the Christmas version drop onto Download Youth Ministry. But Rank 'em is basically a, Hey, let your students take these five things and rank them one through five. Now, one of my favorite variations to that is what's called, and maybe you've seen it if you've been on TikTok or Reels, is the blind ranking thing, which is where different categories of things come in. So let's say you're doing

Nick Clason (10:24):
A blind ranking of a TV show, and I say The Office, and then you have to put it in one through five list. And so for me, if I got the office, I'd be like, well, that's one. But then if someone was like, fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, I'd be like, man, I like that show a lot. Probably put it at three. I'm afraid to give away two. And then if someone's like, okay, Ted Lasso, I'll be like, oh, Ted Lasso so good. I want to put it at one, but I can't start putting the office there. So I guess I'll put it in at two. And then if someone was like the ugliest houses in America, I'd be like, okay, I can put that at five. I like it, but I want to reserve four for something. And then they said, the Mandalorian, I'd be like, all right, four.

Nick Clason (11:00):
And I'd be like, you know what? I don't hate that list. What do you think Office, Ted Lasso Fixer Upper Mandalorian houses in America. I'm okay with that list, right? But the point is, I didn't know what was coming next. That's the idea of a blind ranking. And so I have two versions in this actual game. Rank 'em where you can play live in the room with five things. You can do the one by one where they come in one at a time and you have to choose to rank 'em. I also have a social media version where you can take it and you can post it on your reels tos, YouTube shorts, and you can let students interact with it there and give their rankings. You can post it on YouTube story, or I'm sorry, Instagram stories if you don't have any of the other short kind of form platforms.

Nick Clason (11:39):
But you can use this. And again, if you get this game, I played this game in my context, live in the room a couple of weeks ago, and we only got to three questions. So what I did was, the way that I played it was I had myself and a co-host. And so the first one was me. They had to guess my rankings of these certain things at their tables together. And then how they did. Then we went to my co-host, they had to guess his rankings of the certain things, and then finally we switched that and they could rank them themselves. But the game has 10 questions, and so we only used three. So that leaves me seven more that I can use kind of sprinkled throughout on my socials throughout the rest of the week. Game idea number two is the visual variance voyage.

Nick Clason (12:20):
And because I'm a good Baptist, I like a good alliteration, but essentially it's a spot the difference game. And so if you get the widescreen version on DYM, I should have a fall version as well as a Christmas version coming out here soon. You have two graphics come in side by side, and you have to spot the difference. And listen, the best thing right now is that Adobe Photoshop, generative AI is letting you just add things to pictures kind of here and there. And it is a game changer for a game like this. By the way, if you want to level up your Photoshop skills, I have a link in the playlist to my Adobe editing and Photoshop. If that's something that you're interested, go check that out if you want a cheaper version. I also have link down there below Budget graphics for people who are looking to save time and money going through PowerPoint, Canva, Adobe Express and Instagram.

Nick Clason (13:04):
But in the visual variance voyage, you have two different pictures and you're just trying to identify what is different. But there's a timer on the screen and it's counting down. So you can play that live in your room, you can get contestants, you can play it in groups, you can play it at tables. But I also like that I have created a vertical based graphic that you can use, and you can then take those, and you can post those on Instagram stories or on shorts, whatever. And again, in both of these, rank 'em and in the visual variance voyage, if you don't want to use my canned graphics with a canned background, you can take the concept, right? You can take the two pictures and you can show them to somebody on a camera walking around your youth space like, Hey, spot the difference in less than 10 seconds.

Nick Clason (13:45):
Go. And then have them try to guess it, but you film them and you post that to your TikTok or to your YouTube short or whatever, and you can do just a simple picture and picture. Take my graphic that I've created and do a picture and picture with the video that you take of the person trying to guess. And so that's taking it to the next level where you take a game that you could just post a game in and of itself. But if you take that game and you film somebody trying to play it, then that's a whole nother level to it. Which leads me to my third option, which is my favorite option is emoji phraseology. I have just about any variant of season and game that you can think of. And basically what it is is you're trying to guess the emoji phrase, whether it's Christmas, whether it's fall, whether it's New Year's, whether it's February for Valentine's Day, whether it's St.

Nick Clason (14:28):
Patrick's. I mean, I literally have just about every season on download youth ministry, every single variation is linked down below in the show notes. But one of the favorite ways that I've done with this is I've just done one question by one question where we've gone up to people and we've asked them to guess, and then we've taken that graphic and they looked at it, and then I did a little picture and picture, or I actually put the actual icons on. I've done it where I did full editing and Adobe Premiere Pro with animations and sounds. And I've also done it where I just, in the TikTok editor, I just put the emojis on the screen and people had to try and guess and see what was playing. And so in all of those are games that you could play physically. Those are also games that you can play only digitally.

Nick Clason (15:10):
And my favorite is film other people playing those games and then post those out to your socials. One of the ones that was the biggest hit for the emoji was we went around and we did bible story emojis, and we asked different members of our staff and those, those were a massive hit, seeing other pastors and staff and senior pastors out there trying to guess those things on our socials. So here's the thing. The last way, the Ultimate Hack, I told you I was going to give you this ultimate hack. You can play just about any game, any game on download, youth ministry. It doesn't have to be one of my games. It can be any game that you find on there. It doesn't even have to have a phone-based formatting for it, but play any game. And then at the end of it, if it's a subjective based game where people are creating something, making a song, doing a lip sync, decorating a donut, whatever the case might be, take pictures of those things and then post them to social media and tell them that the vote is going to be what determines the winner.

Nick Clason (16:09):
And the voting is done on Instagram that does two things. It promotes your social media and it allows the students to be the judge, not just some random celebrity judge, not just you trying to pull something out of your hat at the last minute, right? Because Gen Z and Gen Alpha love to be publishers, they love to contribute to publishing the content, not just simply basic consumers being told what has happened to them. That is an older school, older industrial minded way of doing things. They want to know that their voice matters and that they actually even have a voice that you care about and that you want to listen to. And so that, I believe, is way number one, that you can wade into this exploring of a new frontier of how you can implement fun and games, not just in your room, not just online, but also in a hybrid way to help give students an opportunity to lean in and have their voice be heard in this hybrid way of doing things.

Nick Clason (16:59):
Which reminder is why I said in my ebook, I outline all the ways that you can flesh this out with posts twice a day for five days a week. You can scale it back if you don't have the bandwidth to do that, but whatever the case might be, I have millions of ideas in there from spiritual practice to fun, to your message content and ways that you can get that message out to spread the message of hope. So click the link for that down below in the description, and in the next video, we're going to be exploring how you can enhance your message and your ministry live in the room with hybrid versions. You're not going to want to miss it. Click that on the screen and we'll catch you on that side.